NEWSLETTER
UPDATE: Well, it happened. Jake McCabe and Sam Lafferty have been traded to Toronto. You can get the full details of that deal right here.
Original post (from this morning before the trade) follows.
While we all wait for the Patrick Kane-Rangers trade to play out, the Blackhawks have a handful of other pieces in play this week that are keeping things interesting (and both my phone and laptop charged). So let’s dig into some of the other players of note who are still percolating the trade rumors.
On Monday morning’s edition of the “32 Thoughts” Podcast, a lot of the discussion between Jeff Marek and Elliott Friedman obviously centered around Kane. But they also discussed the other player who didn’t skate for the Blackhawks on Saturday night: center Sam Lafferty.
Friedman said he believes Lafferty was on Tampa’s rader — we’ll get to that in a moment — but then said something interesting. “I wonder about Edmonton.” Friedman believes Edmonton turned down a big ask for both Lafferty and Jake McCabe previously, but also wonders if there’s still a path to a deal between the Oilers and Blackhawks.
Regarding Tampa’s interest in Lafferty, that deal didn’t happen because they were able to get a bottom-six forward from Nashville in the form of Tanner Jeannot. And that deal shocked a lot of people.
Foote, 24, was the 14th overall pick in the 2014 NHL Draft and has appeared in 117 NHL Games. He’s a big right-handed defenseman (6-5, 224) who gives Nashville some size on the back end. More than that, though, CapFriendly tweeted this is the only deal in their database that includes picks in the first, second, third, fourth and fifth rounds of draft(s).
Jeannot, 25, is in the second year of a two-year, $1.6 million contract — so there has already been speculation that Tampa will look to lock him up long-term given the assets they gave up to get him. He scored 24 goals in 81 games last season, but has scored just five in 56 games this year.
The good news for the Blackhawks is the price Tampa paid for Jeannot undoubtedly helps their case in asking for a big ransom for Lafferty. Lafferty is under control for another year at just over $1 million and is really coming into his own as a defensive forward who plays the game with a lot of pace and kills penalties.
Friedman concluded his comments by saying there’s still a market for McCabe and Connor Murphy, both of whom have term left on their respective contracts. As the Coyotes continue sitting Jakob Chychrun and the Blue Jackets continue apparently asking too much for Vladislav Gavrikov, the market for impact defensemen remains hot.
The Blackhawks are still waiting for Nikita Zaitsev to clear his immigration issues and join the team, but they did swap defensemen with the Avalanche on Sunday night. We’ll see how soon Andreas Englund reports for duty.
