A little more than a year ago, Chicago and Toronto made a small trade of underperforming players that wound up yielding the Blackhawks a productive forward in Richard Panik, a move that is really paying dividends now, writes Chris Hine of the Chicago Tribune.
Panik has played several roles this season, spending time in the bottom six in a defensive role while logging plenty of minutes on their top line as a scorer well. He has responded by matching his career high in goals with 11 and setting a new career best in points with 20.
The 25 year old has provided the Blackhawks with solid value on the salary cap as well as he is earning just $875K. He is slated to become a restricted free agent this summer.
Meanwhile, the player Chicago gave up, Jeremy Morin, is now on Tampa Bay’s farm team. The Leafs flipped him to San Jose last February and then the Sharks failed to tender him a qualifying offer back in June, making him an unrestricted free agent. It may have been a minor move at the time but suffice it to say, the Blackhawks came out on top of that one.
Other news and notes from around the hockey world:
- Although it was looking like Devils defenseman Andy Greene was nearing a return from an arm injury, it’s looking like he won’t be back until after the All-Star break, notes NJ Advance Media’s Chris Ryan. Greene had started to participate in full practices but has been scaled back to skating on his own over the past week. Fellow blueliner John Moore (concussion) is also expected to be out until after the break.
- The Minnesota Wild made a pair of roster moves today, assigning right Kurtis Gabriel to Iowa of the AHL while recalling Christoph Bertschy (Twitter links). Gabriel has played in 13 games with Minnesota this year while Bertschy has seen action in five games; both players have a single NHL assist this season. Center Mikko Koivu missed Sunday’s game due to illness and is questionable to play tomorrow although he did make the trip to Dallas.
- After sending him to the minors earlier today upon clearing, the Red Wings have recalled left winger Drew Miller, reports MLive’s Ansar Khan. The roster spot for him to return was created when Dylan Larkin was placed on injured reserve with an upper body injury. Miller can remain on the Red Wings’ roster for 30 days or ten games played without having to go through waivers again.
- Although former NHL winger Teemu Selanne served as an advisor for the Finnish entry into the World Cup of Hockey, he has no plans to move into a management or advisory role on an NHL team in the near future, he told NHL.com’s Lisa Dillman. He wouldn’t rule out getting back into the game at some point in one of those capacities although he does not have any plans to coach in the future.