The Utah Hockey Club is trading the contract of retired defenseman Shea Weber to the Blackhawks, per Brogan Houston of Deseret News Sports. Chicago has also acquired the signing rights to defenseman Victor Söderström and right-wing prospect Aku Räty for taking on the final year-plus of Weber’s deal. Houston later reported that Utah is sending a 2026 fifth-round pick to Chicago.
From Utah’s perspective, the deal is simply salary cap management for next season. Weber has effectively been retired since skating in the 2021 Stanley Cup Final. It’s the third time his contract has been traded since becoming dead weight in 2021-22. Although his $7.857MM salary wasn’t a hurdle for Utah this year, it would have been next year as the team looks to make significant additions to the roster.
On the other side of the trade, the Blackhawks essentially purchased a pair of younger players from Utah. Söderström is the most notable of the two, being the former 11th overall pick of the 2019 NHL Draft. Still, he has yet to pan out at the NHL level.
Söderström debuted in the NHL with the Arizona Coyotes during the 2020-21 campaign. Since then, he’s scored one goal and 11 points in 53 contests, averaging 16:10 of ice time per game. Chicago is likely interested in Söderström’s past performance in the AHL and his current production in the SHL with Brynäs IF. The Skutskär, Sweden native has recorded nine goals and 36 points in 47 SHL contests this year, tying for third in scoring on the team.
It’ll be a solid acquisition for the Blackhawks should Söderström replicate that performance with Chicago. However, it’s important to note that although the Blackhawks now own Söderström’s contractual rights, he’s under no commitment to return to the NHL.
Meanwhile, Räty is another prospect who has yet to break out meaningfully. He scored 15 goals and 44 points in 55 games for the AHL’s Tucson Roadrunners last season but has followed it up disappointingly with four goals and 19 points in 50 games this year. Räty will now have a fresh start in AHL Rockford with the IceHogs, where he can help the team compete for a berth in the 2025 Calder Cup playoffs.
PHR’s Brennan McClain contributed to this article.
Utah clearing cap space for a run at Marner in the offseason?
Funny, I thought that’s what the Hawks were doing until they took on Webers 7 plus million dollar deal. Get rid of Jones and take it right back. WTF? Oh well at least it’s only 1 year instead of 5 I guess and we get a decent D Man . What’s a Raty? Is that a rodent or what? LOL. Now we have a Raty and an Arty. What’s next a Tary?
They can place Weber on offseason LTIR if really need be. Won’t be an issue for them
Oh yeah. Forgot about that. So why didn’t Utah just do that’s odd. Oh because you have to carry him to start the season right? 7 mil less to play with in FA.
Could be just a salary floor issue. Blackhawks need a big salary to reach the floor and Utah doesn’t mind not paying the $.
Serious question: aren’t these contracts insured? If so, how does the money work? If team A had Weber’s contract and collected insurance on it, then they trade the contract to team B, does team B get that insurance money, does team A still keep it?
Given the amount of significant long-term injuries in the game, I imagine there’s some type of insurance on those big contracts. If the player is traded, then the old team probably transfers the policy to the new team. In any case, Weber’s actual salary (as opposed to his cap hit) is much lower now than in the early years of his contract, so there wouldn’t be that much of a loss anyways.
Blackhawk the new Coyotes…
Before this the Hawks needed to spend 20M just to get to the cap floor. This just helps that without having to go crazy giving contracts out in FA
Hawks could have done that by signing a couple of FA’s who can ACTUALLY play? So what’s the point again?
They can and will still do that but you don’t need to overpay (IE 4.5M for Foligno, 6M for Hall, 3.75M for TJ Brodie, Athanasiou 4M, etc.) to get there. They still have like 30M to spend. It’s not preventing them from doing anything. This was bout getting them to the floor this year with Mrazek gone and to help with that for next year as well while also adding depth to Rockford.
Someone gets it.
But it takes two to tango. Those sorts of players typically prefer to play for a team that’s actually contending. This has been a major issue for my Sabres for a while.
I love it when a plan comes together
*Caray
Wow!! Blackhawks get an actual Hall of Famer for nothing but a 5th?! Talk about a steal!! :)