Hawks wouldn't consider, Cat is the better player so far

In which departments?

In what universe is DeBrincat the better player?

Doesn't make sense for either team.

I'd definitely argue that Tkachuk is the better player overall... But Cat does have more control.

Scoring, I think most teams would want the puck on cat's stick in the offensive zone more then Tkachuk. Tkachuk is the better two way (not that Cat is bad at it) and physical player for sure.

Hawks reject simply because we are moving Cat because we want to rebuild. At this time Cat has more value because he has an extra year of control before he gets a large contract.

Same age players (literally a week apart in birthdate)

Debrincat - 160/147/307 in 368 games comes out to 0.834 ppg
Tkachuk - 152/230/382 in 431 games comes out to 0.886 ppg

Debrincat is the better goal scorer by a significant margin, but overall PPG is fairly similar. Debrincat also has never had the benefit of playing with a fairly competitive roster - the only player of benefit he has had alongside him has been Kane, where as the Flames had made some noise and Tkachuk has had Lindholm and Gaudreau at the top. Tkachuk is definitely better defensively, but Debrincat is no slouch in the 200 foot game and does not shy away from physicality either. Skill is probably fairly similar, and they can probably expect to make similar money on their next big contracts, but the big key here is Debrincat is still 1 year away from that next big contract, and has the capacity to be playin on a huge value deal this upcoming season before getting paid market value.

Due to the contract situation, Debrincat probably has more value in a trade, and trading for Tkachuk certainly does not help the Blackhawks rebuild, as they have a year less control over him.

Either way, a deal is quite unlikely in this scenario and I would imagine what would happen instead, is the Flames would use the assets from a Tkachuk trade to trade for Debrincat.

Is this deliberately ignoring context? Tkachuk has spent the vast majority of his career with Mikael Backlund and a rotating cast of wingers (Frolik, Dube, Mangiapane pre-breakout, and a handful of bums). It was only this season that he got to play with Lindholm and Tkachuk, and showed that in top line minutes he can get the same number of goals that DeBrincat can, but also has high end playmaking ability (Cat’s never sniffed 100 points). Add in that Tkachuk is a coveted power forward (rather than one of the smallest players in the league) and the better defensive player and it’s really no contest. The one year of extra team control doesn’t really mean too much, because you’ve gotta think both players agree to long term extensions for a trade to go through anyway. DeBrincat’s sole advantage is a better shot, but Tkachuk has shown he can score just as many goals (and technically more, 42 beats Cat’s career high of 41) while being better at every other part of the game, so the question isn’t who’s adding, it’s how much is Chicago adding.


Scoring maybe, DeBrincat has the better shot. But Tkachuk scores goals in all kinds of ways, because he has a good shot but also the frame and willingness to sit in front of the net (one of the better tip-in guys in the league). And there’s no way you think Cat’s playmaking is better. His career high is 37 assists, a number Tkachuk has topped 3 times (and only one of them was with Gaudreau and Lindholm, where he put up nearly double that). Tkachuk’s not a prime Lucic or current Wilson type of power forward where he’s got to be the complement to elite skill guys. He’s more than capable of driving his own line, he’s an elite skill player with a power forward’s frame.

Yes of course its ignoring context. Debrincat played a majority of his minutes away from Kane as well next to guys like Strome and Kurashev who are pretty below average. He hasnt played with a good center since Toews started playing like ass. You cant quantify one set of bad linemates over the others, its going to be impossible. Elite players are going to find ways to put up points regardless of who theyre playing next to, and Tkachuk and Debrincat are both elite players. Its also clear, that if you simply label Debrincat as small, then you havent watched him play, because he plays the boards hard and doesnt shy away from getting into scraps with guys. You also ignored the part where I said trading for Tkachuk doesnt help Chicago at all so there's no reason for them to do this trade anyway. The point of my last part of a trade wasnt to show who is more valuable, simply that Debrincat with his contract situation has more value TO THE HAWKS than Tkachuk does, not league wide.