With a vastly underwhelming start to the 2026-27 regular season, the trade chatter has already begun surrounding the Chicago Blackhawks before November has even arrived. That’s never a promising sign.

Particularly when its the fifth year of general manager Kyle Davidson’s rebuild, and everyone involved within the organization, the coaching staff, the players, and Davidson himself, had the expectation of at least competing for a Stanley Cup playoff spot this season.

So far through 12 games, the Blackhawks have only accrued eight points and have the second-worst points percentage in the entire league. They’re 30th in goals against per game, 31st in goals per game and power-play percentage, and 32nd in 5v5 shot attempts per game and faceoff-win percentage. Basically, they’re near the bottom in every major statistical category.

With much of the NHL roster now filled with Davidson’s top draft choices since taking over in March 2022, including nine first or second-round picks, it’s difficult not to be concerned. Sure, it’s only 12 games, and the Blackhawks are among the youngest teams again this season, especially at center and defense. The schedule hasn’t done them any favors, either.

But this was the year when the excuses had to stop, and the team needed to take a significant step in the rebuild, and they’ve failed to do so through the opening month. As a result, Davidson could already look to change things up with his roster via trade.

Davidson Willing To Get Active

Before Tuesday’s game against the Los Angeles Kings, in which the Blackhawks earned a much-needed 2-1 win to snap a three-game losing skid, Frank Seravalli joined Chicago Sports Network’s pregame show and reported that Davidson has been active on the trade market recently.

According to Seravalli, Davidson is searching for shoot-first scoring wingers with size around the league.

As Seravalli mentioned, the issue is every NHL club loves that specific player type, and quality ones don’t become available very often. It’s also still early enough in the season where most GMs aren’t quite ready to part ways with top-tier talent. Davidson’s inquiries have been unsuccessful thus far.

Regardless, Davidson has apparently now seen enough from his current squad to feel an adjustment must be made and is looking to bring in outside help. His willingness to engage in trade talks and do business has also seemingly made its way around the league.

As Bleacher Nation’s Tab Bamford pointed out on Tuesday, 25 of 32 teams have had at least one front-office representative at the United Center for the Blackhawks past two games. There were 18 in attendance for Tuesday’s game against Los Angeles, which is far more than usual.

Considering Seravalli’s report on CHSN’s pregame show that night, the timing doesn’t seem coincidental.

Who Could Davidson Target?

As far as who Davidson could look to bring in from another club, there’s been plenty of speculation around Philadelphia Flyers’ winger Owen Tippett recently. Tippett has only one goal through nine games this season and currently sits on injured reserve with an upper-body injury, but he’s a proven goal scorer who’s been part of trade rumors for quite some time now.

Tippett led the Flyers with 28 goals last year and has potted 20-plus in four straight seasons. He’s also recorded over 220 shots on goal in three of the last four years and regularly plays with a shoot-first demeanor, something the Blackhawks are targeting and need more of in their forward group.

Another aspect of Tippett’s game that should be attractive to Davidson is his willingness to be engaged physically, another area where the Blackhawks have been poor so far this season. The lack of physicality consistently shown from top to bottom on the roster has been jarring. Just six players have recorded double-digit hits, with rookies Roman Kantserov and Anton Frondell being the only two top-nine forwards with more than 10.

Tippett provides some bite along with his goal-scoring skills, leading all Flyers forwards with a career-high 166 hits last season. He’s recorded at least 100 hits in each of the last four years. His addition would help the Blackhawks in multiple ways.

However, it’s worth mentioning Tippett, 27, is entering the second year of an eight-year contract with a $6.2 million cap hit. The money is reasonable for his services, but having six more years under contract might not be appealing to Davidson. Tippett also has a ten-team no-trade clause in his contract, so who knows if he’s even willing to accept a trade to Chicago.

Another potential option could be Pittsburgh Penguins’ winger Rickard Rakell, who’s scored at least 24 goals in three of the last four years. The Penguins are slowly transitioning to a younger squad amidst a sluggish start to the season, which could make Rakell available. He was listed at No. 7 on Chris Johnston’s latest trade board for The Athletic.

Rakell, 33, is much older than Tippett and doesn’t provide the same physicality, but has much less term on his current contract. Rakell has two years remaining with a $5 million cap hit. His deal carries an eight-team no-trade list.

Who Could Davidson Trade?

The trade buzz between the Blackhawks and Flyers started on Saturday afternoon, when Anthony Di Marco from Daily Faceoff quoted Bamford’s post on X suggesting Philadelphia could be interested in Frank Nazar.

Since then, Di Marco has also reported the Flyers are perusing the trade market for a center, but are prioritizing those with top-six upside. In the article linked down below, Di Marco also wrote that Oliver Moore is another Blackhawks player they’re interested in. Although, Philadelphia is apparently skiddish about Moore’s long-term top-six potential and view Nazar much higher.

Considering both Nazar and Moore recently signed long-term extensions with the Blackhawks at very reasonable price tags for their upside, it seems somewhat unlikely that Davidson would be willing to part ways with either this early into the season and their respective careers. Never say never, though.

Nazar has been arguably the Blackhawks best forward so far this season, being the lone player on the team above 50 percent in expected goals and scoring chances at 5v5. He’s created scoring opportunities at a better clip than anyone else on the team and has been terrific on the penalty kill. He’s just struggled to finish.

With the way Nazar’s performed this year, trading the 22-year-old would be a foolish decision at this point and would feel like addition by subtraction. Plus, Di Marco has since posted the Blackhawks “don’t seem in the market to trade him right now”.

Moore signed his new five-year extension only 34 days ago, so pulling the trigger on a trade involving him seems doubtful. While his two-way game has lacked consistency since becoming a full-time NHL player last season, the Blackhawks front office and coaching staff regularly rave about his work ethic and character. He’s also Connor Bedard’s closest friend on the team. The captain probably wouldn’t be thrilled to see Moore traded.

The issue for the Blackhawks presumably wanting to keep those two forwards is they would net the greatest returns in the trade market at this point, in terms of players with a somewhat reasonable chance of getting dealt. Bedard and Frondell are obvious no-go’s for other teams, and Kantserov should probably be in that category, too.

But outside of those three, who on the current roster could actually fetch a shoot-first scoring winger that can help swing the Blackhawks season back in the right direction? If another team is looking for an impact roster player in return, there are few attractive trade chips to come by in Chicago.

What the Blackhawks do possess are seven first-round draft picks in the next three NHL Drafts, and packaging some of those together might be Davidson’s best shot to land what he’s searching for. The AHL pipeline also has some intriguing young talent, including Nick Lardis, AJ Spellacy, Sacha Boisvert, and Marek Vanacker.

Davidson probably wouldn’t love to trade any of those four forward prospects, but in order to get in this league, you have to give, and those are the most attractive minor-league trade chips in the Blackhawks’ possession right now.

Former first-round pick Kevin Korchinski is another potential trade candidate, as he’s played in just three of the Hawks first 12 games this season. The 22-year-old defenseman hasn’t consistenty cracked the NHL lineup since his rookie year in 2023-24 but is no longer waivers-exempt, so playing in the AHL isn’t an option this year. Korchinski was listed at No. 19 in Johnston’s trade board 2.0 on Tuesday.