Blackhawks News: Nikita Zadorov is off to Calgary

The Chicago Blackhawks said goodbye to Nikita Zadorov on Wednesday. The team decided to trade him to the Calgary Flames right before the start of free agency. This is a big move for the team as they move on from Zadorov and get a pick back in return.

The Chicago Blackhawks are saying goodbye to Nikita Zadorov.

Zadorov was added last offseason in a trade that sent Brandon Saad to Colorado for Zadorov. There were two more players involved in the deal but they were minor league swaps at the end of the day.

Zadorov did have his ups and downs with the team. While he was a heavy-hitting defenseman who was alright at five on five, he could not do much more than that. The team needed him to fit into the top four and be a leading contributor on the blue line, and he was not able to get that done.

Trading him to Calgary for a third-round pick honestly is not that bad as if they had waited longer they would have lost him for nothing. Zadorov now will get a fresh start somewhere else where he won’t have that much competition defensively.

The Blackhawks have added Seth and Caleb Jones this offseason, they added Riley Stillman at around the trade deadline and after adding Stillman it seemed like Zadorov’s spot on the team was up for grabs.

Stillman is a heavy-hitting defenseman who is young and capable of helping out in his own end. He also is on a cheap deal which is good for the future of the team. Zadorov was going to ask for north of 3 million dollars, and that was just not going to work out for Chicago.

With the acquisition of Seth and Caleb Jones, they also added two more defensemen who are both young and have some size. With all the different moves it just seemed like Zadorov was not going to fit into the future of the team.

So with this trade officially in the books, Artemi Panarin being traded from Chicago can now be tracked to a third-round draft pick from the Calgary Flames. Free agency starts at noon eastern!