Seth Jones talking with Blackhawks about trade possibility: 'I would like to give myself a chance to win'

It's no mystery that Seth Jones' Blackhawks tenure hasn't gone the way he hoped.

As Jones grinds through his fourth season in Chicago — and the third year of his massive eight-year contract — the possibility of a trade has some appeal, he admitted Wednesday.

The 30-year-old defenseman has not "formally" requested a trade. But Jones, agent Pat Brisson and Hawks general manager Kyle Davidson have been talking "back and forth," he said.

"We all know the whole story and what happened when I got here," Jones said. "I would like to give myself a chance to win in my career. I know that the money is not an easy thing to move, and that's what we're figuring out.

"If it happens, it happens. Obviously, while I'm here with the Blackhawks, they have my full effort [and] full attention to this team to try to get this team better."

The situation

Jones holds a full no-movement clause, so he has the power to block any trade. What he doesn't have the power to do is make a trade to an attractive, contending team happen.

In order for that to happen before the March 7 deadline, the Hawks will need to be sufficiently incentivized to move Jones, and a contending team will need to want Jones and be able to squeeze in his contract (in some form). As he referenced, his full $9.5 million salary-cap hit will not easily fit in anywhere.

At 50% retained, however, Jones would become a very valuable asset. In that case, he would carry an affordable $4.25 million cap hit through 2030. Within the NHL's skyrocketing salary cap, that would be chump change. But that would occupy one of the Hawks' three retention slots for each of the next five seasons, limiting their flexibility to make trades far into the future.

Even beyond the question of retention, the Hawks will have to determine whether the best trade offer they receive for Jones is enough to justify giving up an experienced, talented, minutes-eating top-four defenseman, regardless of his personal wishes.

The offer might need to be quite substantial in order to persuade them.

After all, they've moved past the tear-down stage of the rebuild, and they're hoping to build up their roster this summer and become a winning team again soon. They're objectively a better team with Jones than without him.

And while they need to clear space for their elite defensive prospects (Artyom Levshunov, Kevin Korchinski and Sam Rinzel) to graduate into the NHL, they'll need at least one veteran to anchor that group.

The context

Former Hawks GM Stan Bowman acquired Jones from the Blue Jackets in summer 2021 — during a last-ditch retool in which he also acquired Jake McCabe, Marc-Andre Fleury, Tyler Johnson and Seth's brother Caleb Jones.

By the time Jones' extension actually kicked in in 2022, however, Bowman was gone and Davidson had plunged the Hawks into a scorched-earth rebuild.

Jones, who has never advanced past the second round of the playoffs, has been open and honest about his frustrations with the constant losing throughout the time since — while taking accountability for his own struggles at times. Many Hawks fans have never warmed much to Jones, either.

With 27 games left this season, Jones said his biggest focus is trying to help the 17-31-7 Hawks win some games, at least as long as he remains on the roster. Fellow veteran Pat Maroon said their (rather ambitious) goal is to go .500 the rest of the way.

"Winning games makes you feel better," Jones said. "It makes the team feel better. It makes your organization feel better. You have fun coming to the rink every day. That's what my goal is for this team, as long as I'm here. It could be two weeks. It could be five more years."