Blackhawks Trade Bickell, Teravainen to Carolina

Wednesday, the Blackhawks traded Bryan Bickell and Teuvo Teravainen to Carolina for a 2nd-round draft pick in 2016 (originally the Rangers’ pick) and a 3rd-round pick in 2017. I’m not going to lie – I don’t like this trade. Bickell’s contract was definitely an albatross for the Hawks, but trading Teravainen to get Bickell off the books doesn’t seem smart. In fairness, I should point out that I do have a much higher opinion of Teravainen than a lot of others. He didn’t take quite the step forward that I had hoped he would, but it’s hard to take that kind of step playing everywhere (I think) besides 1C at one point or another during the season. At worst, though, Teravainen was a competent, versatile player. Brian Hedger said on Twitter that it would have either been Shaw or Teravainen packaged with Bickell. I would have rather given up Shaw. I’m a big fan of most of Shaw’s game. He’s a gritty player who gets to the tough areas and does the dirty work. He’s the kind of depth guy every championship team needs. But I’m not sure the Hawks can afford him and still fill the other holes that kept them from repeating as champs this year. I think Ryan Hartman would have been at least serviceable in Shaw’s stead and then one can look at that trade as getting Bickell off the books in exchange for giving the Hurricanes the right to negotiate first with a guy the Hawks likely wouldn’t have been able to re-sign anyway. The only reason I would give up Teravainen instead of Shaw is if I’m totally convinced Shaw can be the 1LW on a championship team.

However, there are a few potential positives to consider:

1. Re-signing Andrew Ladd is no longer completely out of the question. It’s still not very likely, but there might be a chance. If the Hawks are able to bring Ladd back – great. Then we can look at this as the Hawks trading 3 “maybes” to 2 teams (Dano and a 1st-round pick to Winnipeg, Teravainen to Carolina) for a proven commodity.

2. If the Hawks aren’t able to re-sign Ladd, they should be able to re-sign Weise and/or Fleischmann. Could one of them fill the vacancy at 1LW? Dunno. I liked what I saw from Fleischmann in Chicago last year and Weise has the kind of bite to his game necessary to be effective with Toews and Hossa.

3. I have to imagine that this move makes it significantly more likely that Nick Schmaltz signs. I think he and Tyler Motte would be a really fun combination to watch.

I’m not a huge fan of this move, just like I wasn’t overly thrilled about the contract Bickell got in 2013, but for every less-than-ideal move Stan Bowman makes, he makes at least two good-to-great ones, so he’s definitely earned the benefit of the doubt.

Twitter: @KSchroeder_312

E-mail: schroeder.giig@gmail.com