NHL Trade Deadline Thoughts: Florida's Seth Jones gamble; the Rangers are sellers

There were three pretty significant trades in the NHL on Saturday.

Some thoughts on Saturday’s busy day of NHL trades.

The Blackhawks rebuild marches on

There are some contracts in the NHL that are so bad, so out of line with a player’s production, and such a bad investment that you can not possibly imagine them ever being traded. For a while, Seth Jones looked to have one of those contracts.

But every time we think one of those contracts exists, the NHL always proves to us that any contract can be moved. The Blackhawks managed to do that with Jones on Saturday night by sending him to the Florida Panthers.

The trade

Chicago receives: Goalie Spencer Knight, 2026 first-round draft pick
Florida receives: Seth Jones, 2026 fourth-round pick, 25 percent salary retention from Chicago.

The Chicago angle

The Blackhawks acquired — and signed — Jones during the final days of Stan Bowman’s tenure when he tried to piece together a winning team when it was crystal clear that the remaining core was a fraction of what it once was. Even worse, he made the investment in Jones when his play had dramatically dropped off in the prior years and was banking on him rebounding with a change of scenery.

It was the wrong player, for the wrong team, at the wrong price, at the wrong time.

It seemed that way from day one.

Jones, to his credit, did end up exceeding some of the early rock-bottom expectations upon his arrival in Chicago. He was not always negative drain on the ice, but he was also probably not a $9.5 million player, especially with salary cap what it had been for the past few years. He was a useful player on a bad contract, and also one of the few competent NHL players on a rebuilding team whose roster had been torn down to the studs.

Eventually, all of the losing got to him and Jones made no secrets about that as the season went on. By the end of his time in Chicago, you could just tell this man was OVER IT.

The Blackhawks ended up finding a taker for him in Florida.

I have some competing thoughts from the Chicago side on the return.

• I do not love the salary retention. It might only be $2.5 million per season, and the cap might finally be starting to increase dramatically, but having a $2.5 million dead cap number on your books for the next five years, and through what should be the prime years of Connor Bedard’s career, is not an ideal scenario.

• Having said that, I do not hate the return. Honestly, I am a little surprised the Blackhawks did as well as they did here (and maybe the salary retention did help with that a bit) given how much money and how many years were left on his contract. They add another first-round pick to their cupboard of first-round picks and I would not rule out the possibility of Knight becoming a good starting goalie in the NHL. He has one more year left on his current contract before he becomes a restricted free agent.

• As down as I am on the value Jones brought to the Blackhawks, this still does make them a lot worse as a team. A lot worse. And I am not sure when that cycle comes close to ending. They will have salary cap space this offseason, and they need to put it to use.

The Florida angle

I get it.

Sort of.

The Panthers needed more help on defense, Aaron Ekblad is a free agent after this season so they need to have an eye on the future, and with Matthew Tkachuk likely ending up on LTIR they were going to have some salary cap flexibility to make another big move.

I respect the desire to go all in, especially when you have a good chance to make the Stanley Cup Final for a third year in a row and win the whole thing for a second year in a row.

When you have a chance to win, push your chips to the table and go nuts.

Florida has also had a great track record in recent years of rehabbing the careers of defensemen and getting them back on track. That factor, combined with the fact he is going from one of the worst and most hopeless teams in the league to a legitimate contender makes this one of the best possible situations for Jones.

But even at $7 million, and even with the salary cap set to rise in the coming seasons, I am still not sure if I like Jones at that price, or at the trade cost.

The Rangers are sellers