McKenzie sees Bowman being "very aggressive" exploring trade options

Bob McKenzie was on NBCSN’s NHL Live on Wednesday evening.

On the mindset of Stan Bowman and the Chicago Blackhawks leading into the trade deadline, and if he expects aggressive or not being aggressive:

“I think it runs much more to the aggressive side. I would stop short of saying, ‘all in,’ but pretty close to ‘all in’ if you’re the Chicago Blackhawks.

“When you look at the financial considerations going forward, you know that it’s going to be difficult to keep this group together.

“Patrick Sharp, it’s almost a foregone conclusion he will need to be dealt in the offseason.

“Johnny Oduya, he’s an expiring contract. It’s going to be extremely difficult to sign Johnny Oduya to a contract.

“Bryan Bickell, there’s all sorts of talk of whether he’s there for the long term or whether there are going to be too many financial pressures on this group as currently constructed.

“Therefore the window might be closing, or might be perceived as closing; although any team that’s got Toews and Kane and Duncan Keith – although Brent Seabrook a year away from having to get a new deal as well.

“I can see where Stan Bowman will be very aggressive in looking at every option available to him and try to say, ‘Hey, you know what? Let’s try to win with this group. The light’s never been greener. We’ve got as good a chance as anybody, even with the Patrick Kane injury. Let’s go for it.’ “

On who moves up on the target list for the Blackhawks following the Andrej Sekera trade:

“Well, you’re right. Part of the reason the L.A. Kings paid the price they did – a first round pick and a prospect, Roland McKeown - for Sekera, was because the Chicago Blackhawks were very much in the mix for Sekera.

“So now they will turn their attention to other players, and one of those players is Antoine Vermette. A very useful center. Plays a strong two-way game. Can put points up on the board, can kill penalties, take faceoffs, good offensively, good defensively. He’s an expiring contract, which works to the Chicago Blackhawks’ advantage.

“The other guy, a defenseman, secondary choice now that Sekera is gone is Jeff Petry. Also an expiring contract.

“That’s probably the area that Stan Bowman and the Blackhawks are going to have to look at – the expiring contracts. They don’t have the financial wherewithal – because they’ll have to get rid of guys like Sharp and ostensibly Oduya and others – to try and fit into the cap down the road.

“So they’ve got lots of assets. They’ve got draft picks. They’ve got young prospects that they feel are probably expendable and that they can try to load up and take a run at this, even in spite of the Patrick Kane injury.”

In the next segment on Curtis Glencross, McKenzie also offered this:

“Curtis Glencross is most certainly available and that would be another player that the Chicago Blackhawks may well target, along with Vermette and Petry.”

Source: NBCSN/ Transcript: Nichols on Hockey

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