Blackhawks Making Moves

Over the period of 2 weeks Blackhawks GM DJ Males has managed to upgrade his goaltending, and also brought in a scoring center to enhance his team's chances this coming playoffs.

In the first deal Males managed to acquire Devan Dubnyk from the Ottawa Senators for Brian Elliot and Rickard Rakell.  Michael Sgarbossa was also acquired from Ottawa in the same deal.

"Brian Elliot played very well for us and kept us in many games in the early part of this year. "

DJ Males commenting on his goaltending acquisiton,

"But when you're dealing goaltenders you usually need to include a goalie in the deal.  We like Devan a lot, and know that he will help us move forward in the coming seasons."

The Blackhawks also handed Rickard Rakell over to the Senators in the deal,,

"Rickard couldn't really find a spot with us this year.  We tried to get him some more playing time but never really found a spot for him.  We don't like giving up on future talent such as his.  But considering the alternatives we felt it was an asset that we could move.  He will be a good player, unfortunately he just didnt get the chance here with us."

In Michael Sgarbossa, the Blackhawks will maintain some forward depth in Rockford, and the Hawks hope that he will progress up to the pros in a quick manner.  The jury is still out on Sgarbossa.

Overall getting Dubnyk for a good young forward, and an aging asset in goal the Blackhawks seem to have managed to upgrade their goaltending for this year and beyond.

In the second move the Hawks moved swiftly on the heels of the Dubnyk deal to acqiuire a scoring center.  Sacrificing David Krecji, and 2 picks to acquire Alex Steen from the Detroit Red Wings.  The Blackhawk's offense hadn't really come to life and it's expected that Steen will rectify the situation.

"Thomas is a goal scorer who can also play on the left side.  So there's flexibilitty there for us, he'll start at center for us because that was our initial plan when the deal was done.  Although we can't replace the offense Joe Pavelski gave us last year, we feel that getting a player with Steens goalscoring prowess will help us kick start our offense."

Males continued,

"Getting Steen in our lineup creates a trickle down effect.  We can now move Kyle Turris down to the 2nd line where he dominated last year, and we feel he is better suited for at this moment in time.  That move alone makes this deal a win/win for us, add the fact that now we've upgraded our center corps and dealt from our depth we feel it makes us more dangerous as we start to focus on the home stretch to the finish."

The deals seem to have sparked the Hawks as the club as seen immediate improvement with a 6 wins in 9 games going into tonights game versus Toronto, and have managed scoring at a rate of 2.55/game (which has raised the average goals/game stat to 2.42).  The rejuvenated Chicago Blackhawks have managed to jump from mid class to upper class in the standings as  4 points is all that stands between them and first place.