Despite still fighting for a position in the playoffs, it was good to see nothing crazy was done during the NHL trade deadline to derail The Plan™ for this season: commitment to developing young players and rebuilding the roster. Because of this, the Blackhawks defense has remained fairly untouched as an eye was kept on both being competitive now while maintaining for the future. Only Lucas Carlsson was traded, but he wasn’t one of the top touted defensive players or prospects, and another prospective hopeful was added in Riley Stillman.
And while it’s disappointing that two of the young promising defenders — Ian Mitchell and Nicolas Beaudin — were demoted during this span, there was still plenty of progress with the other defenders.