Chicago Sun-Times beat writer Mark Lazerus reported that the Chicago Blackhawks have shown interest in Detroit Red Wings forwards Tomas Tatar and Gustav Nyquist. The two Red Wings forwards are on pace for full season career-lows but neither are unrestricted free agents at the end of the year. Tatar has 10G and 12A in 46 games, and Nyquist has 7G and 17A in 46 games.
In what has become a familiar dance, the Chicago Blackhawks begin to mine non-playoff teams for playoff run depth. Last season Chicago acquired Andrew Ladd, Matt Fraser, Jay Harrison from the Winnipeg Jets for prospect Marko Dano, a 1st round draft pick and a conditional pick. The team then acquired defenseman Christian Ehrhoff from the Los Angeles Kings for defenseman Rob Scuderi. Finally, the team acquired Dale Weise and Tomas Fleischmann for prospect Phillip Danault and a 2nd round pick.
The season before, Chicago added Kimmo Timonen from the Philadelphia Flyers for a 2nd and a conditional 4th round pick. They then obtained Antoine Vermette from the Arizona Coyotes for Klas Dahlbeck and a 1st round pick. The team rounded off those deals by trading Ben Smith and a conditional 7th round pick to the San Jose Sharks for Andrew Desjardins.
That the Blackhawks are interested in non-UFA players signals a shift from their previous strategy. Tatar makes $2.75MM this season as an arbitration-eligible RFA, but Nyquist—at $4.75MM—still has two more years after this season. But with Artemi Panarin set to make $6MM next season Chicago is once again up against the cap. The only redeeming factor is that either player could be taken in this summer’s expansion draft and free up cap space.
If I’m Kenny Holland, … why not? The Wings are going nowhere this year.
Dumping Nyquist would be great for the wings
Dumping Holland would be even better.
Getting rid of Nyquist would be great. He’s overpaid, soft, easy to defend and refuses to shoot.