Blackhawks Trade Patrick Sharp to Dallas

Today, the Hawks traded forward Patrick Sharp and defenseman Stephen Johns to the Dallas Stars for defenseman Trevor Daley and forward Ryan Garbutt. This trade sucks. It’s not the trade itself (though it does suck losing Johns), but rather that the Hawks had to make it. Brandon Saad ending up as a cap casualty sucked a lot, too, but at least in that trade, the Hawks were able to get a pretty good haul for him. This time, they had very little leverage. They absolutely needed Sharp off their books, to the point where they had to give away Johns to accomplish that. But that’s the NHL in the cap era.

As for what the Hawks got in this trade, Trevor Daley is a very nice defenseman. A similar player to Johnny Oduya, Daley will almost definitely end up replacing Oduya. I don’t want to say he definitely does, since Oduya was basically waiting for the Hawks to clear cap space in order to re-sign in Chicago, so maybe he really wants to be there. But with the Hawks’ cap situation being what it is, I can’t see them spending a whole lot on a guy that would be on the 3rd pair. Daley had a career-high 38 points (16 G, 22 A) last year, but is usually in the mid-to-high 20s. If he produces at the same rate in Chicago, it would be a decent upgrade over Oduya for $83,000 less.

Ryan Garbutt should be a solid bottom 6 forward for the Hawks. He can play any forward position, but my guess is that he ends up at wing. He had 25 points (8 G, 17 A) for Dallas last year. The Stars are picking up half of his contract, so his cap hit for the Hawks is only $900,000.

Going forward, Marcus Kruger will almost certainly be back. Johnny Oduya, as I said earlier, will almost certainly not. I’m 100% fine with the idea of Keith, Seabrook, Hjalmarsson, Daley, TVR, Pokka/Rundblad as the Hawks defensemen to start the year. I would like to see Marian Hossa replace Sharp as an alternate captain, and if not him, then Hjalmarsson, but if I had to guess, it will be Kane. I still expect Bickell to be traded, but with this being the best deal the Hawks could get for Sharp, I would not expect very much at all for Bickell. I wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up getting waived/stashed in Rockford.

I’ll talk about what I expect the forwards to look like later, because right now, I have no clue. My guess is that Kris Versteeg ends up staying in Chicago, but I have absolutely no confidence at all in that guess. I like Artemi Panarin a lot; my biggest question about the guy was how he would adapt to the narrower ice sheet in North America, but he adapted just fine at the IIHF World Championships. Even so, I’m not totally sure he ends up in the top 6 right away. I think Teuvo Teräväinen is deserving of a spot in the top 6, but that would mean that he, Hossa, or Kane moves to the left side.

Twitter: @KSchroeder2325

E-mail: schroeder.giig@gmail.com