After acquiring Adam Gaudette, the Chicago Blackhawks are working to send one of their other forwards elsewhere. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic tweets that “all signs point” to Mattias Janmark ending up with the Vegas Golden Knights. Darren Dreger of TSN reports that Janmark will go to Vegas with a 2022 fifth-round pick in exchange for the Golden Knights 2021 second-round pick and 2022 third-round pick. LeBrun adds that the San Jose Sharks will add a 2022 fifth-round pick (BUF), for brokering the deal with salary cap retention–they will send a minor league player to Vegas to even out the actual salary payments.
Adding a player like Janmark is a sneaky pickup for the Golden Knights, who already have a team capable of contending for the Stanley Cup. The 28-year-old forward has 10 goals and 19 points in 41 games this season and has proven in the past he can produce some valuable secondary scoring from a depth role.
A strong skater, Janmark can play on the powerplay or penalty kill, but it’s hard to see him getting much time with the man advantage in Vegas. Instead, he’ll give the team another moving part in their bottom-six or even move up in a pinch.
Still, one could argue that the Golden Knights gave up more for Janmark than the Bruins did for Taylor Hall. A huge part of that (not to mention Hall’s no-movement clause) is the difference in cap hits; Janmark comes with just a $2.25MM full-season hit on his one-year deal, while even a 50% retained Hall was at $4MM. The Blackhawks did well to receive a second-round pick and another pick swap, adding some valuable draft capital to the cupboard for a player who is on an expiring contract.
More to come…