After a solid start to their season, young superstar Connor Bedard went down with an injury, and the Hawks’ season went down the drain. At the Olympic break, the Blackhawks have a 22-26-9 record and 53 points, the sixth-fewest in the league and 10 points out of the final wild card spot.

With several veterans set to become free agents at the end of the season, there are numerous depth options that the Edmonton Oilers could have interest in ahead of the March 6th trade deadline. Overall, Daily Faceoff’s latest trade board has four Blackhawk players of note.

Let’s take a look at who could be available if the Hawks continue to slip in the standings.

Identifying the Oilers’ needs

The skinny of the Oilers situation is that while they’re in a playoff spot, they don’t look like the team that went to back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals. Earlier this season, they addressed their goaltending needs, a trade that hasn’t quite worked out for them.

Their defensive structure has been an absolute mess all season long, leaking far too many high-danger scoring chances, while they’ve barely seen any production for their bottom six. Heading into the March 6th trade deadline, the Oilers have three primary needs: A winger that can move up and down the lineup and play in their top nine, a right-shot centre for the third line, and a right-shot defenceman.

All that being said, what do the Blackhawks have to offer?

Ilya Mikheyev

If the Oilers were to acquire Ilya Mikheyev, they’d be acquiring a solid middle six winger who can score. The Russian got his start with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2019-20, but finally broke out to a solid middle-six option in 2021-22 as he scored 21 goals and 32 points in 53 games.

Mikheyev joined the Vancouver Canucks for the 2022-23 season, scoring 13 goals and 28 points in 46 games, then 11 goals and 31 points in 78 games. The 2024 off-season saw the Canucks trade Mikheyev to the Blackhawks, where he scored 20 goals and a career-best 34 points in 80 games last season.

Through 52 games this season, Mikheyev has 11 goals and 23 points, which is on pace for 17 goals and 36 points over an 82-game stretch. Add in the fact that he’s a strong penalty killing winger, and you can see him fitting on the Oilers’ third line with the potential to play alongside a player like Leon Draisaitl on the second line.

Mikheyev is in the final year of his four-season contract, and he has a cap hit of $4.75 million. The Blackhawks have two retention spots remaining, meaning that they can retain up to 50%, thus making his cap hit $2.375 million. Mikheyev has a 12-team no-trade list.

Daily Faceoff considers the 31-year-old right-winger an obvious trade candidate.

Jason Dickinson

Jason Dickinson is another veteran that the Blackhawks acquired from the Canucks. Drafted 29th overall in the 2013 draft by the Dallas Stars, Dickinson became an NHL regular in 2018-19, scoring six goals and 22 points in 67 games, followed by nine goals and 21 points in 65 games.

That is about his career average pace throughout his career, with Dickinson’s 2023-24 season being a huge outlier, potting 22 goals and points. A large chunk of his 2024-25 season was missed due to injuries, while he has six goals and 13 points in 43 games this season, also missing a portion of the season due to injury.

Dickinson is a strong defensive centre who is capable of filling in as a third-line centre if need be. He’s a subpar faceoff taker (49.5 faceoff percentage in 2025-26, 47.6% for his career), but he’s a strong penalty killer, helping the Blackhawks sit first in the league in PK%.

Like Mikheyev, who is Dickinson’s penalty kill partner, he’ll be a free agent after the season and has a cap hit of $4.25 million. Dickinson has no trade protection, and Daily Faceoff considers Dickinson as an obvious trade candidate.

Nick Foligno

Nick Foligno has been around the block. Drafted late in the first round of the 2006 draft by the Ottawa Senators, the early portion of his career was spent with the Senators and Columbus Blue Jackets. In 2020-21, he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, which began a three-year chase for the Stanley Cup, joining the Boston Bruins for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 season.

Over his 19-season career, Foligno has played just 68 postseason games, never making it out of the second round. Now 38 years old, time is running out for the Buffalo, New York product to get his name on the Stanley Cup. He’s not the player he once was, scoring two goals and 10 points in 33 games due to a personal absence, but he still scored 15 goals and 35 points in 78 games last season.

That type of production for the bottom six, on top of serious grit and leadership, could help any contender, including the Oilers. The Blackhawks’ captain has a cap hit of $4.5 million and is set to be a free agent at the end of the season. He also doesn’t have any trade protection and is considered as a name to keep an eye on according to Daily Faceoff.

Connor Murphy

The biggest area of need for the Oilers is on their defence core, and Connor Murphy is a solid shutdown option. A right-shot defenceman, Murphy has played just nine postseason games in his career, as his Blackhawks defeated the Oilers in the 2020 postseason.

Murphy can chip in on the scoresheet, potting four goals and 12 points in 57 games this season. That’s on pace for five goals and 17 points, which would be around his career norm. His best season in terms of goals came in 2022-23, while his career-high in points came in 2019-20 when he had 19 points in just 58 games.

The Ohio native has been out-scored during five-on-five action, as the Blackhawks have a 45.61 percent goal share and 45.80 percent expected goal share, but that is to be expected given that he plays against elite competition. On the Oilers, he’d be relegated to the third pairing.

One area that Murphy excels in is on the penalty kill, as he’s one of the two defencemen on the Blackhawks’ first penalty kill unit. The 32-year-old is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season and has a cap hit of $4.4 million this season with a 10-team no trade list. Like Mikheyev and Dickinson, Daily Faceoff considers Murphy an obvious trade candidate.

Trade deadline preview series

Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Oilersnation, FlamesNation, and Blue Jays Nation. Follow her on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.

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