Trade winds blow leading up to draft
Blackhawks trade Panarin to Blue Jackets during busy day of activity
Two days after they were swept by the Nashville Predators, general manager Stan Bowman bubbled and boiled and promised change, above all, to the Chicago Blackhawks. That change came in loud fashion Friday morning just before the start of draft weekend in Chicago with the Blackhawks dealing 2016 Calder trophy winner Artemi Panarin to Columbus in a package that brings back Brandon Saad. The Hawks also dealt Niklas Hjalmarsson, a key piece on three Stanley Cup winning squads to Arizona as trades continued to overshadow draft weekend. The New Jersey Devils are expected to pick first overall at United Center on Friday evening — unless they trade the pick first.
Trading season has truly taken over the NHL.
After adding Hjalmarsson, the Coyotes also picked up long-time New York Rangers centre Derek Stepan and potential starting netminder Antti Raanta.
Arizona has been busy under Andrew Barroway - who became the club’s sole owner earlier this month - dealing No. 1 goalie Mike Smith to Calgary last week while parting ways with well-regarded head coach
Dave Tippett on Thursday night. The Edmonton Oilers, meanwhile, finally traded scoring winger Jordan Eberle to New York for Ryan Strome and extra cap space for looming contracts to Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid. The Las Vegas Golden Knights completed 10 deals at the expansion draft and then sent Trevor van Riemsdyk to Carolina and David Schlemko to Montreal.
The Canadiens had only recently dealt defenceman
Nathan Beaulieu to Buffalo themselves while scooping up promising young Jonathan Drouin from Tampa.
The Blackhawks, to this point at least, have commanded the spotlight with their dramatic roster shake-up. Bowman didn’t hide his disappointment, anger and frustration when he spoke after Chicago was eliminated in the first round for the second straight spring.
“It’s a complete failure when
you measure it against the expectations that we have of ourselves,” Bowman said. “We did not come even close to reaching the standard that we’ve set over the years here and that’s unacceptable.”
He added: “There will be change moving forward.” Beyond Friday’s moves were the firing of assistant coach Mike Kitchen and trade of backup goaltender (and impending restricted free agent) Scott Darling.