Chicago Blackhawks like their roster moves as deadline passes

Other than swapping AHL players with two teams, Chicago Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman stood pat Monday as the NHL trade deadline passed.

There were reports Bowman made a late run at Vancouver defenseman Dan Hamhuis, but the teams couldn't come to terms.

On a very quiet day, a few Western Conference squads did make moves, with perhaps the biggest being Colorado acquiring Arizona forward Mikkel Boedker (13 goals, 26 assists).

Four other moves of note:

• The Stars paid a heavy price but traded for Flames defenseman Kris Russell.

• The Ducks acquired center Brandon Pirri from the Panthers and forward Jamie McGinn from the Sabres.

• The Kings now have Kris Versteeg, who was with the Hurricanes, and won two Cups in Chicago.

As for the Hawks, the additions of wingers Andrew Ladd, Dale Weise and Tomas Fleischmann, and defenseman Christian Ehrhoff on Thursday and Friday solidified an already dangerous team that figures to make a deep run in the Stanley Cup playoffs come April.

"Looking at our team, I like what we've done," Bowman said Saturday. "We've actually had a great season to date. I think there's always things you want to get better at. … The one area we wanted to try and improve was our depth and our players with experience.

"We've got a lot of young players who have shown good progress this year. They've done a great job to get us to this point."

Those players include Dennis Rasmussen, Brandon Mashinter, Richard Panik, Phillip Danault (now with Montreal) and three defensemen in Trevor van Riemsdyk, Erik Gustafsson and Viktor Svedberg.

Bowman saw the chance to upgrade that group and did so by bringing in four players with a combined 199 games of playoff experience (with Ehrhoff, 73, and Ladd, 57, having the most).

"There's a lot of hockey to be played," Bowman said. "You can rely on some veteran players to do that. I certainly like the look of our forward group right now. That doesn't discount the young players who have grown this year. We're going to need everybody down the stretch.

"But knowing that we have some veteran pieces that we added, it really makes you feel better."

Some would say the Hawks paid a stiff price over the past few days. They traded Marko Dano to Winnipeg and Danault to Montreal - both of whom were former first-round picks. They also gave up this year's first-round pick, their second-rounder in 2018 and a third-rounder in 2018 if they win the Cup this season.

"These are real good players we brought in here," Bowman said. "You're not going to get players like that with a handshake.

"You have to pay a price, and we gave away some good young players."

But is it really that stiff of a price to go for it all this season? Especially when one considers the talent the Hawks have playing in Rockford and in college? And when you consider the track record of Bowman and his staff to unearth undrafted players such as Artemi Panarin, Rasmussen and van Riemsdyk?

I'd say no. Bowman would, too.

"I certainly credit our scouting staff for the job they've done finding good, young players," he said. "That's our job. We have to continue to find players to replace these guys, and I have confidence in our scouts to do that.

"We saw an opportunity to improve our team, and we went for it."

• The Blackhawks did make two minor moves Monday.

They first traded Rockford IceHogs defenseman Dennis Robertson for Carolina goalie Drew MacIntyre. MacIntyre reported to Rockford.

They also traded forward Corey Tropp for Anaheim's Tim Jackman and a seventh-round pick in the 2017 draft. Jackman, who played in two games with the Ducks, was reassigned to the AHL's San Diego Gulls.