Blackhawk GM Stan Bowman traded one talented but unproductive player for another yesterday—swapping Richard Panik for Anthony Duclair. Why?
The ‘positive’ spin on this deal was provided last night by analyst Bob Mackenzie on NBCSN’s between periods coverage of the Hawks-Wild game: Stan Bowman is looking to make his roster faster and younger with several deals he’s made over the last couple of years.
OK, and I was the guy beating the same drum last summer about the Niklas Hjalmarsson-Connor Murphy and Artemi Panarin-Brandon Saad deals.
Another way to look at these deals: reduced cap hit, or at least, in the case of Saad, longer term for the same money (Panarin is going to get a giant deal from someone next summer).
But there’s a separate pattern here that goes back further—and that’s Bowman trading for former first or second round picks of other teams, “talented,” but underachieving players and hoping that they’ll turn it around in Chicago.
Exhibit A: David Rundblad, who, when he came to Chicago at age 23, was in his fourth organization.
Exhibit B: Panik (Chicago was his third organization by age 24)
Exhibit C: Tomas Jurco
Exhibit D: Duclair, the Hawks are his third organization
You can argue Bowman is 1-for 3 in these deals, but that’s assuming Panik was a hit. Yet, he just got dealt, along with his $2.8 million per year salary, for Duclair. Jurco and Rundblad were acquired for draft picks—neither has done squat in Chicago. Rundblad and Panik are gone.
An argument can be made this is relatively low-cost experimentation around the edges of the roster. Sort of like a $10 a day lottery ticket habit for most of us. Meh.
And without question, the latest trade saves the Hawks fairly significantly: $1.6 million in annualized cap hit this year.
But it also raises a question
Is the time, energy, roster and cap space spent experimenting on and waiting for guys who’ve worn out their welcomes—in sometimes more than one organization—worth it?
Rundblad was given several “opportunities” to succeed—and more than many felt he deserved. Jurco was recently called up from Rockford over the likes of Matthew Highmore. There may have been/may be good hockey reasons for these moves. But it also makes one wonder if Bowman doesn’t over-index on making these “experiments” work—somehow.
But, it’s all up to Anthony Duclair now to take the ball and run with it on a team that, at least for the time being, is in contention for a playoff spot. Rumor has it, he wanted out of Arizona and the powers that be in the desert wanted him out as a result.
We’ll discuss this and other issues on the RinkCast tonight. Weigh in below on this page with your thoughts.
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