Right as a trade that included Andreas Johnsson was coming off the wire, news was that the Chicago Blackhawks and Colorado Avalanche were doing a deal as well. The two teams got together and swapped four players in total, including a bit of salary.
The details of the full trade are that left-winger Brandon Saad and defenseman Dennis Gilbert go to Colorado, while Chicago gets back defenseman Nikita Zadorov (RFA) and defenseman Anton Lindholm. In the trade, the Blackhawks retain $1 million of Saad’s annual cap hit.
Saad was at one time an extremely talented offensive player. His production has fallen off from his previous heights, but there’s every reason to believe he could reenergize his career in Colorado. He’ll be surrounded by unbelievable depth up front and the Avs are considered a heavy favorite to win the Stanley Cup next season.
It helps that the Hawks are hanging on to some of his salary, as he’ll be a $5 million winger in Colorado, as does the fact he’s only got one season left on his current deal.
Are the Avs Out On Taylor Hall?
The question will now be, does this take Colorado out of the running for Taylor Hall? They have Gabriel Landeskog, Brandon Saad, and Andre Barakovsky on the left side of the top-nine. There are some players who can play either side, so it’s not impossible that Hall is still a part of the conversation, but taking on this kind of salary stands to reason they might be out of the running for Hall’s services.
Meanwhile, the Blackhawks needed to improve their defense and Nikita Zadorov should help in that regard. It was interesting to see that Zadrov’s agent was the one who apparently broke the news of the trade.
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