Blackhawks Finally Dealing

The Chicago Blackhawks traded star center Joe Pavelski to the Carolina Hurricanes.  The deal nets the Blackhawks Boone Jenner, RIckard Rakell, Johan Franzen, and Zach Redmond.  Jenner and Rakell are young guns at 22 years old while Franzen and Redmond are both veterans with Franzen bein 35 and Redmond at 27.  It's not expected that any of the players obtained by the Blackhawks will be able to produce the offense at Pavelski's clip from last year, however the players acquired will be front and center in the mix for full time jobs.

Franzen and Jenner have flexibility in their game becasue they can play multiple positions.  Franzen can play either wing, and the right side is his most likey destination, while Jenner is a 2 way center who can also play left wing.

Blackhawks DJ Males commenting on the trade,

"It's hard to see a player like Joe leave, especially after the season he had.  He was a very important player to our squad and we know he'll be missed.  We felt that we needed to pad our depth a whole lot more, and that became apparent when Dallas was able to handlel us quite easily in the playoffs.  We didn't have the depth to play solid hockey for 60 minutes."

Depth? for a star?

"It's a pil that may take some time to swallow, right now we are very happy with the players we got in the deal and can now deal from a position of strength and know we have capable depth supporting our star players.  Rackell and Jenner are couple strong players who will get every opportunity to succeed here.  Franzen is a player who has been in the league a lot and will command attention in the dressing room.  We like Redmond's skillset and we're hoping that we can get him to kick his game into a new gear and contribute on our blueline."

In another deal Males managed to pull of a trade for Matt Beleskey dealing Brett Connolly to the Philadelphia Flyers for the left winger.  Joining Beleskey in Chicago will be U.S. college player Taylor Cammarata and a 4th round pick next year.

"We wanted to trade some prospects and/or picks for established players that we could plug into our roster immediately.  Matt fills that need and we're excited to have him a part of our team.  He will be able to fight for a roster spot this year and we feel that is all he'll need."

On the draft floor the Blackhawks swung 2 deals that netted them 2 more picks next year, and were minor in detail.  However with the fallout from this years "Superdraft" it's expected that quite a few prospects will have fallen through the cracks and be available come next year's draft.