Blackhawks GM wants one more defenseman

DALLAS — Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman still has one more thing on his wish list before the Feb. 28 trade deadline.

“We’re trying to find a defenseman that is a penalty-killing type to eat up some minutes on the PK,” Bowman said Friday. “Right now we’re using our top guys a lot. In a perfect world we could get a guy that could come in and do that.

“But it’s not easy right now. A lot of teams are looking for similar kinds of players and there’s not a lot yet being thrown out there in terms of being available. I think some teams are going to try to hold their guys until close to the deadline, and we don’t necessarily want to wait that long. If we find a guy we’re comfortable with, we’ll make it work.”

Two defensemen who fit the mold of what Bowman is looking for and who might be available are Atlanta’s Brent Sopel, who excelled in a penalty-killing role for the Hawks last season, and Boston’s Mark Stuart. It probably would have to be a deal on a larger scale for the Hawks to get in on Ottawa’s Chris Phillips, one of the top players expected to be available.

Bowman said two weeks ago he wanted to add a defenseman and center before the deadline. He picked up Michael Frolik from Florida on Wednesday, but Frolik made his Hawks debut Friday against the Stars at left wing with Tomas Kopecky staying at center on that line with Troy Brouwer.

“The last few years I’ve played the wing,” Frolik said. “It was a while that I was a centerman, like six or seven years ago. I prefer to be a wing.”

Bowman said Frolik could be used at center as time goes along, however.

“I think for right now we’ll (go with what we have),” said Bowman, meaning Jonathan Toews, Kopecky and Dave Bolland as the top three centers. “We’ve got flexibility there if we have to use (Frolik) or somebody else in the middle.

“If you talk to every GM, I think they’re all looking for a center. We’re no different there, but it’s hard to come by those guys. If something comes along we’d look at it, but we’re probably focused on defensemen at this point.”