Rebuilding Blackhawks a good trade partner?

This much we know: Connor Bedard will be drafted No. 1 overall by the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday. What a relief it will be for long-suffering Blackhawks fans, some of whom will graduate middle school without having attended a Stanley Cup parade. They can pre-order jerseys for their next homegrown superstar. The real question is whether Bedard will ask to wear his increasingly familiar No. 98 once he arrives in town.

Here’s another question: Are the tank-happy Blackhawks the ideal trading partner for the cap-strapped Bruins?

Entering the weekend, the Blackhawks had upward of $37 million in cap space and a war chest of extra draft picks: Tampa Bay’s first-rounder (19th overall), second-rounders from the Senators (44th), Lightning (51st), and Rangers (55th), and a third-rounder from the Stars (93rd, via the Coyotes). They have a pair of picks in each of the first three rounds in 2024, and a pair in each of the first two rounds in 2025.

Those are the kinds of returns the Bruins will be seeking as they make their way to Nashville for draft week. The Stanley Cup push of the last few years has left them without a pick until the third round. This past season’s all-in charge has them with some $5 million in cap space and about half of a lineup under contract.

So, they may need to offload good players and accept little in return.

Assuming Linus Ullmark agrees to a deal — the netminder has a 16-team notrade list — the Blackhawks could be an ideal fit. With Boston University product Drew Commesso baking in the minors, they could add the likely Vezina Trophy winner to partner with Petr Mrázek, who has a year remaining on his deal ($3.8 million). At $5 million over each of the next two years, Ullmark wouldn’t block anyone’s path.

If the Blackhawks, having landed a future franchise player in Bedard, want to avoid improving too much in net, there are other teams with cap space and a need for goalies. New Jersey, if it can’t stomach paying the price for Connor Hellebuyck, might entice the Bruins with a prospect. Carolina needs someone to partner with Pyotr Kochetkov, who is signed at $2 million for each of the next four years. Edmonton is looking for answers in goal, but notrade lists often include the Oilers.

Ullmark would be an upgrade financially and competitively in Anaheim, which has discussed dealing mainstay

John Gibson ($6.4 million for each of the next four seasons). The Ducks, no strangers to dealing with the Bruins, own Boston second-rounders this year and next.

The Blackhawks have four defensemen signed to NHL deals. Matt Grzelcyk, on an expiring $3.875 million deal, could be the left-side complement to

Seth Jones, and run one of the powerplay units.

It would be difficult for the Bruins to part with Grzelcyk — a well-liked Charlestown product whose father,

John, has spent some five decades on the Garden bull gang — but he has been a spare part in the playoffs, Jim Montgomery (and Bruce Cassidy before him) looking elsewhere in trying to mitigate the Panthers’ forecheck.

Today’s Cup contenders are looking for size and snarl on the back end, and Grzelcyk, while quick-footed and sharp of stick, hasn’t been in Boston’s postseason mix at 5 feet 9 inches and 174 pounds. He may have more to offer the Blackhawks, or the Ducks, who have three defensemen signed.

Need a quality linemate for Bedard?

Taylor Hall fits the bill better than most.

General manager Kyle Davidson, who is a few months younger (turns 35 on July 1) than Brad Marchand, could do right by his rookie star and give him a steady wingman. Hall, entering his age-32 season, is a steady, 200-foot presence who has been in Bedard’s shoes.

Few expect the Blackhawks to be good any time soon, but there will be pressure to perform on the rookie’s shoulders. A player with Hall’s pedigree (first overall in 2010 in hockey-mad Edmonton) could help him navigate the ups and downs.

“When I was with him, there was an immense amount of pressure on that young man,” Dallas Eakins, who spent 2013-14 with the Oilers, said in January. “It was extremely unfair to him.”

Hall came to Boston to win the Cup for the first time, and he has come up short. At $6 million over each of the next two years, he could help Bedard, the locker room, and Davidson get to the cap floor. If the Bruins are offloading a contract like his, Hall could do worse than helping a young superstar shed his training wheels.