Leafs and Blackhawks talking trade? A 23-year-old Hawks winger appears to be the target

Seravalli reported on Thursday that the Leafs, Flames, Devils and Panthers have all contacted the Hawks about 23-year-old winger Brandon Hagel, who is currently on a 25-goal, 50-point pace.

For those who may be unfamiliar with the player, Hagel is a left winger who can also play the right wing if needed. He is set to earn $1.5M for the next two seasons, at which point he will become a restricted free agent - so he'd be under team control for several seasons.

Another useful quality that Hagel has is that he is able to kill penalties. With the Leafs already being a top-5 team when down a man, it's not exactly an area of weakness, but it's never a bad thing to have extra bodies who can play on the penalty kill in the event that one of your primary PK guys ends up taking a penalty himself.

The Hawks are looking for a return of a 1st round pick along with a high-end prospect in a deal involving Hagel, and it is very possible that they get a return in that ballpark, given Hagel's performance this season and the fact that he has term remaining on a very good deal.

The Leafs on their first round picks in both the 2022 and 2023 NHL Entry Drafts. Could a package of one of those picks along with Finnish defender Topi Niemela be enough to land Hagel from the Hawks? Does a prospect like Nick Robertson make more sense for the Hawks, since he's closer to NHL-ready? I'm not sure I'd be comfortable giving up that much, but for a team in win-now-mode, it would certainly be an understandable sacrifice.

Side note: Can you imagine having TWO Michael Buntings on the same team?