CHICAGO – One of the biggest questions for the NHL Draft night for the Blackhawks was whether they would trade into the first round to continue their rebuild.
The second was whether the team’s leading goal scorer from the 2021-2022 season would be part of it.
Early Thursday afternoon, the answer was in the affirmative on both questions.
The Blackhawks are trading forward Alex DeBrincat to the Senators in exchange for the seventh and 39th overall picks in the 2022 NHL Draft and a third rounder in 2024. This gives Davidson his first selection in the first round as a general manager, having taken over as the permanent replacement for Stan Bowman in March.
A second round pick of the Blackhawks in 2016, DeBrincat developed into a strong goal scorer during his five NHL seasons. Making his debut in 2017, the forward has scored 160 goals in 368 career games and twice has exceeded 40 goals.
DeBrincat first did so in the 2018-2019 season and then repeated the feat in the 2021-2022 campaign, each time scoring 41 goals. He was second on the team when he got that total for the first time (Patrick Kane, 44) but he lead the team by a wide margin during this past season.
Along with the 41 goals, DeBrincat also had 37 assists and finished with 147 in his Blackhawks career.
Here are the updated selections for the Blackhawks in the 2022 NHL Draft:
- 1st Round – 7th Overall
- 2nd Round – 38th Overall
- 2nd Round – 39th Overall
- 2nd Round – 57th Overall
- 3rd Round – 81st Overall
- 3rd Round – 90th Overall
- 3rd Round – 93rd Overall
- 6th Round – 167th Overall
- 6th Round – 173rd Overall
- 7th Round – 199th Overall
