Blackhawks Reunite Their Captain With His Brother In First Splash Of Deadline Day

With the trade deadline rapidly approaching on Friday afternoon, many of the rumblings in the Chicago Blackhawks’ locker room this week have seemed to revolve around captain Nick Foligno. Chicago already moved on from two of its assistant captains, and it seemed like only a matter of time before the 38-year-old locker room leader was next, whether that was before Friday’s deadline or this summer when he hits unrestricted free agency.

In the Blackhawks’ first move on deadline day, they gave us an answer. Chicago is trading Foligno to the Minnesota Wild to team up with his 34-year-old brother, Marcus, who is currently on IR. The Wild find themselves squarely in the playoff race, and Foligno will now likely have a chance to do some damage and help his new squad in the postseason. 

The formal trade is just Foligno in exchange for future considerations, which certainly isn’t the end of the world. According to Frank Seravalli, the Blackhawks only sought to do right by their captain by giving him an opportunity to compete in the playoffs, and they’ve now done just that. Of course, Chicago doesn’t have any salary retention slots left after the trades of Connor Murphy and Jason Dickinson this week, so the Wild are taking on his full $4.5 million cap hit until this summer. That doesn’t really matter to the Blackhawks, so it’s nice that they didn’t have to give anything else up to get rid of his contract. 

It’s interesting that the Blackhawks have now moved on from the entire leadership group that they started the season with. Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times already reported that Connor Bedard and Tyler Bertuzzi will serve as alternate captains moving forward, and that Foligno’s replacement for the “C” won’t be decided until the offseason at the earliest. Bedard, of course, has already spent quite a few games wearing the “A” this season. I would expect him to sign his huge long-term deal this summer and be given the captaincy shortly after. Jonathan Toews was given the “C” at age 20, so history may repeat itself there.

“Obviously, one, I’m happy for him. As I said yesterday, I wish we were 10 points in and none of this happens, but we’re not. And for an opportunity to go and play with your brother, be part of something with your brother. I’ve got a brother and it’d be an unbelievable thing. And so I know that means a ton to him and his family. I know how important that is.

“And then for me personally, just he’s been awesome, awesome for me and awesome for this organization. But for me personally, coming in here this year, having a chance to try to create culture and with the help of Murph and Dicky, Bert, all our vets, we’ve just had great papa bears that have helped these young guys along and Nick certainly led us in that.”

– Jeff Blashill on Nick Foligno

The Blackhawks are set to square off with Foligno twice this month, in back-to-back games on March 17 and 19 in Chicago and Minnesota, respectively.