Domi was traded last year and the Blackhawks will have to wait another full year to see any sort of payoff from the return.
Max Domi has been traded four times in his career, most recently from the Chicago Blackhawks to the Dallas Stars at the 2023 trade deadline. The return was a second-round draft pick in 2025 — not a first-round pick many might have expected or wanted — but the Blackhawks didn't give Domi away by any stretch.
Chicago signed Domi at the start of the 2023 season to fill a role and he performed well. The return for him from Dallas also included worn-out goalie Anton Khudobin (a cap dump to make the money work). Minor league journeyman goalie Dylan Wells also went to the Stars from the Blackhawks along with Domi.
It's not rare to see a rebuilding team accept a future pick, even one that's two years later. At the time the Blackhawks were just starting their rebuild. The organization didn't expect to draft Connor Bedard in 2023 and then be able to try for a quicker turnaround.
Since Khudobin only gave the Blackhawks one game in which he had a 6.00 GAA and .786 SV%, the 2025 second-round pick is the only thing Chicago really got back and is still waiting for.
The Blackhawks didn't known they would win the draft lottery and then need to surround the 18-year-old Bedard with some experienced players in 2023-24. If Chicago general manager Kyle Davidson could have predicted that, maybe he would have kept Domi and extended the popular veteran as the team did with Jason Dickinson, Petr Mrazek, Nick Foligno, and Andreas Athanasiou.
Domi went on to have success in the 2023 playoffs for the Stars, recording three goals and 13 points in 19 games. He then signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs in the offseason for one year and is doing well in their top-six, looking like he's found a home so he can stop bouncing around.
This trade pays off for the Blackhawks if the second-round pick in next year's draft turns into something useful. Since 2010, noteworthy second-round picks made by Chicago include Justin Holl (2010), Brandon Saad (2011), Alex DeBrincat (2016), Alex Vlasic (2019), Drew Commesso (2020), Colton Dach (2021), and Adam Gajan (2023).
If the Blackhawks can add to their strong and deep prospect pool next year with a solid second-round pick they got from trading Domi, then the team and fans can rest easy knowing the deal paid off.