Jets acquire Isaak Phillips from Blackhawks for Dmitry Kuzmin

The Winnipeg Jets and Chicago Blackhawks have completed a deal that will send defenseman Isaak Phillips to the Jets and defenseman Dmitry Kuzmin to the Blackhawks, according to TSN’s Darren Dreger.

The @NHLJets and @NHLBlackhawks finalizing a trade. Dmitry Kuzmin from Winnipeg to Chicago for Isaak Phillips.

— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) January 15, 2025

The trade is mostly made on behalf the Blackhawks and Jets’ respective AHL affiliates, the Rockford IceHogs and Manitoba Moose. There isn’t a clear narrative to this trade, but the IceHogs get a defensemen who’s developing into a solid shutdown defender at the AHL level in Kuzmin, while the Moose get a player who is a couple years older, but also comes with more NHL upside with 56 games in the big leagues already in Phillips.

Phillips has played 3 games with the Blackhawks this season, with 1 goal in that brief stint with the team. He’s spent a majority of his season in the AHL with the IceHogs, where he has 1 goal and 7 assists for 8 points in 28 games.

Phillips was a fifth-round pick for the Blackhawks in the 2020 NHL Draft out of the OHL, making their AHL roster the following season with the OHL’s 2020-21 season being cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions. It took Phillips just one year to make his NHL debut, as he achieved that early on in the 2021-22 season. He’s since spent the past four seasons between the NHL and AHL, with the 2023-24 season giving him the most NHL action with 33 games.

Phillips is currently signed to a one-year, $775,000 contract and will be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights at the end of the season.

Kuzmin has spent the entirety of the season in the AHL with the Moose, where he has 1 goal and 3 assists for 4 points in 21 games.

Kuzmin was a third-round pick for the Jets in the 2021 NHL Draft out of Belarus. After two seasons in the OHL, he graduated to the AHL in the 2023-24 season, and after spending the year between the AHL and ECHL, he’s secured an AHL role this season.

Kuzmin is currently in the second year of his three-year entry-level contract with a $795,556 cap hit.