A Trade or Two

When the Blackhawks 2015-16 EHE season came to a crashing hault at the hands of the Dallas Stars, again!, Blackhawks GM DJ Males flipped the switch from contending to rebuild mode.  

"We're going to be in the process of changing the face of our franchise over the coming season.  We began our rebuild by trading Nail Yakupov to Columbus for Matt Puempel and a third round."

Males continued on his appraisal of Yakupov's season in Chicago,

"As skilled as Nail is, we just didnt see much to carry on with.  We felt that there will be numerous options available to us in the mid rounds so getting one in the deal for Nail was imperative to close it.  We are really excited to get a young player like Matt Puempel who we feel has a lot to show for us, and we intend to give him every shot  to get some ice time."

The Blackhawks then made a striking move that will surely hinder the Blackhawks in the early going, but makes the future a little brighter.  The Blackhawks traded left winger Chris Kunitz to the Edmonton Oilers for Ryan Hartman and Pittsburgh's 3rd rounder in the upcoming draft.

"Return didn't net us a top line player, but it gained 5.5 million bucks in cap space, and with the suggested going rate for Kunitz sitting at a 4th or 5th round pick.  We feel that we came away with a good return.  Hartman will be given a chance to establish himself on our checking line and then we'll definately go from there.  If he needs to spend time in Rockford, then so be it.  But we have big plans for him and the third round pick will help us as well."

What;s next?

"We don't really have anything working right now, mostly just spitballin and kickin tires at this piont, but I do expect things to pick up closer to the draft."