Blackhawks get Sam Lafferty from Penguins for Alex Nylander
The Blackhawks traded Alex Nylander to Pittsburgh in exchange for forward Sam Lafferty on Wednesday.
Lafferty, who carries a $750,000 cap hit and is signed through this season, will meet the team in Arizona.
The Hawks open a three-game road trip against the Coyotes on Thursday.
The 6-foot-1, 195-pound Lafferty has 94 games of NHL experience. He has 2 assists and 34 hits in 10 games for the Penguins this season.
Nylander, who was the No. 8 overall pick in 2016, was acquired for defenseman Henri Jokiharju during the 2019 offseason.
He had 10 goals and 16 assists for the Hawks in 2019-20, but sat out last season with an injury and has been mired in the AHL this season. He has 8 goals and 4 assists in 23 games for the Rockford IceHogs.
Jokiharju, meanwhile, has averaged more than 23 minutes of ice time in his last 10 games for the Sabres. He has 8 goals and 20 assists in 132 games for Buffalo across three seasons.
Roster moves:
The Hawks recalled defenseman Nicolas Beaudin from Rockford and assigned him to the taxi squad. The Hawks also assigned Brett Connolly to the taxi squad, and reassigned forward Kurtis Gabriel and Alec Regula to Rockford.
Beaudin has 6 assists in 22 games for the IceHogs.
"If we need a body (he's) somebody who can maybe be on the power play," interim coach Derek King said. "That's really it. It's more so rotating taxi squad guys around. Get them games down there, bring em up for practice, keep them updated on what we're doing here and they can go down (and) play some games."
Slap shot:
Interim coach Derek King is hoping goalie Kevin Lankinen can be cleared from COVID protocol by the time the Hawks play at Vegas on Saturday.