Chicago Blackhawks: Stan Bowman’s 7 Worst Trades as GM

2. Troy Brouwer (2011)

One point in time, Troy Brouwer was worth something for the Blackhawks. He was a cheap player who still made a difference on the ice. In 238 games as a Blackhawk, he had 49 goals and 54 assists for 103 points. That’s not terrible for a depth player.

Today, he is worth $750,000 AAV with the Blues. At his highest, he was worth $4,500,000 AAV. For a player that is going to get you around a point every other game, that’s a good contract. His production is the same as Brandon Saad’s, but he’s cheaper. That makes things a lot better for the Blackhawks.

Sadly, they traded him for dirt cheap. There was no need to get rid of him in the first place. They could have afforded Brouwer throughout his whole NHL career. The part that kills is the game-winning-goal he had against the Blackhawks in 2016 to knock them out of the playoffs.

Trade Details:

The first-round draft pick was used to pick up Phillip Danault. Nikita Kucherov was picked after Danault. Kucherov is one of the best players in the NHL right now. He would have been worth so much to the team.

The second player drafted after both of them was Johnny Gaudreau. Gaudreau has had an outstanding NHL career and is still young. The Blackhawks could have had both of those players, but they declined to draft either. Stan Bowman isn’t as great as a drafter as people think.

Was It Worth It?

No, it wasn’t. Brouwer was cheap enough to stay in Chicago for the rest of his career. There wasn’t a great reason to get rid of him. He was worth a first-round pick for a reason. The fact that they messed up the draft pick baffles me. If they would have gotten Kucherov or Gaudreau with the pick, it would be a different story.