Patrick Sharp Traded To The Dallas Stars

We’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop and it finally happened. Patrick Sharp has been traded to the Dallas Stars along with Stephen Johns for Ryan Garbutt and Trevor Daley.

Even though we all knew it was coming eventually, it’s still a tough pill to swallow. One of the longest tenured Blackhawks and a guy who helped change culture of the organization. Three Stanley Cups and 10 years of highlights. Great player, great Hawks, and a guy who won’t be forgotten or easily replaced.

The Hawks get solid package in return. Trevor Daley is a defenseman who can skate and move the puck and Ryan Garbutt is a versatile winger who can slide into the bottom 6. Strange part of this trade is that it doesn’t clear all that much cap space. Daley at $3.3M and Garbutt is at $1.8M, but the Stars are retaining 50% of his salary so the Hawks get him at $900k. So the Hawks cleared about $1.7M by my math. Have to wonder if Daley’s presence means Oduya is gone as well. It would seem that the Blackhawks still have some work to do in order to bring back Kruger so Bickell(might just have to bury him in RFD) and maybe Versteeg also have to go.

This is just the reality of the salary cap era. When Kessel, Oshie, Hayes, Belesky, etc all started moving any hope of getting a great deal for Sharp dwindled. Now not only do the Hawks not have Sharp, but they also have to deal with him in the division. Stephen Johns being included just proves how much the Hawks were over the barrel. He should have a chance to make Dallas on opening night. Now, the Blackhawks still have TVR and Pokka as right shot D in the system, but their organizational depth definitely took at hit.

Best of luck to Sharpie. Great Hawk and obviously he was good to us Stoolies as well. Looking forward to giving him a standing ovation with 21000 Hawks fans on February 11th. I’ll probably blog this more tomorrow, but for now…