NHL Trade Deadline Primer: Brandon Hagel is intriguing, but risky

The 2022 NHL Trade Deadline is Monday, March 21 at 3 p.m. ET. As we get closer to the deadline we will take a look at some individual players who could be on the move. We continue today with Chicago Blackhawks forward Brandon Hagel.

There have not been many bright spots for the Chicago Blackhawks this season, but Brandon Hagel has definitely been one of them on the ice. The 23-year-old forward is having a breakout year of sorts in Chicago, scoring 17 goals (and 30 total points) in his first 48 games this season. That production, combined with Chicago’s awful year in the standings, has made him a potential trade chip ahead of the deadline.

Given the way new general manager Kyle Davidson talked on Tuesday it sounds like he is envisioning a rebuild for this team, while the words “three,” “five,” and “years” kept getting thrown around. That should make pretty much every player on the roster — including the core players — potential trade chips at some point in the not-too-distant future.

Hagel might be one of the more intriguing options because he is still young (23), under contract for three more years, signed to an incredibly team-friendly contract ($1.5 million salary cap per season), and has been very productive this season.

So why trade all of that right now?

Because his trade value may never be higher than it is right now given his production and the cost certainty his contract brings.

The red flag, though, is that we do not really know what his future production will look like. A significant portion of his offense right now is being driven by a 21.3 percent shooting percentage. He does not produce a lot of shots on goal (less than two per game) while a lot of his underlying shot metrics (shot attempts, expected goals,