“The Blackhawks—like every other team in the league—should be trying to move heaven and Earth to pry Elias Pettersson out of Vancouver,” Lazerus wrote. “Pettersson can make Bedard and the Blackhawks better immediately, and he’s young enough to fit Chicago’s longer-term timeline.”

The Blackhawks signed Brian Campbell a year later, and Marián Hossa a year after that. There was no distant future. There was just now. And within three years, they were Stanley Cup champions. “We just expected to win,

The Chicago Blackhawks are one of the few teams concretely out of the playoff race as the NHL Trade Deadline nears, meaning every contending team will be calling and trying to pluck their best players and assets.