Gust’s Big Night, Kane-Rangers Dominos Lining Up, Lots of Central Division Moves, and Other Blackhawks Bullets
Before we get tot he sad reality for Blackhawks fans, a beautiful moment from last night. David Gust got on the ice for his first career NHL shift and scored his first NHL goal. This was awesome.
- With the Blackhawks’ insomnia-curing effort last night in the books, here’s the up-to-date Bad for Bedard Sweepstakes standings.
- Everything went off the rails on Saturday as the Rangers began getting their house in order to make the trade for Patrick Kane happen. Kane was not even with the Blackhawks in San Jose when the game started last night; he flew home to Chicago. The good news to me was Vitaly Kravtsov is not coming to Chicago in the trade. There’s a good chance he’s playing in Russia again next season.
- The Kravtsov deal was not a third-party part of the Kane deal with the Rangers, though the cap space created contributes to making that deal work. He went to Vancouver for a minor-league forward and a seventh-round pick. William Lockwood was originally a third-round pick in 2016 who has one assist in 28 NHL games on his resume.
- The only variable that could change everything here is what the status is of Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren, who was seen leaving the rink with his arm in a sling after taking an ugly hit. After the game, Rangers head coach Gerard Gallant called the hit dirty and I tend to agree. If he goes on LTIR, the Rangers can add Kane asap. If he’s just dinged up a little, they might have pause on moving a young defenseman they might need at some point for depth in a trade for Kane.
- The Blackhawks activated Jujhar Khaira off IR before the game on Saturday night. They still skated just 11 forwards against the Sharks, however.
- The Rockford IceHogs announced they signed a 30-year-old defenseman on Saturday afternoon. Which is… interesting.
- On Sunday morning, the Dallas Stars and Montreal Canadiens swapped forwards. This really doesn’t move the needle much for me. Both of these guys has massively underwhelmed this season.
- The Winnipeg Jets acquired a middle-six forward with 18 goals on Saturday afternoon. They sent a second-round pick in 2024 to Nashville in the deal. Nino Niederreiter has one more year left on his contract with a $4 million cap hit. This move does move the needle for me because Niederreiter is precisely the kind of forward the Jets needed before Cole Perfetti got hurt. This is a solid deal for the Jets and Preds.
- The St. Louis Blues didn’t make a trade on Saturday but they did add a forward off waivers. The Pittsburgh Penguins tried to give Kasperi Kapanen away for a while but didn’t want to pay the price it was apparently costing to do it, so they lose him for nothing to the Blues. Sounds like a win for the Penguins here.
- Colorado acquired some goaltending depth in a minor trade with the Bruins. Very meh.
- Finally, the Cubs won a Spring Training game yesterday! So we’ve got that going for us… which is nice.
