NHL Rumors: Blackhawks' Toews & Kane May Not Request Trades

The Chicago Blackhawks may be out of luck when it comes to trading their top two stars before the trade deadline this season as they both could decide to stick around until the end of the season.

Scott Powers said that it doesn't sound like the Blackhawks are convinced that Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane will actually request trades. Both of them have full no-move clauses in their contracts and are set to become unrestricted free agents at the end of the season. They have identical $10.5 million AAV contracts and lots of teams are rumoured to have interest in trading for them.

There's no doubt that either of their trade lists would be low if they were to give one to the Blackhawks, making a trade pretty difficult. But that is better than the other option of not being able to trade them at all and getting no return for what will be high value pieces they could move out.

Both Kane and Toews control their futures and may want to finish out one last season together with the team they won three Stanley Cups with before they will likely sign with different teams in the offseason. I don't see either of them in the Blackhawks' plans moving forward seeing as they are trying to strip the team down to its core before building it back up.