What's Happening In Chicago?

I understand that the Blackhawks are in a bit of a rebuild phase. Apparently, GM Stan Bowman feels differently as he continues to add players with rather questionable contracts based on their point production while trading away players who were seemingly trending upwards. I'm not here to criticize Stan Bowman entirely because it's still July, but I do wonder how the trade today, sending blossoming Finnish defenceman Henri Jokiharju to the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for winger Alex Nylander, makes the Blackhawks better. Bowman has never been afraid of taking on a player as a project, and Nylander comes to Chicago as a guy who never could find his scoring touch in Buffalo and Rochester. That would qualify as a project by most definitions, but one has to wonder why he'd trade a good, young defenceman who showed flashes of brilliance last season for a project.

There's some debate on whether Jokiharju would have been an everyday defender this season after Bowman went out and acquired Calvin de Haan from Carolina and Olli Maatta from Pittsburgh to bolster his defence behind Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith. Connor Murphy, Erik Gustafsson, Slater Koekkoek, Carl Dahlstrom, and Jokiharju would have likely battled it out for the two spots on the final pairing, but I truly believe that Jokiharju was good enough to win one of those two spots.

Where Bowman may have been forced to make a move is that the Blackhawks currently have just ten forwards under NHL contracts along with Brendan Perlini as an unsigned restricted free agent. Clearly, they need a few forwards to fill out their roster, so there will be competition from players in camp to make the team this year. Alexandre Fortin seems the most likely to make it from their players in Rockford if we look solely at last season's performances, so Bowman went out and made a swap to bring in a guy who could get a big taste of NHL action this season and won't put the Blackhawks in salary cap hell.

As it stands, the Blackhawks have just north of $2 million to spend to round out their roster. With none of the eight defencemen listed on their roster as waiver-exempt, my guess would be that the Blackhawks wouldn't want to expose any of those players, making the push for a couple of Rockford IceHogs to make the team all that more important. Fortin, signed for $706,666, and Nylander, signed for $863,333, would total $1.57 million in salary added to the Blackhawks, keeping them from going over the cap's upper limit. It should also be noted that Fortin has no bonuses attached to his contract, so he won't cost the Blackhawks more based on performance while Nylander is potentially owed an additional $850,000 in bonus money if he reaches all his bonus goals. The Blackhawks will need to be aware of these performance bonuses as they'll only have $466,000 in wiggle room.

While the team isn't out of the woods yet, the $925,000 salary that Jokiharju was making on defence wasn't helping the cause. Yes, he had been shuffled down to the AHL last season after a few poor outings, but his work at the IIHF World Championships was stellar and really should have had the Blackhawks excited for his future with the club. However, after tying up $11 million in Corey Crawford and Robin Lehner in the crease, after tying up $20 million in Keith, Seabrook, de Haan, and Maatta, and after tying up $35.45 million in Toews, Kane, Brandon Saad, Artem Anisimov, and Andrew Shaw, there isn't a lot of money to spend elsewhere. Like third-line scoring. Or a fourth line entirely.

Jokiharju was deemed expendable despite his excellent play thanks to the Blackhawks needing forwards with potential NHL talent. That's the reality of today's NHL - manage and stay on top of the cap, or pieces seen as vital may have to be moved for lesser pieces. Jokiharju could have been a good addition to the Blackhawks this season... if he only played forward.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!