Chicago Blackhawks Trade Rumors: All Is Quiet So Far

The Chicago Blackhawks trade rumors have been fairly silent all day long which seems kind of eerie. The Chicago Blackhawks have almost made it known that they are ready deal Patrick Sharp, Bryan Bickell, and Kris Versteeg.

Early this afternoon the hockey insiders made it known that Kris Versteeg hadn’t been asked to waive his no trade clause which really isn’t too big of a surprise. Versteeg is a good player to move because the Florida Panthers hold half of his salary rights and he’s coming off a couple of his better games at the end of the Stanley Cup Final.

The biggest trade carrot of course is Patrick Sharp because he’s owed 5.9 million dollars for the next two seasons which is way too much money with the Jonathan Toews/Patrick Kane new extensions about to kick in without the salary cap going up as expected a few years back.

The Patrick Sharp value has seemed to drop some though during the day, and it’s all thanks to the hated LA Kings who traded for Milan Lucic from the Boston Bruins and retained a whole lot of salary. The Kings get another player that seems to fit perfectly into their system which is scary for a team that has to be upset about missing the playoffs.

The thing about the trade is that Lucic is 27 years old while Sharp is 33 so the hopes that the Chicago Blackhawks will get a first round pick out of moving Sharp seems a little unlikely.

Here is my ranking of teams that will trade for Sharp.

1. Montreal Canadiens

2. Pittsburgh Penguins

3. Washington Capitals

4. Florida Panthers

As I stated this morning, we all expect that Sharp will be moved tonight, but there is a chance Stan Bowman doesn’t pull the trigger and keeps him until teams miss out on free agency and come back for Sharp with Bowman holding a little more leverage.

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