What I’m hearing about the Blackhawks as the NHL trade deadline approaches

Jason Dickinson isn’t sure what his future looks like. He could be with the Chicago Blackhawks or any other team within the league over the next six weeks. On an expiring contract and with the Blackhawks season still heading in an unknown direction, he knows anything is possible as the NHL trade deadline approaches.

The 30-year-old Dickinson has learned to concern himself with what he can impact. This isn’t one of those things.

“I mean, out of my control, really,” Dickinson said on Wednesday. “Whatever comes and whenever they want to have discussions about what that future is, it’ll be it.”

Dickinson said he’d be open to re-signing with the Blackhawks, but even that isn’t something he’s contemplating now.

“I’m not giving it a whole lot of thought, if I’m being totally honest, but I love it here,” Dickinson said. “I love the guys, I love the group. I think we’re putting together something that I believe in and Blash (Jeff Blashill) is somebody I believe in. So, yeah, there’s a lot to want to be a part of here, for sure.”

From what I’ve heard, the Blackhawks aren’t sure how the trade deadline will play out yet. Dickinson, Ilya Mikheyev and Connor Murphy are the primary players other teams are showing interest in so far, but with the standings so bunched up and not a lot of trade movement happening around the league, the Blackhawks aren’t sure exactly what offers will look like.

It could be a seller’s market. One league scout said he thought the pool of available players at the deadline would be smaller than in years past, with so many teams thinking they still have a chance at the playoffs.

“I think teams will re-sign their pending UFAs or use them as their own rentals, which will drive up price,” the source said.

The Blackhawks will likely look to move a few players before the deadline to create more opportunities for their young players down the stretch. That could mean openings for a few players in Rockford, most likely Sam Rinzel but also prospects such as Anton Frondell and Sacha Boisvert, who could join the team late in the season. Frondell is already under contract, and his fate will be determined by how far Djurgården goes in the SHL playoffs. Boisvert, a sophomore at Boston University, could turn pro after BU’s season.

There is a wait-and-see feeling around the NHL about whether more teams will try to get trades done before the Olympic roster freeze, which lasts from Feb. 4 to Feb. 22, and then again before the actual trade deadline on March 6. The Blackhawks have eight games before the Olympic break and then four games after the break leading into the trade deadline.

“I wouldn’t say (there’s two deadlines), per se, but certainly it’s a unique year that way that there may be some activity over the next week and a half,” Blashill said on Wednesday. “But we’ll see. I think a lot of times what happens is the GMs a lot of times are at the World Juniors, they come back from that and there’s some activity, then it settles down a little bit. We’ll see if it continues, if it settles down or if it heats up here.”

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There have been a number of games over the last month in which Artyom Levshunov could have easily scored a goal. As he’s gotten more aggressive, those types of chances have increased.

The problem is that Levshunov isn’t capitalizing on those opportunities. He has two goals on 62 shots for a 3.2 shooting percentage this season.

Lately, he and Blackhawks skills coach Brian Keane have been spending a lot of time working together to fix that.

“We’re working on shooting and stuff,” Levshunov said this week. “I need more goals. (I need) to shoot more to the net and with more power.”

Blashill thought it was an area that could make Levshunov more dangerous.

“He’s had tons of prime shot opportunities in the slot that we just want to help him,” Blashill said. “I wouldn’t say his mechanics of it aren’t great, but he’s so strong, he’s kind of gotten by without it. So we’re trying to help his shooting mechanics a little bit to help give him a little bit more, not just velocity on the shot, but also to create a little more deception with it. He gets locked in, so the deception isn’t what we think it can be. Part of our thing with him is growing him in all areas of the game, and that’s a huge one. He could have 10 goals right now if he scored on some of those opportunities.”

* * *

Dickinson’s game-winning goal against the Winnipeg Jets on Monday was unique. You just don’t see the puck play so quickly like that. I had to ask him about it.

It was a designed defensive zone faceoff play that the Blackhawks have run plenty. Dickinson wins the faceoff, Alex Vlasic passes the puck to Ryan Donato and Dickinson takes off up ice. Donato lifts the puck high into the air and puts it in Dickinson’s area. The puck can go any way from there. This time, Dickinson gets a stick on it to settle it and then rips it into the net.

“I was talking about it when I got back to the bench, how many times do I run that same route, run that same play off of a faceoff win and the puck doesn’t get to me by one way or the other,” Dickinson said. “If we’re running a different play or (Donato) sees a different option, hits the D-man underneath. So for it to connect and it all to come together, it’s kind of such a relief when you’re like, this is why we do it 50 other times and it doesn’t happen, for that one time that it does happen that we know that I’m going to be in that spot to catch that pocket and maybe get a look.”

I thought the hand-eye coordination just to stop the puck at first was something. Did Dickinson?

“That’s an interesting question,” he said. “I don’t think about it when I’m doing it, right? So it’s not like I can (say) when it’s happening, oh, this is a hard one. There are times where I see the puck moving towards the net and those are the ones where I’m like, I don’t know what I’m looking at, it looks like a knuckleball.”

Regardless, it made the difference in the game, with the only other goal an empty-netter.

* * *

Blackhawks winger Oliver Moore knows how rare a college hockey fight is after playing at the University of Minnesota. He thought he saw two of them before. So when Boisvert recently got into a fight while playing for Boston University, Moore had to see it.

“It’s pretty crazy,” Moore said. “Sacha can drop them. I think he did in junior, too. So it’s really fun to see.”

As for the three-game suspension that came with Boisvert’s fight, Moore didn’t think Boisvert would mind.

“That’s a weekend,” Moore said. “That’s fine, though. I’m sure he’ll soak that.”

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