Blackhawks’ Stan Bowman Has to Stop Making Gamble Trades
Since 2017, Stan Bowman has been trying to make trades to prove he’s a “genius”. So far, none of them have worked out.
Stan Bowman has a long streak of failed hockey trades, first trading Artemi Panarin to Columbus for Brandon Saad, then Niklas Hjalmarsson to the Coyotes for Connor Murphy in the offseason of 2017. This occurred after an announcement that the Blackhawks wanted to “make serious changes” after getting swept by the Nashville Predators.
This was the start of three more “high risk, high reward” trades Stan would make later. Looking back, let’s see how these two trades paid off: Connor Murphy looks to be the number one defenseman with the Blackhawks, reliable in his own zone with an intelligent use of the stick and no overaggressive body checks that takes him out of position.
Because of this, and the fact he is doing better statistically than Hjalmarsson, the trade is looking better for the Blackhawks. It looked dull at the start, but Hjalmarsson’s slight decline in play makes the Blackhawks look more like the winner here.
But the Panarin trade is unacceptable. The thing that hurts Blackhawks fans more than anything was that Panarin never wanted to leave the Blackhawks, wanting to play his entire career with Chicago. Bowman decided to trade him citing “the need for Jonathan Toews’ offensive rejuvenation” and “Panarin’s lack of playoff production”. Trading Panarin wasn’t a great thing, but if Stan wanted to trade him, at least receive a top-pairing defenseman or a couple of high-quality prospects and a draft pick in return.
What happened next? Panarin went on to help the Columbus Blue Jackets pull off a historic upset of the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2019 while the Chicago Blackhawks went on a steep decline, missing the playoffs for the second year. The Blackhawks lost this trade by a few hundred miles, but they wouldn’t stop there.
Bowman’s questionable trades continue
Brandon Saad was then traded along with Dennis Gilbert to the Colorado Avalanche for Nikita Zadorov and Anton Lindholm this past offseason. Lindholm is on the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs and, including the fact the guy is 26 yrs old, doesn’t look to be an NHL player so this was already a loss as Dennis Gilbert is a quality depth defenseman. Brandon Saad made an impact in the play-in round of the 2020 playoffs, so he was a valuable forward for postseason play.
Zadorov is 25 years of age, so he still has some room to grow and develop, though I expected an NHL-level defenseman for a couple of years to be better with his decision-making. We already know my viewpoint on Zadorov so I’ll leave it at he just needs more development and a wake-up call by sitting in the suite while Beaudin plays in his place. I know I’m a bit hard on Zadorov, but if you’re what Bowman wanted for the package that sent Panarin away (Saad), I just expected a bit more.
Henri Jokiharju would be a top-four defenseman at the moment, currently on a lacking Buffalo Sabres team. He was a quality prospect for the ‘Hawks and, though I realize that the Blackhawks saw that they had a potential logjam on defense, they should not have traded him. He was sound in both zones in his year with the Blackhawks and would have only improved with the new coaching staff that seem to always bring out the best in the Blackhawks’ young players.
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Instead, he was traded for Alex Nylander who, at times, looks to be the eighth overall draft pick with high offensive upside and ability. He looked to have been rejuvenated in the Blackhawks training camp before the play-in round but didn’t match that style when it really mattered. I think he will be a great player for the Blackhawks with this coaching staff, but time will tell. It looks pretty bad a the moment, though.
Dylan Strome and Nick Schmaltz look to be a slight loss for the Blackhawks. Though Strome had that one year where he and Alex Debrincat went on a tear and had amazing chemistry. He then became OK, a somewhat slow center who struggles in the faceoff circle. Schmaltz also seems to struggle in the faceoff circle for the Coyotes but is a fast forward who can create with both speed and offensive ability. Strome has the ability, just not the speed. Looks to be a tie here.
In all, out of the five “high risk, high reward” trades Stan Bowman made, only the Hjalmarsson-Murphy trade looks to have paid off. Brandon Saad did a great job for the Blackhawks in the postseason but he was the return in a trade that sent a budding superstar away from the team. Nikita Zadorov does his job but is a bit underwhelming based on what the Blackhawks gave away. Essentially, Artemi Panarin, a superstar forward, was traded for Nikita Zadorov and Anton Lindholm, a third-pairing and a minor league defenseman.
Stan Bowman has to just stop making dumb trades to make him look like a “genius”, he usually looks worse in the end.