Blackhawks have held trade talks involving 4 NHL defensemen. Blackhawks looking to improve their blue line.

The Chicago Blackhawks have a clear plan this summer, and that plan appears to be to significantly upgrade their blue line moving forward.

In a recent report for The Athletic, Chicago Blackhawks insider Scott Powers shared a great deal of information regarding what the Chicago Blackhawks have bee up to as of late. In his report Powers outlined how information from his sources has now led him to believe that general manager Stan Bowman is dead serious about adding a top 4 type of defenseman to his line up this summer, and furthermore shed a ton of light on who exactly that defenseman might be.

First and foremost according to Powers his sources have informed him that the Chicago Blackhawks have held talks with the Columbus Blue Jackets regarding the availability of injury prone defenseman Ryan Murray. Those sources have also informed Powers however that the discussions have not moved any further after the Blackhawks inquired about Murray which could indicate that the team is either waiting for the draft, a period in which teams are more flexible when it comes to trades, or that the asking price was either too high for general manager Stan Bowman's tastes. That being said though it seems like Murray is just 1 of 4 possible options at this time.

According to Powers league sources informed him on Friday that the Blackhawks have now reached out to the Carolina Hurricanes regarding the availability of several of their defensemen. This should come as little surprise given that Carolina has reportedly been looking to upgrade their offense by trading a defenseman, with those rumors dating as far back as the start of the 2018 - 2019 National Hockey League regular season. So who might you ask are the Blackhawks asking about? Well according to Powers the Blackhawks have acquired about 3 names specifically, those being that of Hurricanes defenseman Justin Faulk, Hurricanes defenseman Dougie Hamilton and Hurricanes defenseman Calvin de Haan. Now it seems likely that all 3 of those targets would come with different price tags attached to them, but Powers' source believes the Blackhawks are very serious in their attempts to make a move happen here.

“I think they’re talking about adding a top-4,” a source said as per Powers. “But in fairness, they have probably talked about everyone in the top 7.”

The source has also said that the Blackhawks have only offered "secondary forwards" at this time, which likely will not be enough to get one of these deals done, but Powers has speculated that those offers will likely step up once we get closer and closer to the upcoming NHL draft. Powers does not believe the Blackhawks #3 pick in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft is at play, so Blackhawks fans hoping to see their team get an early draft selection can likely rest easy in that regard.

