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Chicago Blackhawks Trade: Meet Dano, Tropp and Morin

By Melissa Peterson |

We’ve previously taken a look at one big piece of the Brandon Saad-to-Columbus deal, analyzing what Artem Anisimov brings to the table for the Chicago Blackhawks. But there were three other pieces in this trade (four if you count the draft pick; we won’t right now). Forwards Marko Dano, Corey Tropp and formerly former Blackhawk Jeremy Morin also came to Chicago in the deal. I had previously discussed some of the factors playing into the Saad trade from Chicago’s perspective, but now I’m moving on to discuss just what the Blackhawks received in the trade, rather than just what they lost.

The question I’ve seen from a lot of Blackhawks fans has been a resounding, “So who are these players?”

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With Columbus not being a playoff team in the 2014-15 season, it’s very easy to make the assumption that any players the Blackhawks received from them wouldn’t be worth much. But this is a mistake.

Stats courtesy war-on-ice

Corey Tropp and Jeremy Morin

Tropp ($625,000) and Morin ($800,000) are, at face value, fourth liners who provide salary-cap relief and, assuming they aren’t bundled with other players in a trade, will fill roles most similar to those of Daniel Carcillo and Joakim Nordstrom.

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    • Tropp specifically resembles Carcillo; he’s got a bit of a fighting streak and takes some reckless penalties. He also plays a similar amount of minutes as Carcillo and has about half the production, scoring the same number of points in twice as many games last season. Don’t be surprised if he sees ice time; he’ll likely play just a few games. His possession stats as a Blue Jacket in 2014-15 (a less than stellar possession team overall last season at 47.3 percent in Corsi-for, compared to Chicago’s 53.0 percent) ranked well below those of Carcillo overall.

    Stats courtesy war-on-ice

    Morin was traded from Chicago to Columbus early last season, but was found to have a heart issue in early February and was out for awhile with this illness. (It’s presumed at this point that he will be able to play without much incident.) Morin specifically resembles Nordstrom statistically, but with slightly higher production and possession stats last season.

    Stats courtesy war-on-ice

    Marko Dano

    A very interesting piece, Dano has 2014-15 stats most comparable to Patrick Sharp. Although Dano played fewer games, and it might be unreasonable for Dano’s stats to hold in this way at a full-season level, Dano performing even at two-thirds of this capacity would be an interesting addition to Chicago’s third line.

    Stats courtesy war-on-ice

    Dano boasts pretty similar possession metrics (54.13 percent CF%), but the most compelling is that this is an overall increase from Columbus’ 47.3 percent (Sharp’s is compared to Chicago’s 53.5 percent CF%, which suggests Dano drove possession more last season than Sharp did).

    Dano also finished 6th in the NHL in even strength points per 60 minutes (minimum 400 minutes played) with 2.69 points/60. That puts him amongst the likes of Jamie Benn, Rick Nash and Vladimir Tarasenko, and just ahead of Tyler Seguin. For some perspective, if you’re unfamiliar with other players, Chicago’s points leader, Patrick Kane, came in 34th at 2.18 Points/60.

    The biggest upside to Dano, though? He’s incredibly young. At 20-years-old, Dano is at the beginning of his NHL career. The fact that he is used to playing center won’t hurt Chicago one bit, either. In fact, it’d bring some much-needed security to having a solid center in each of the four lines, lest we wind up playing Andrew Shaw there again.

    Resources

    • Corsi: For those that are unsure of what Corsi is, it is measured as Corsi for and Corsi against. Corsi is the total number of on-ice shot attempts (on goal, missed or blocked) taken during a game/series/season. A player’s Corsi for tracks the total on-ice shot attempts a player is on the ice for. Corsi against tracks how many shot attempts the opposition records while a player is on the ice.
    • CA%, Corsi against percentage (of total): What this means is they’ve totaled up the Corsi events that took place for both teams, and divided the individual team’s total by that number and multiplied it by 100 to get a percentage.
    • CP60, Corsi per 60: What this means is they’ve totaled up the Corsi events that took place for both teams and divided it by 60 to get an average Corsi events per 60 minutes.
    • G+/-, goal differential: The total number of goals for (GF) minus the total number of goals against (GA). If it is a positive number, the team is outscoring its opponents.
    • FO%: The percentage of faceoffs won.
    • OFOn%: On-ice unblocked shot attempts on goal
    • OSh%: On-ice shooting percentage
    • OSv%: On-ice save percentage
    • PDO: On-ice save percentage + on-ice shooting percentage
    • ZSO%, the amount of offensive zone starts: The larger the number, the more often a team or player starts (with a faceoff) in their offensive zone

    Sources

    Stats courtesy of war-on-ice.com and stats.hockeyanalysis.com

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