Report: Blackhawks have 'sniffed around' Red Wings' Nyquist, Tatar

They don't call it the dog days of winter for nothing.

The Chicago Blackhawks have "sniffed around" Detroit Red Wings forwards Gustav Nyquist and Tomas Tatar, two sources told Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun-Times.

Lazerus prefaced the report by reminding people to "take every name you hear this time of year with a grain of salt," and later added that the Blackhawks are likely just doing their due diligence in calling other teams about potentially available players.

Nyquist is under contract for two more seasons after this one at a cap hit of $4.75 million, and Tatar is a pending restricted free agent carrying a hit of $2.75 million.

The Blackhawks are expected to have about $3.3 million in cap space at the trade deadline, according to CapFriendly, while the Red Wings are projected to have none.

A source told Scott Powers of The Athletic on Friday that Chicago is looking into adding a top-line left winger and a veteran defenseman.

The Red Wings are three points out a playoff spot with three teams standing in their way, and they only have games in hand on one of them.

Chicago sits in second place in the Central Division behind the Minnesota Wild, who have the same amount of points (63) but possess four games in hand and one more regulation-or-overtime win.