For the first time in a long time, this loudmouth has no complaints. At least directed at the Blackhawks management, that is.
Blackhawks General Manager Stan Bowman spent Thursday night and most of Friday making this Blackhawks team CONSIDERABLY better than it was Wednesday night. I touched on Thursday's deal for one of my favorite former Blackhawks, Andrew Ladd, but Bowman was not done, by a long shot. In fact, he still may not be done. There are rumors that he may be able to still unload Bryan Bickell before Monday's trade deadline. I digress, though. There are two pretty surprising deals that Bowman made yesterday afternoon / evening.
The Hawks acquired defenseman Christian Ehrhoff from the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for defenseman Rob Scuderi.
This deal came about late in the afternoon and when first reported, anyone with half a brain said, "There is no way in hell that Bowman got someone to take that greasy slug off our hands, this must be fake". But, alas, it was true. Stan Bowman was able to pull some kind of Jedi mind trick shit on Kings GM Dean Lombardi and was able to to get him to willingly take #BlobSuckderi, one half of the infamous #Scrozsival duo.
The deal is even more juicy, even though giving him away for free would have been completely reasonable. In return, The Blackhawks took back a bit of thorn in Lombardi's side, Christian Ehrhoff. The caveat of the trade was the salary retention jockeying both teams played. Blackhawks retaining %50 of Scuderi's already reduced salary from Pittsburgh, and The Kings retaining %15 of Ehrhoff's salary.
The numbers shake out to the Blackhawks and Kings each being on the hook for a prorated $1.25 million for Scuderi over the remainder this season, and full 50/50 next season. The Blackhawks will get a $225K (prorated) discount on Ehrhoff's $1.275 Million for the remainder of this season, and he will become a free agent on July 1st. If Ehrhoff remains in Rockford, the Blackhawks cap hit will be $325K, which was much better than what they were paying to bury that useless sack of Scuderi shit. Ehrhoff could and probably should play with the NHL team, as well. He brings the same kind of offensive boost that Daley did, for a fraction of the price. This might require the Blackhawks to put Kruger on LTIR or move someone like Mashinter down, but seriously, so what?
Hats off to Bowman for whittling down the Trevor Daley salary from $3.3 Million into a $325K buried cap hit. That took some maneuvering.
One thing I need people to STOP proclaiming right this fucking second, is the "Patrick Sharp, and Stephen Johns turned into Christian Ehrhoff" bullshit.
Patrick Sharp and Stephen Johns turned into cap space to keep Brent Seabrook with this team. Pick on Seabrook's game all you'd like but without him on this team, there is an enormous, probably unfillable, hole on defense. Period. Knock that asinine shit off. It's not relevant. Be smarter than that, and stop getting sucked in by the asshole chicken little meatballs.
Plowing ahead...
Stan Bowman wasn't done for this busy Friday, though. Reports were flying around that Bowman was still working his fingers to the bone, and casting his evil wizardry on more moves. Later in the evening it was announced that the Hawks had made their 3rd deal in roughly 24 hours:
The Blackhawks acquired 31 year old Left Wing Tomas Fleischmann and 27 year old Right Wing Dale Weise from the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for Phillip Danault and a 2nd round pick in the 2018.
Well, tickle my balls and call me Skippy.
This one was a little out of the wheelhouse of my expectations, as it probably was with most others. The Blackhawks lost a fairly promising rookie, but lets call a spade a spade here. Phillip Danault is, and will be, a 3rd or 4th line center, at best. Bottom six players are a dime a dozen.
The Blackhawks still have Dennis Rasmussen, after some kid named Teuvo Teravainen to play center. Vince Hinostroza and Tanner Kero also sit in Rockford with some NHL experience. Oh, and Markus Kruger will possibly be "zoom zooming" back in the playoffs. If not, they have some additional cabbage to give him a raise and re-sign him this summer, now. This paltry ransom is not something to be weeping into your Cheerios about, people. The Blackhawks were able to acquire six players, on expiring contracts, that significantly upgraded their depth for this year's Cup run. If things don't work out, any of these players can be replaced this summer through the free agent market cheaply.
The Canadiens retained 30% of both player's salaries which shake down to prorated salaries of $750K for Tomas Fleischmann and $717,500 for Weise. This is purely speculation, but I'm assuming that both will fill in some holes on the 3rd line, now centered by Teravainen, which is a pretty significant upgrade in skill and experience. Left in all this are Andrew Shaw and Richard Panik, who will move down the lineup, as well. Rasmussen can remain on the fourth line with any combination of Shaw/Fleischmann and Desjardins/Mashinter/Panik. This amount of talent is a remarkable feat for Stan Bowman to pull this off in 24 hours.
Lastly, Saturday it was announced that Jiri Sekac was claimed by the Phoenix/Arizona/Las Vegas Coyotes, so that $925K comes off the books. This is really a nothing deal, and really helps the organization dump some dead weight that would have spent the remainder of the season on Rockford anyhow. Keep an eye out, because they still may be in the market to dump Bickell in Toronto with an albatross for albatross deal.
Right now, the next 4 months look bright for Blackhawks fans thanks to Stan Bowman, folks. Lets dance with The Hoff: