Friday, July 10, 2015

Blackhawks Send Patrick Sharp to Dallas in a Blockbuster Trade

The Chicago Blackhawks made a major trade today by sending 10-year veteran, Patrick Sharp, along with promising young defenseman, Stephen Johns, to the Dallas Stars for  veteran defenseman, Trevor Daley, and forward, Ryan Garbutt.

The Blackhawks needed to make cap space and Patrick Sharp had been mentioned for a long time.  The Blackhawks have lost a proven scorer, although his numbers slumped badly last year.  In return, they received a veteran defenseman who can score, and eat a lot of minutes in Trevor Daley.  Included in the deal was 6' 4" defenseman, Stephen Johns.  Johns was expected to make the starting roster this upcoming year with a shortened defenseive core.  Johns will get his chance with Dallas.

Trevor Daley, 31, a 11-year veteran, is a solid defenseman that will fit in well for the Blackhawks, but then the question becomes, is he the replacement for Johnny Oduya?  If so, he is a very good replacement.  Daley comes with 2 years left on his current contract that has a cap hit of $3.3 million. Last year, Daley played in 68 games for Dallas, scored a cereer high 16 goals and 22 assists for 38 points.  Daley should play a key role on the power play for the Hawks.  Of his 16 goals, 6 were scored on the power play to go along with 6 assists.  Most importantly, he averaged 22:53 TOI.  Something that we all know, the Blackhawks need.  

Garbutt, 29, also comes with 2 years left on his current contract while bringing half ($900k) of his cap hit of $1.8 million.  Dallas is keeping the other half.  Garbutt, a center, could possibly be a choice to be a 4th line center, which then leads to the question, is he going to replace Marcus Kruger?  Where Garbutt fits in is unknown but with two years remaining on his contract, he will most likely be playing with the NHL club.  Last year, Garbutt played in 67 games for the Stars with 8 goals  and 17 assists for 25 points.  Combined, Daley and Garbutt make up $3.4 million of the $5.9 million that Patrick Sharp's cap brought.  As of now, the Blackhawks are under the salary cap with $1.3 million available according to NHLNumbers.com.  This would not leave enough room to re-sign Johnny Oduya and/or Marcus Kruger.

There is still more dealing to be done (we hope).  If Stan Bowman can find a way to shed Bryan Bickell ($4 million) and Kris Versteeg ($2.2 million), then it is possible that both Kruger and Oduya may come back.  If so, then the Blackhawks defensive core is very solid going into next year.  Let's hope that Bowman can keep the magic going.

So what does everyone think of the trade?  Good?  Bad?

LET'S GO HAWKS!!!

2 comments:

  1. Awesome deal. Everybody knew we couldn't keep Sharp,(wish him the best in Dallas). looks like Stan did another great job in filling a possible void for next season. Keep on keepin on Mr. Bowman.

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    1. I think he did too. I'm really hopeful that if we can get Oduya back as well, then our defensive corp will be the best in the NHL. Our worst D-man will be Van Riemsdyk. It may take a prospect or two in order to push the others (Bickell, Versteeg) out of town. So be it.

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