Blackhawks Acquire Dale Weise, Tomas Fleischmann, Christian Ehrhoff

By Kevin Schroeder
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Updated: February 27, 2016

Friday, the Blackhawks traded defenseman Rob Scuderi to Los Angeles for defenseman Christian Ehrhoff. The Hawks retained $1.125 million of Scuderi’s salary for next year, so they’ll save a little under $200K compared to keeping him in Rockford next year. A realistic expectation for Ehrhoff would be “2016’s Kimmo Timonen.” Anything beyond that’s a bonus. Keith, Seabrook, and Hjalmarsson are all excellent defensemen and TvR’s not quite Oduya, but he’s quite good. So now the Hawks need to find two serviceable defensemen out of Rozsival, Ehrhoff, Gustafsson, and Svedberg, assuming they don’t make any more trades. I’ll think they’ll be at least okay on defense.

The Hawks also acquired forwards Dale Weise and Tomas Fleischmann from Montreal for forward Phil Danault and a 2nd-round pick in 2018. So a lot of what I said yesterday about what the Hawks’ lines could look like next season is already out the window. Weise has 26 points (14 G, 12 A) in 56 games with the Canadiens this year and brings some physicality to the ice. Fleischmann has 20 points (10 G, 10 A) in 57 games in Montreal. Both are UFAs after the season. Mark Lazerus went on Twitter and made sure everyone knew how much he likes Danault and didn’t like giving him up to make this move. I would like to know how many centers he thinks play in a game. If the Hawks want Turbo at C long-term, that leaves only 4C as an option for Danault. Danault would certainly be a fit there; I think a realistic expectation for what he can become is Marcus Kruger. But the Hawks already have a guy like Marcus Kruger: Marcus Kruger. Rasmussen can also fill that role. I like Danault, too, but I’m not going to quibble about giving him up to try to win when the Hawks have other options for his spot going forward. And speaking of winning now, here’s what the Hawks’ lines could look like come playoff time:

Ladd – Toews – Hossa

Panarin – Anisimov – Kane

Fleischmann – Teräväinen – Weise

Desjardins – Kruger – Shaw

Extras: Panik, Rasmussen

Good luck, everybody else.

Twitter: @KSchroeder2325

E-mail: schroeder.giig@gmail.com