Why the Blackhawks Should Still Have Adam Boqvist, Not Seth Jones

On July 23, 2021, the Chicago Blackhawks made a deal that led many fans to believe that the rebuild would be quicker than they thought.  Stan Bowman sent Adam Boqvist, a 2021 first-round pick, a 2021 second-round pick, and a conditional 2022 first-round pick to Columbus for Seth Jones, a 2021 first-round pick, and a 2022 sixth-round pick.

The conditions on the 2022 first-round pick are: if Chicago gets a top-two pick in the 2022 draft, Columbus gets a 2023 first-round pick from Chicago instead.  Immediately after the trade was made, Bowman signed Jones to an eight-year, $76M contract, averaging $9.5M per season.

With the 2021 pick that was acquired, Chicago drafted Nolan Allan 32nd overall.  With the picks that Columbus acquired for 2021, Cole Sillinger was taken 12th overall in the first round, and Aleksi Heimosalmi was selected 44th overall in the second round.

I am personally a big Adam Boqvist fan, and I believe that he should have been part of the Blackhawks defensive core for a long time to come.  In fact, that’s what Stan Bowman had told him.  I was unhappy with the trade to begin with, but I figured it couldn’t be that bad because Seth Jones was a top-four defenseman in Nashville and a top-two guy in Columbus.

For a while this year, Seth Jones was productive, racking up assists for Patrick Kane and Alex DeBrincat.  However, his goal-scoring ability is abysmal.  In 61 games so far this season, Jones has just four goals.  He went 35 games without scoring a goal, breaking his drought on March 19 in Minnesota.  Before that, his last goal was on December 2 in a road game against the Capitals.

I wouldn’t be that mad about his lack of goals if he made up for it in other places – but he hasn’t been doing that.

I have been paying particular attention to his game recently and here are a few notes: he abandons his position in the defensive zone, leaves opponents wide open in the crease, makes horrible D zone turnovers, fumbles and turns over the puck in the offensive zone, and trips over his own feet and gives the puck away.

Overall, Seth Jones is not the number one defenseman Stan Bowman thought he was when he brought him in for the most promising young defenseman the Hawks have had in years.

While Seth Jones does have more points than Adam Boqvist this season, Boqvist has six more goals in 21 fewer games so far this season.  Boqvist is also much better in the defensive zone than Jones.

He does slip up and makes mistakes from time to time, but he’s only 21 years old compared to Jones who is 27, and Jones has been in the NHL for seven more seasons than Boqvist.  Boqvist is only going to keep getting better and proving Stan Bowman wrong for trading him.

Because all of Jones’s downsides outweigh the good, the eight-year, $76M contract looks really bad for Stan Bowman right now (even if he did already get fired).  If there was an “undo trade” button somewhere, I would press it in a heartbeat.