Brent called up in surprise move

The Blackhawks brought in a center Tuesday, but he didn't come in a trade.

In a roster move curious by its timing, coming the day before the trade deadline, center Tim Brent was recalled from Rockford with winger Jack Skille being sent down.

Brent has had a good season at Rockford with 19 goals and 31 assists in 50 games, yet this was his first recall when the Hawks have been searching for help at center most of the season.

"We wanted to try somebody at center," coach Joel Quenneville said. "I know (Kris) Versteeg has been at center for a while and (Patrick) Sharp was there before, but now we've got a real centerman that's familiar with the position.

"It gives him an opportunity. He's playing well and we get to see how he can do and find out how good he on faceoffs. He can give us some different looks and we expect something from that line as well."

Brent centered for Versteeg and Dustin Byfuglien.

It was the calm before the trade storm on Tuesday night with 24 teams in action.

The Tampa Bay Lightning and Toronto Maple Leafs elected to keep players out of their games while attempting to trade them. The Lightning sat Mark Recchi and Gary Roberts while the Maple Leafs played without Dominic Moore and Nik Antropov.

Tampa Bay also placed Roberts on waivers.

Making room: In a move made to clear salary cap space for a likely trade, the Hawks placed winger Craig Adams on waivers Tuesday. Adams earns $600,000.

The Adams move, coupled with Jack Skille's demotion, cleared about $990,000 in cap space for the Hawks, leaving them about $500,000 under the cap.

Skille has been one of the Hawks mentioned in trade rumors.

Two other veterans placed on waivers by their teams Tuesday were Miro Satan by Pittsburgh and Brendan Morrison by Anaheim.

One year later: This certainly will be a different trade deadline day from last year's for Brian Campbell, who found himself dealt from Buffalo to San Jose after weeks of speculation.

"It's different on this team this year because we're winning," Campbell said. "If you're on a team that's losing, you look around and wonder who's next. It really affected my play last year."