Next Week Will Mark One Year Since The Trade That Shattered The Blackhawks Organization
Next weekend will mark the one-year anniversary of the blockbuster trade between the Chicago Blackhawks and Tampa Bay Lightning.
What Chicago gave up: Hagel and two fourth-round picks.
What Tampa gave up: two first-round picks, along with Taylor Raddysh and Boris Katchouk.
A lot of people were surprised by this deal considering Hagel was just 23 years old fan favourite who was just starting to get comfortable in the NHL. And what also surprised a lot of people was the return that Tampa gave up considering Hagel was a sixth-round pick and only had 61 points in the NHL.
Taking a look back at the trade now it isn't so surprising as it seems that this trade worked out pretty good for both teams.
The Hawks haven't been afraid to get rid of their well liked and established stars, just take a look, they've traded Alex DeBrincat, Kirby Dach, Max Domi, Patrick Kane, and Toews would've been traded as well if it wasn't for health problems.
The Hagel trade was only the start to the fire sale. Hawks General Manager Kyle Davidson made it clear that the team was going to go into a rebuild and this was the first move he would make, and it made players feel that no one was safe.
This being said the Lightning made it clear that they are a compete now team and are following those footsteps by getting a rid of basically all of their assets and making it clear that they want to build one of the best teams possible during the salary cap era.
Tampas General Manager would again shock us but prove to everyone that he wasn't afraid to get rid of assets at this years deadline by going out and acquiring Nashvilles forward Tanner Jeannot. Nashville in return got a first-, second-, third-, fourth- and fifth-round picks and Cal Foote.
Tampas future is definitely gonna be bad as they currently have the second worst prospect pool in the league they have no picks higher than the sixth round this year and no first-round pick until 2026, but this is the price you have to pay to put together a winning team.
Hagel definitely struggled in his first year with with the Lightning after being acquired, and struggled in the playoffs, but since then has lived up to expectations.
He currently has 23 goals and 28 assists on the year for 51 points in 66 games and sits fourth on the team in scoring.
The fact that Hagel is producing these numbers while being on a $1.5 million contract is really impressing and is a reason the Lightning really wanted him because they saw his potential.
On the other hand, Raddysh has been playing a bigger role for the Hawks, he currently leads the team in goals with 17 and also has 13 assists.
Raddysh is still young at 25, and could stick around through the rebuild and probably be a solid player when they are competing again, or the Hawks could flip him and get more assets to help with the rebuild. But keeping him around seems like a bargain as he only makes $758,000.
| POLL | ||
Who won the Brandon Hagel trade? | ||
| Chicago | 62 | 33.5 % |
| Tampa | 123 | 66.5 % |
| List of polls | ||
