The Blackhawks announced that they have made a deal, this afternoon, with the Carolina Hurricanes. They acquired two AHL defensemen, Dennis Robertson and Jake Massie, for Kris Versteeg and recently re-signed RFA Joakim Nordstrom. Looked at as a salary dump, this deal didn't exactly wow anyone on this side. While a salary dump is perfectly acceptable, the Blackhawks only cleared up roughly $2.7 million. This will get the team under that salary cap ceiling, but only gave them about $2.5 Million in additional room. This, of course, is all contingent on Jeremy Morin and Corey Tropp playing in Rockford.
The scouting report on the two new players are as follows, via Hockey's Future:
Dennis Robertson - Ht/Wt: 6' 0"/195 lbs - The go-to defenseman at Brown during his college career Robertson logged heavy minutes in all situations. He has a big, hard shot, which makes him a threat offensively, particularly on the power play and is sound in his own end of the ice. He’s beginning to add more snarl to his game which is making him a more valuable defenseman.
Jake Massey - Ht/Wt: 6' 1"/172 lbs - Drafted this summer, Massie was ranked as the 8oth best North American skater in the final NHL Central Scouting rankings. He is the top ranked defenseman in prep hockey.
Very shortly after the Versteeg trade, the Blackhawks announced that they had re-signed Marcus Kruger to a one year, $1.5 million contract. This, of course, was the discount of the year. Yes, Kruger was an RFA. Yes, Kruger was restricted in his options, but I fail to believe that there wasn't a single team in the NHL willing to offer a $2.5 million deal to try him at 3rd line C. Just because he didn't sign an offer sheet doesn't mean the offer wasn't there. Common sense tells you that an affordable, responsible, young shutdown center was called a time or two. Kruger did the Blackhawks a solid, and I hope that he is rewarded for his loyalty down the road.
Also announced were the signings of defenseman Jan Hejda and Daniel Paille to Professional Tryout Contracts. This means both will battle for depth spots in camp.
Hejda would be a slightly better version of Michal Rozsival, Nick Boynton, or Sean O'Donnell. You get the hint. A third pairing veteran defenseman that won't kill you in his own end.
The same could be said for Daniel Paille. He is a depth forward that will battle for a Left Wing spot, most likely, on the fourth line. The problem is that the fourth line is pretty crowded already. The Blackhawks have Marcus Kruger, Ryan Garbutt, Andrew Desjardins, Andrew Shaw, or Viktor Tikhonov (depending on which ends up playing 3rd line C, or maybe second, in Shaw's case) as well as possibly Jeremy Morin, or Corey Tropp already fighting for playing time on the fourth line. On the other hand, it doesn't hurt to have more competition. There is zero risk to this move.
The Hawks have about $900K to sign a player, but they don't want to hover that close to the cap. This would mean that someone needs to go. We shall see how the camp drama shakes out.
Here is an updated look at the Blackhawks cap situation:
