Blackhawks: How Stan Bowman created a successful retool

This trade looked to be a steal for the Chicago Blackhawks from day one, as fans were perplexed with regard to how Bowman got a first round pick out of Ryan Hartman.

Ryan Hartman was without a doubt a very good young piece for the Chicago Blackhawks, but his trade value should not have been as high as it was in this case. Not only did the deal look bad to begin with, but Hartman’s short time as a Predator did not help Nashville’s case, as he did nearly nothing for them in 21 games. He has since been traded multiple times and is currently on the Minnesota Wild roster and currently has 4 points in 21 games. The 5th round pick that was also sent to Nashville ended up being Spencer Stastney, who is only 19 years old and is far from the NHL.

As for the Blackhawks, they made out like absolute bandits. The first round pick that the team ended up with was used to take Swedish defenseman Nicolas Beaudin, a player who will be discussed in much more detail later in the slideshow. After this trade, the Blackhawks would then have two first rounders which they used to address the defensive core. Victor Ejdsell, another piece in the deal, only played six NHL games before returning to Sweden, rendering him a neutral factor in the deal.

Philipp Kurashev is the icing on the cake in this deal, as the Swiss center is arguably one of the Blackhawks top-five prospects currently. Kurashev is a scoring machine who could end up being a very solid mid-line center for Chicago. At only 20 years old, his stock is rising quite possibly the fastest of any prospect in the Blackhawks organization.