Chicago Blackhawks: Fantastic trade with Florida Panthers

The Chicago Blackhawks are one of those teams that can do a bunch of different things at the trade deadline this year. They were already off to a good start with the acquisition of Vinnie Hinostroza and they kept it going with Thursday’s trade with the Florida Panthers. The hope is that this is the type of move that propels them into making even more good moves that can help them in the future.

This is a trade where the Chicago Blackhawks weaponized their cap space.

The Blackhawks sending Lucas Carlsson and Lucas Wallmark over to Florida in this deal makes a lot of sense. They just had Wallmark clear wavers a few days ago so now they packaged him with Carlsson to get some very nice players.

The Blackhawks weaponized their cap with this trade. They are going to take on Brett Connolly’s cap hit from the Panthers. He is someone who is a proven goal scorer in the NHL and can add a certain level of play to this group. He is signed through the 2022-23 season. He won the Stanley Cup with the Washington Capitals in 2018 so he also has some recent playoff experience.

Henrik Borgstrom is the piece to be most excited about in the deal. He was selected with the 23rd overall pick in the 2016 NHL Draft. Florida has seen him as a top prospect for a long time. He has some time playing in the NHL and is currently playing in Finland. He is 23 years old with a lot of upsides so it would be cool to see the Blackhawks bring him over as soon as possible. If they develop him more, he could be a big piece going forward.

Another cool thing about Borgstrom is that he played some college hockey at the University of Denver. In his final season there, he was a teammate with Blackhawks defenseman Ian Mitchell. Seeing these two play together at the NHL level one day would really be cool.

Riley Stillman is also a good young defenseman that can make an impact on this Blackhawks roster. We don’t know if they are going to trade away any of their older defensemen at the deadline but Stillman can play in their lineup if they do. He isn’t someone who is going to put up any offensive numbers from the back end but he can play that defensive defenseman style of game.

Getting two young players by taking on Connolly’s contract is a very good use of salary cap space by Stan Bowman. With a few more players that the Blackhawks can trade away, don’t expect them to be done adding young assets and draft picks. This was a solid trade that could really pay off for them in the long term.