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Blackhawks acquire Ryan Ellis, Jake Furlong and a 2028 fourth-round pick from Sharks

A deal that appears to mostly have financial implications as opposed to hockey ones.

Posted on by Dave Melton
Credit: Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports

The Blackhawks made a trade with another rebuilding team on Thursday afternoon.

Chicago acquired veteran defenseman Ryan Ellis, young defenseman Jake Furlong and a 2028 fourth-round pick from San Jose in exchange for defenseman Nolan Allan, goaltender Laurent Brossoit and a 2028 seventh-round pick.

Ellis hasn’t played since 2021 because of injuries, meaning his contract heads straight to LTIR, where it’ll join Shea Weber’s salary on Chicago’s books and remain there until the end of the 2026-27 season. Furlong is a 6-foot-1, 189-pound defenseman who joined San Jose as a fifth-round pick (No. 140 overall) in the 2022 NHL Draft. He’ll turn 22 in March and is yet to appear in an NHL game. In 12 games with the San Jose Barracuda this season, he has two assists.

As for the pieces departing Chicago: Brossoit signed here during the 2024 offseason but injuries kept him from ever appearing in a game with the Hawks, and this trade allows him a chance to resume his NHL career elsewhere since the goaltender depth chart in Chicago seems set for now by Spencer Knight and Arvid Soderblom. Allan was a 2021 first-round pick (No. 32 overall) of the Hawks who played in 43 NHL games last season with 8 points (1 G, 7 A) and an average ice time of 15:08 but has been with the IceHogs for all of this season.

At first glance, it feels like a bizarre trade. The Hawks are letting go of Allan, who’s still just 22 years old and seemed to be playing well enough in Rockford that he may have been considered for another look at the NHL level at some point this season. But the Hawks do have an awfully crowded pipeline of D prospects at the moment and there are only so many spaces available down the road. Whether or not Allan develops into anything NHL-caliber in the future will determine if this trade is looked back on with regret or just a shrug of the shoulders.

Ben Pope of the Sun-Times pointed to some salary cap maneuvering as one possible explanation for the deal:

In other news from Thursday, the Blackhawks sent Ethan Del Mastro back to the IceHogs. Del Mastro hadn’t played for Chicago since Dec. 16, so sending him to Rockford should allow him to actually play in games.

Chicago’s back on the United Center ice on Friday night against the Capitals.

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