Center, defenseman on Bowman’s wish list
Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman remained hopeful Saturday he would be able to find the right deal for either a depth defenseman or another center before Monday’s trade deadline.
“We’re having a lot of discussions, but we’re hopeful that something will get done,” Bowman said. “Nothing has changed. We’d like to try to get some depth at center and try to get a defenseman that can eat up some minutes for us. That’s been the same thing we’ve been looking for the last month or two.”
The Hawks continued to be linked with a number of defensemen who might be available, such as Edmonton’s Ladislav Smid, Tampa Bay’s Brett Clark and Colorado’s Matt Hunwick.
Few outside the organization know exactly what the Hawks are thinking as evidenced by Bowman trades for Kim Johnsson last season and Michael Frolik earlier this month that weren’t seen coming.
Bowman agreed a lot of clubs are looking to add the same thing, namely defensemen.
“It’s just trying to find the right fit in terms of the salary,” Bowman said. “There are a lot of higher-priced guys available that don’t really fit into our plans. A lot of people are looking for similar things.”
The Hawks cleared about $600,000 more of cap space Saturday when defenseman Nick Boynton was claimed on waivers by Philadelphia. The Hawks are about $1.7 million under the salary cap.
“It was salary and just the roster flexibility,” Bowman said of the decision to waive Boynton. “We were at the full roster limit at 23 and if wanted to add a player we had to have some movement on that front. Now it turns out we have the salary as well.”
Bowman repeated his preference was not to trade anyone off his present roster, but that doesn’t mean he won’t.
“We’re starting to come together as a group and we’re not looking to really change the core guys at all,” Bowman said. “We’re looking to add to the mix as opposed to take from it. We don’t think we need drastic changes here.”
Leddy returns to stay:
Rookie defenseman Nick Leddy was recalled from Rockford and told he would be here the rest of the season since there won’t be a need after Monday to maneuver the salary cap.
A Hawks source estimated the club saved about $200,000 in cap space shuffling Leddy back and forth to Rockford.