Chicago Blackhawks: Teuvo Trade A Double-Edged Sword

Teuvo Teravainen Trade Has Positives, Negatives For Blackhawks

The Chicago Blackhawks made a big trade last week when they sent Teuvo Teravainen and Bryan Bickell to the Carolina Hurricanes. The ‘Hawks received a 2016 second-round draft pick and a 2017 third-round draft pick. The Hurricanes are a good fit for both of the players, as they will most likely see a lot of ice time on a team that was toward the bottom of the Eastern Conference last season.

So this was definitely a pretty solid trade for the Hurricanes. But how is the trade going to impact the Blackhawks down the road?

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Obviously the biggest win that came out of this trade was the dumping of Bickell’s contract. He was due $4 million for the 2016-17 season. That is a steep price tag for a player who was awful with the ‘Hawks and who spent most of the previous season playing for the Rockford IceHogs.

And as all Blackhawks fans know, the most important thing the team needs right now is money. The Bickell part of the trade makes sense, and I do not see a problem with it at all. The other piece of the trade is a bit shaky for me in Teravainen.

Teravainen has one Stanley Cup with the ‘Hawks and last season was his first complete season with the ‘Hawks. Every fan was told time and time again that if they wait a couple more years, he will be the next Patrick Kane. Much like how “tomorrow” never comes, Teravainen becoming a superstar never happened. He never even came close.

At the end of last season, I was OK with giving him some more chances, and that was exactly what coach Joel Quenneville did for him this season. Teuvo was given every chance to succeed on the ‘Hawks. He was up on the first line with Toews, he was put on the second line with Kane, he was put on the third line to be “the guy” and he was given time on the powerplay unit.

After all of that moving around and opportunities to shine, Teuvo had an extremely underwhelming season with 13 goals and 22 assists. If he is supposed to be this huge superstar, fans would have seen something which shows that. It never came and it was clear that Teuvo was just not going to work.

A popular cliche to fall back on in this situation would be to say that he just does not fit in the system. That might be true in this instance, but it will be a couple years down the road when we get the answer to that question. The ‘Hawks cannot wait that long to find the answer. It was time to get rid of him.

The last takeaway from this trade is the question of what the ‘Hawks will do with all this cap space they freed up. Maybe they are going to make a splash with free agency this summer? Maybe. But the most logical conclusion is that the ‘Hawks will want to re-sign Andrew Shaw.

Coach Q is definitely all in for Shaw, as we know Q loves him. That is the part of the trade that I hate. I think going all in on Shaw like this would be a bad move for the ‘hawks. Sure he has grit and some other qualities that are impossible to teach, but he would want way more money than he is actually worth.

In the end, he is a gritty guy who gets in front of the net and who is not afraid to do the dirty work in the corners and along the boards. That is all good, but not at the price tag he will want this summer. The IceHogs have a couple players that can come up and stand in front of the net and do what Shaw does. A couple that come to mind are Ryan Haggerty and Ryan Hartman. Bring them up and tell them that their new home is the goal crease.

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So it will remain to be seen as to whether this trade was very good or not. I think that if the ‘Hawks use this money to sign a key piece in free agency, it will be good for the ‘Hawks. If they decide to throw way too much money at Shaw, this will turn out to be a bad trade.

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