Chicago Blackhawks make a second Wednesday trade

The Chicago Blackhawks already made a trade on Wednesday. The first one was a bit annoying for fans as it reminded them that Stan Bowman was actually a terrible GM during his tenure with the team as another first-round pick was wasted.

They sent Nicolas Beaudin to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for Cameron Hillis. Beaudin is a former first-round pick that never panned out and changed the way the Blackhawks did business for a few years after. It’s a bad look. Hillis will report to the Rockford Ice Hogs upon his arrival.

A few hours later, another trade was made as the Hawks sent Evan Barratt to the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for Cooper Zech. This is an interesting trade that will be a little bit tougher to dissect.

Barratt is currently in his third season of AHL hockey but hasn’t earned his way up to the NHL yet. This all comes after some very successful seasons with Penn State University. He was a third-round pick in the 2017 NHL Draft by Chicago.

The Chicago Blackhawks made a second AHL trade on Wednesday morning.

Barratt has also had tremendous success playing for Team USA in various tournaments. He has big game experience but now he is taking it to Philly. It will be interesting to see if he can become an NHL player at any point.

Cooper Zech has played with the Providence Bruins and Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the AHL over the past handful of years but has also not ever been called up to the NHL. Like Hillis, Zech is going to report to the Rockford Ice Hogs.

It seems as if the Blackhawks have something in mind here. They are trying to load up their AHL squad with what they think it needs. They believe that they can make a playoff run this season but they aren’t off to the best start (1-3-0-0). Hopefully, Hillis and Zech help them in different areas.

At one point, it was thought that Barratt was going to be an NHL player. He hasn’t earned a call-up yet and clearly, he has been passed by in this organization.

With Philly, he might get his chance at some point which is all you can hope for. At the end of the day, the Hawks are hoping that this move helps their organization move forward.