Before beating Stars, Blackhawks trade 'future considerations' to Sens for D-man, picks
The Blackhawks made what - at first glance - looks like an odd trade with Ottawa on Wednesday.
The Hawks acquired 31-year-old defenseman Nikita Zaitsev, a second-round pick in 2023 and a fourth-round pick in 2026 from the Senators for future considerations.
So why are the Hawks are sending nothing back to Ottawa right now? Well, the deal has potential benefits for both sides:
• If the Hawks trade defensemen Jake McCabe and/or Connor Murphy in the coming days, Zaitsev gives them a veteran to hold down the fort on the blue line while they wait for prospects to develop.
• Zaitsev, who is signed through next season, carries a $4.5 million cap hit. While contending teams worry about exceeding the salary cap, rebuilding ones like the Hawks must also reach what is known as the "salary cap floor." This season, every team must have their players' cap hits add up to at least $60.2 million. In 2023-24, Hawks may have a tough time reaching that number with Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews coming off the books.
• In exchange for taking on this bad contract, the Hawks were given the two draft picks.
• For the Senators, this clears cap space and saves them money. Ottawa GM Pierre Dorion admitted last week that he didn't know if he'd be a buyer or seller at the deadline. This move gives him some flexibility if he wants to add some talent for a playoff run. It also allows them to address a difficult salary-cap situation that includes former Hawks forward Alex DeBrincat.
As for what the Hawks will eventually send Ottawa? Expect it to be a very low-level prospect.
The 6-foot-2, 192-pound Zaitsev is a Moscow native who broke into the league in 2016-17 with Toronto. He inked a seven-year, $31.5 million deal in May 2017 and was traded to Ottawa in a six-player deal in the summer of 2019.
Zaitsev has 19 goals and 89 assists in 426 career games. This season, he has 5 points (all assists) in 28 games with the Senators and has also played in five AHL games.
"We are getting an NHL-caliber defenseman and acquiring very valuable draft capital in this upcoming draft and beyond," said Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson. "Nikita gives us added depth on the right side and we anticipate him joining us soon."
The Hawks now have seven picks in the first three rounds of the 2023 draft (two firsts, three seconds and two thirds).
Hawks 4, Stars 3:
It was the Patrick Kane/Max Domi show in Dallas on Wednesday, with the Hawks' top two scorers leading a comeback from a 3-0 deficit by scoring 2 goals each.
The ending had a ton of drama, too, as a shot by Radek Faksa with 1:40 remaining appeared to possibly cross the goal line, but officials could not award Dallas a goal after a lengthy review. The Stars kept coming, but a last-second shot by Tyler Seguin - although it got past goalie Jaxson Stauber - hit the back of the net just after the clock hit 0:00.
After the Stars' Jason Robertson scored his 35th goal of the season at 4:33 of the second period, Domi scored on the power play at 10:10 to make it 3-1. Five minutes later, Kane scored off a perfect pass from Domi on a 2-on-1, and Kane scored again less than three minutes later off a feed from Philipp Kurashev.
Domi gave the Hawks a 4-3 lead at 4:13 of the third period with a shot that beat Jake Oettinger top-shelf.
Kane has 7 goals and 3 assists in the last four games; Domi has 3 goals and 9 assists in the last five games. Stauber made 30 saves and improved to 5-1-0 on the season.
The Hawks are 12-7-1 in their last 20 games and play next at San Jose on Saturday.