Steven Stamkos is the biggest free agent maybe ever in the NHL. He’s an elite number one center, a proven scorer, a vocal leader, and he’s 25. The best years of his game may still lay before him, and every team in the League should figure out what they would be willing to do to grab him.

That includes the Chicago Blackhawks. While we are struggling with the cap, what if we could grab Stamkos. Imagine a line in the playoffs of Panarin-Stamkos-Kane. Every team would fall before them, and it’s just a wrecking ball of a line.

So what would we have to give up to sign Stamkos? What could we conceivably do? And in the end, is Stamkos worth any of the scenarios I’m about to lay out?

1. Blackhawks Enter Bidding War – Stamkos Signs for 10.5 mil. 

Short Answer: no more Jonathon Toews. Stamkos would come to Chicago looking to be the number one center, and there would be no need for Toews, who can’t contribute offensively like Stamkos can, and while he has been an integral part of our Cup runs, winning a Conn Smythe, Toews is 28. He’s not the player he was when he was younger, and he had a down year this year. He didn’t contribute in the playoffs, and it’s part of the reason we lost to the Blues. We need a consistent center, and perhaps Stamkos is better than Toews.

We trade him for a large return – I’m talking a first rounder and a young defenseman with top 4 ceiling.

Stamkos would thus be placed large expectations upon. He would need to fill Toews’s shoes, and do it quickly. He would need to be able to help us continue winning cups, he would need to get along with Kane, and he would need to be endearing to the fanbase in the same way Toews is. And that’s a lot of pressure on a person. Any falling short would be scrutinized, and there would be posts from various sources calling for a return of Toews.

While I love Stamkos, perhaps getting rid of Toews is a mistake, and while Stamkos is simply better offensively, Toews is a great center and perhaps one of the best. He wins us Cups. And while this year was a down year, Toews is the sort of player to realize this, come back stronger, and earn our love again next year. In the end, last year a team that had Toews beat a team that had Stamkos.

No deal.

2. Stamkos takes a discount to play with Toews and Kane. Signs for 7 mil.

This is the dream scenario. Could you imagine a team with Toews, Kane and Stamkos? That’s a surefire winner, one that would have two of the best centers in the league vying versus each other in what would become a sibling like way, and the team is just unstoppable offensively. Stamkos and Kane become a regular pairing, our own Bennguin times 10.

But what would we have to get rid of in order to sign Stamkos to even this deal? Well, we’re losing a member of our core, and that’s just got to happen. Everybody’s making so much money that if we added a 7 million dollar deal someone’s got to go, and because we’re trading them with the cap pressure, we get a return like we did for Sharp, where we give up great players for what amounts to nothing but more cap trouble.

The first guys on the trade market would likely be Bryan Bickell, Andrew Shaw, Teuvo Teravainen, and Marian Hossa. At least three of those four would be traded or given up, and the other would return. The likely outcome is that Bickell, Shaw, and Teravainen are all traded together, for a pick we could put in the AHL. And that’s only 4-5 million off our plates. We still have to find a way to get rid of about 1 million more, and so Andrew Desjardins is also traded, again for not a lot. And then we have the team. Here would be the likely lines:

Tyler Motte-Toews-Nick Schmaltz

Panarin-Stamkos-Kane

Ryan Hartman-Anisimov-Hossa

Mark McNeill-Kruger-Kyle Baun.

While the team would have undoubtedly the best center depth in the league, we lose the depth on our wings, and Toews and Kruger must now develop their wings. What made our fourth line so good in the past was that Desjardins and Shaw were already developed. McNeill and Baun would be able to fill these spots maybe eventually, but they’re not the sure things Shaw and Desjardins are.

In the end though, what we give up is simply less that what we get. Shaw, Teuvo, and Desjardins are major losses, but the addition of Stamkos into the lineup without having to lose Anisimov, Hossa, any defenseman, or Panarin is the bigger benefit.

If that’s the way it shakes out that’s the way it shakes out. If he’s willing to take that big of a discount to play for a team where a Cup would be a certainty instead of a possibility, Deal.

The Blackhawks should be in on Stamkos, but as soon as it’s clear he would not take a discount and it becomes a bidding war, the Blackhawks should be out on him.