Chicago Blackhawks Good Deal, Little Deal Or No Deal At All

The Chicago Blackhawks traded Ryan Hartman and Tommy Wingels on Monday before the trade deadline so were they good deals. bad deals or really no deal at all? 

Let’s start with the minor deal first.  Tommy Wingels to the Boston Bruins for a conditional 5th round pick that could end up being a 4th round pick.  Wingels was a UFA at the end of the season that by all accounts could come back to the Chicago Blackhawks for next season, and Stan Bowman got a conditional pick for him.  The Hawks get a chance to see more young players like the recalled Matthew Highmore now so even though it was a little deal I think this was a good deal by Stan.

The Hartman deal has more details in it.  First of all I don’t believe that Ryan Hartman‘s ceiling is much higher.  Fact is his most memorable play in my mind was the check he threw on his very first shift.  Like Bryan Bickell he couldn’t be that player on a nightly basis, and like Andrew Shaw, Hartman could take some incredibly dumb penalties.

Hartman has good things about him he was gritty and when he wanted to he could be scrappy in front of the net, but he wasn’t consistent which I believe is why Bowman decided he could move him especially when Nashville was willing to give up so much.

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By all accounts today including Stan Bowman himself, the prospect the Hawks are getting is very close to making it to the NHL. He’s huge too at 6ft 5in which is a big departure from most of the current Blackhawks who are a collection of a lot of little guys.

The Hawks also now have 2 first round draft picks which helps a lot when you are trying to rebuild quickly.

Stockpiling picks is a great way to build up the team even if it takes a year or two for some these guys to develop.  The team has four core players and then a bunch of kids playing with them. The pressure now is on Stan to do something with all of these picks.

So I think Stan did pretty good on both trades today, but the one thing I’m kind of surprised is the fact that Stan didn’t move Artem Anisimov although it was floating around that no one was offering much.

What do you think of the trades now that you have had some time to digest them?

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One thing I know is that being sellers instead of buyers is for the birds!