Chicago Blackhawks Acquire Johnny Oduya For Mark McNeill

The Chicago Blackhawks made another trade deadline deal, and it’s a familiar face that is coming back to the Chicago.

The Chicago Blackhawks are bringing back Johnny Oduya after letting him go before the 2015-2016 season.

The cost to bring back the Stanley Cup Champion isn’t too big of a price with the Chicago Blackhawks only having to give up Mark McNeill and a conditional 4th round pick.

One thing about any kind of big trade is that Stan Bowman gets the team to retain salary, and this isn’t any different with the Dallas Stars retaining 50% of Oduya’s salary.

First off, it was time for McNeill to see another franchise, because he wasn’t going to skate on United Center ice as long as Joel Quenneville was the head coach of the Chicago Blackhawks.  I’m not sure which part of his game Coach Q didn’t like, but it was obvious last season that McNeill’s days as a Chicago Blackhawks prospect was coming to an end when everyone but McNeill got an extended look.  McNeill only got one game last year.

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The second part of the trade has to excite most Chicago Blackhawks fans! Johnny Oduya is back which means the Big 4 with Brian Campbell are back together! The Hawks won the 2015 Stanley Cup with just the Big 4 with Oduya only having one good arm.

So maybe Coach Q was watching the same hockey we were watching as Trevor van Riemsdyk has struggled the past week being the weak link of the Chicago Blackhawks defensive core.

I really didn’t expect to see Oduya back, but he is so let’s fast forward to April already!

Next: Defense Was The Biggest Need

What do you think of this Chicago Blackhawks trade?