Insider: Could Trade Candidate Pat Maroon Return to the Atlantic Division?

Just like last year at this time, enforcer Pat Maroon is drawing interest on the trade market. His signing with the Chicago Blackhawks for this season was merely as a placeholder for the Hawks to obtain a draft pick at the trade deadline. And that brings us to where we are headed over the next few weeks.

Maroon had spent most of the previous five seasons in the tough Atlantic Division, four of those years—and two of his three Stanley Cups—with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Daily Faceoff Insider Jeff Marek stated on his podcast The Sheet that he feels a return to the Atlantic, and Tampa in particular, might be in the cards for the physical fourth-liner.

I imagine Chicago’s Pat Maroon will be on the move by NHL trade deadline with a few teams out there looking for toughness along with ‘rings in the room’. Maroon checks both those boxes. If you’re Tampa do you consider a reunion knowing you’ll probably have to go through the Florida Panthers at some point in the playoffs?

Maroon also won a Cup with the St. Louis Blues in 2019, his first of three straight, followed by the pair in Tampa.

With the Blackhawks this season, the 36-year-old has 13 points in 49 games, with 71 penalty minutes and 82 hits.

He will, once again, be a physical depth piece that certain contenders will look at at the trade deadline. He's on an expiring $1.3 million one-year deal.