Blackhawks make big moves ahead of draft

CHICAGO General manager Stan Bowman promised changes were coming after the Chicago Blackhawks were swept in the first round of the playoffs. Boy, he wasn’t kidding. Chicago re-acquired Brandon Saad and parted with Niklas Hjalmarsson and Artemi Panarin in a pair of surprising trades Friday, giving the Blackhawks a younger look and more cost certainty for their roster.

“This is a day of highs and lows,” Bowman said. “There’s some tougher conversations, but there’s also, we’re moving ahead, we’re excited about what we have coming in.”

The Blackhawks won the Central Division last season with a 50-23-9 record, finishing with the most points in the Western Conference. But they were swept by Nashville in the opening series, managing just three goals in 13 periods in an embarrassing performance for a team with three championships since 2010.

Bowman angrily called it a complete failure, and then overhauled coach Joel Quenneville’s staff and replaced the coach of the team’s top minor league affiliate.

Turns out he was just getting started.

Bowman traded forwards Panarin and Tyler Motte and Chicago’s sixth-round selection in this weekend’s NHL draft to Columbus for Saad, goaltender Anton Forsberg and a fifth-round draft pick next year. The deal was announced less than an hour after Hjalmarsson was traded to Arizona for defenceman Connor Murphy and forward Laurent Dauphin.

“I certainly like the fact that we’re getting younger,” Bowman said. “I think we saw last year with some of our young players really take that next step, and I think, if anything, you know you have to have a measure of youth in your lineup nowadays. I think the league is getting younger and younger.” The 24-year-old Saad spent his first four seasons with Chicago, helping the Blackhawks win two Stanley Cup championships. He became a restricted free agent after the title run in 2015, and Bowman traded the rugged winger to the Blue Jackets when the team was unable to hammer out a new deal with the Pittsburgh native.

Saad had 24 goals and 29 assists in 82 games for Columbus last season. His return should help make up for the loss of Marian Hossa, who announced this week that he won’t play next season because of severe side effects from medication to treat a progressive skin disorder.