The first big bang of the Blackhawks’ trade season arrived before the end of January.
Taylor Hall was announced a healthy scratch just as the team was taking the ice to warm up on Friday night. Then the buzz started… and it looks like he’s headed to Carolina.
- UPDATE: the Blackhawks are reportedly receiving their own 2025 third-round pick back from Carolina.
Earlier on Friday, Carolina announced forward William Carrier would miss “at least a couple of months” after undergoing surgery.
Rantanen is in the final year of his contract that carries a $9.25M cap hit. He is a UFA this summer.
Hall is in the final year of his contract that carries a $6M cap hit. He, too, is a UFA this summer.
My Reaction
For what it’s worth, a third-round pick is what we should have expected to get for Hall and the assumption was that the Blackhawks would eat half of his salary. Which would have been eating $3M in cap space to a contender, which would presumably be a pick late in the third round (let’s say later than 85 overall).
The Blackhawks effectively paid the difference between half of Hall ($3M) and half of Rantanen ($4.625M) to move from that 85-96 range up to their own third-round pick (top-4 in the third round? can we safely assume that?).
So the Blackhawks paid $1.625M in cap space to move up roughly 20 spots in the third round.
That’s called the cost of doing business.