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

The Chicago Blackhawks General Manager Stan Bowman has made some questionable decisions over the years. Here are the worst of the worst.

1. Dustin Byfuglien (2010)

The Dustin Byfuglien trade was very questionable to me. I understand that the Chicago Blackhawks were in a salary crunch, but Byfuglien still had one year left on his $3,000,000 AAV salary.

In his Blackhawks career, he played both defense and forward. In 260 games as a Blackhawk, he 55 goals and had 54 assists. Remember, he played defense for half of his time there. 109 points between the two aren’t terrible.

The Blackhawks could have let him play out his contract and worked with him in the summer of 2011 for a new contract. Byfuglien was an RFA, so even if the Blackhawks couldn’t re-sign him, they would have received draft picks in return.

The Blackhawks getting rid of John Madden and Adam Burish already covered the $3,000,000 AAV. The fact is, there was room for Byfuglien.

Trade Details:

The Blackhawks would receive both a first and a second-round draft pick from the trade. They would draft Kevin Hayes and Justin Holl, two guys that didn’t do much as Blackhawks’ players.

Was It Worth It?

No, it wasn’t. As Byfuglien gets older, he isn’t as good. He has struggled with staying on the ice as of late. Right now he is getting paid $7,600,000 AAV.

The positive is, this could have been another bad Blackhawks’ contract. At the time, Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith were worth more to the team. Keith is still worth a lot, while Seabrook has one of the worse contracts in the NHL.

Would they have had the cap space today? No, they wouldn’t have. It still was a very questionable trade for the time. I bet they would have been able to keep him up until 2016.

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.

3. Michael Frolik (2013)

Right after helping the Blackhawks win their second Stanley Cup in four seasons, Michael Frolik was traded for nothing. Frolik was another cheap depth player. He wasn’t an offensive juggernaut, but he made up with it for his grinder role on the Blackhawks roster.

Frolik was great on the penalty kill and did a lot of quiet things for the team. As a career bottom-six player, he wasn’t going to score an awful lot, to begin with. In 136 games as a Blackhawk, Frolik scored 11 goals and had 23 assists for 34 points. Since then, he has found great success with the Flames and Panthers.

When traded, Frolik was worth $2,333,333 AAV. He easily fits in the Blackhawks salary cap. They’ve always had a salary crunch with Bowman, but he brought a lot of it on himself. He would trade away players that would fit, for guys that were rentals.

Frolik still had one year left on his deal before being traded. The next contract he would sign was worth $3,300,000 AAV. It’s something the Blackhawks could have afforded. Still, Bowman made a tough decision to send him to the Jets.

He found a lot of success as a Jet. In 163 games there, he scored 34 times and had 50 assists for 84 points.

Trade Details:

Those two draft picks were used for John Hayden and Luke Johnson. Neither one of those players ended up making a huge impact on the Blackhawks. Hayden made it to the NHL with the Blackhawks, where Johnson didn’t.

In that draft, the Blackhawks missed out on Jake Guentzel. They picked Hayden over him. That was another draft where the Blackhawks missed a solid prospect, who would have changed a lot for the Blackhawks.

If Bowman was a little bit smarter, the Blackhawks would have won more than three Stanley Cups. They were robbed by bad traded and poor drafting.

Was It Worth It?

For who they ended up drafting, no, it wasn’t. Frolik did find great success outside of Chicago. He is another player that wasn’t used to his full potential in Chicago. That happens to a lot of young players.

As Stanley Cup Contenders each season, Bowman would ship off players that weren’t at an elite level right away. The Frolik traded ended up making no sense. Again, if they would have drafted Guentzel, it would be a different story.

4. Nick Leddy (2014)

The Nick Leddy trade ended up being a bust. For example, right now he is cheaper than Keith and Seabrook and is playing at an elite level still. When he was traded, he was worth $2,700,000 AAV.

In 258 games, Leddy had 20 goals and 73 assists. The 93 points aren’t terrible for a defenseman. As he’s gotten older, he has found a lot more success. In 710 career games, Leddy has 304 points.

Leddy is just 28 and would be a great fixture on the Blackhawks blue-line. Calvin de Haan and Olli Maatta are being paid over $8,000,000 AAV combined and they haven’t made a difference on the ice. I understand de Haan is injured, but Leddy was always an iron man. He didn’t miss a single game after his rookie campaign.

Leddy is worth $5,500,000 AAV right now. Like mentioned early, that is cheaper than both Keith and Seabrook. His contract runs through 2021-22, which would have helped the Blackhawks. $5,500,000 AAV is a great value for Leddy.

Trade Details:

Feel free to say “WHO?” Anders Nilsson was also involved with that trade, but it was just his signing rights. He would never play a game as a Blackhawk. Nilsson is a career-loser as a goalie. He is 59-71-15.

Was It Worth It?

This might be the worst trade Bowman has made. Well, second worst. We’ll get to the worst trade ever. I think everyone knows which one that is.

The fact is, the Blackhawks lost out on an elite defenseman for guys that wouldn’t make an impact in Chicago. It’s one of those head-scratching trades. It’s a trade that a team like the Penguins wouldn’t make. That’s why they’ve been so successful with Sidney Crosby.

Crosby’s Penguins rarely miss the playoffs. They are built the same way as the Blackhawks. The only difference is making the playoffs. The idiotic moves by Bowman have kept this team out of the playoffs.

6. Teuvo Teräväinen (2016)

For those that think I missed the Brandon Saad trade, I didn’t. I don’t think it was a terrible trade. For the money that Saad was getting paid and the lack of production, it wasn’t terrible. In that trade, the Blackhawks received Artem Anisimov. Anisimov was cheaper and filled the second-line center role the Blackhawks needed.

In 291 games as a Blackhawk, Anisimov scored 77 goals and had 78 assists for 155 points. In Saad’s return to Chicago, he hasn’t hit 100 points yet. In 209 games, he has just 92 points. He could catch up to 155 before 291 games, but as of right now, it wasn’t a terrible trade.

Now, to get on the Teuvo Teräväinen trade, it makes no sense. Teräväinen is just 25 years old and has 282 NHL points in 418 career games. Teräväinen has become an all-star this season. In 58 games, he has 12 goals and 44 assists for 56 points. Last season in 82 games, he scored 21 goals and had 55 assists for 76 points.

Teräväinen will be a 100-plus point player shortly. He has a lot of talent and is a fantastic player. The Blackhawks pay Saad $6,000,000 AAV for less production. Teräväinen is paid $5,400,000 AAV per season.

During the Hurricanes shocking playoff run last season, Teräväinen put up 10 points in 15 games. He’s become a key player for that team. Just imagine what the Blackhawks could have had.

Trade Details:

Let’s just say, with those two draft picks, the Blackhawks messed up again. They drafted Artur Kayumov. They traded the 2017 third-round pick to Detroit, where they’d draft Keith Petruzzelli. The 2016 and 2017 draft class wasn’t beefed with talent outside the first two rounds, but still, why was this trade made?

Was It Worth It?

No, this was one of the worst trades in Blackhawks’ history. Every time Teräväinen scores, I wonder, why did Bowman let this guy go? They could have so much talent on this team right now, but they traded it all away for nothing.

7. Artemi Panarin (2017)

Trading away Artemi Panarin was like trading away Kane after his second season. Panarin probably would be too expensive for the Blackhawks right now, but they could have gotten a lot for him.

Bowman made this trade for “salary cap reasons.” This trade was made to add a two-way forward back to the roster in Saad.

So, Bowman trades away Panarin, who is worth $6,000,000 AAV at the time, for Saad who is worth the same amount? If you look at Panarin, he has scored 145 goals and has 253 assists for 398 points in just 379 games. Panarin will hit 1,000 career points at some point.

Mini-Kane might have taken a hometown discount to stay in Chicago. They could have even moved some pieces around to keep him for $6,000,000 AAV for longer. The Blackhawks re-signed Panarin for a two-year deal and then traded him six months later.

There are a lot of players taking up salary room for the Blackhawks that don’t need to be there. Panarin is a little pricy now though. He is getting paid $11,642,857 AAV until 2026-27. That’s a bit much, but so far, he’s worth every penny in New York.

The Blackhawks could have fit him in for around $9,000,000 AAV if they would have made better money decisions. Bowman needs an accountant or something because he lets talent slip for “salary cap reasons.”

Trade Details:

It still makes no sense to this day. The Coyotes would end up with that draft pick. So, the Blackhawks missed out. I like Saad but Panarin is so much better. It’s not even close.

Was It Worth It?

Kinda. It was by far Bowman’s worst trade, but, I’ll give him some credit. Not many teams could afford to pay Panarin. When the Blackhawks have two players making $10,500,000 AAV, they’re not paying another player eight-figures.

I wonder if things could have been different though. Maybe Kane could have gotten Panarin to re-sign cheaper.

Bowman has robbed the Blackhawks of more playoff success. If they still had half of the guys mentioned in this article, they wouldn’t be fighting for a wildcard spot. The Blackhawks would be a top-three team in the division.

Imagine this being the Blackhawks’ lineup in 2020.

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Forwards:

Panarin – Toews – Kane

DeBrincat – Strome – Teräväinen

Kubalik – Dach – Frolik

Brouwer – Carpenter – Caggiula

Defense:

Keith – Boqvist

Leddy – Murphy

Maatta – Gustafsson

Goalies:

Lehner

Raanta

Of course, all of this wouldn’t happen. There is a salary cap in hockey and they all wouldn’t fit under it.

As stated earlier, teams as the Penguins’ front office wouldn’t let this happen. Bowman has wasted two years of Kane and Toews’ prime. If they miss the playoffs again this year, it’ll be three. The Blackhawks really should have won four or five cups. Bad management took those away from them.

Bowman hasn’t been a great drafter. He did well with the Alex DeBrincat draft choice, but he’s had a lot of busts. Well, they’ve either been busts or he’s traded them away for them to great somewhere else. We can’t blame him for missing out on some talent in the later rounds. It’s hard to spot steals in the draft as other teams have.

It might be time to let Bowman go. They need a better, more experienced, general manager to fix the team. There have been way too many quick-reaction moves that didn’t need to happen. I’m surprised there haven’t been even conversations about relieving him of his duties.