Revisiting An Old Trade That Began The End Of The Dynasty
On June 23rd, 2017, Stan Bowman made a trade that began a slow and painful fall from grace for the Blackhawks. Bowman acquired Defenseman Connor Murphy and forward Laurent Dauphin from the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for fan favorite Niklas Hjalmarsson.
Not only were the fans sad to see Hjalmarsson go, so was head coach Joel Quenneville, who supposedly found out about the move on the floor of the NHL draft, where he stormed off and left the building filled with anger and disappointment. Hjalmarsson was Coach Q's guy and a locker room leader, which made this move a tough pill to swallow for everyone involved. Let's dig deeper into this trade and see how well or poorly this trade has aged over the following seasons.
At the time of the trade, Hjalmarsson was coming off an 18-point regular season, which was his lowest since the 2012-13 season. At only 30 years old, there were serious questions with how well Hjalmarsson's body would hold up over the remainder of his contract due to the way he played the game. Hjalmarsson played a hard-nosed defense first game, blocking shot after shot and playing a highly physical game. He had 2 years with 4.1 million AAV left on his contract at the time of the trade. Over the course of his career, Hjalmarsson blocked a total of 1,556 shots, which ranks 19th all-time since blocked shots became an official stat in 2005. After the trade, Hjalmarsson faced numerous injuries with Arizona, limiting him to only 198 games out of a possible 328 in his 4 seasons after his departure. Hjalmarsson ultimately retired after the 2020-21 season concluded.
The biggest part of the return for Hjalmarsson was Connor Murphy. At the time of the trade, Murphy was 24 years old, with 5 years and 3.85 million a year on his contract, and played a very similar game to Hjalmarsson. Murphy was a former first round pick from the 2011 NHL Draft, tallying 49 points in 258 games for Arizona over his first 4 seasons. Since coming to Chicago, Murphy has found success both offensively and defensively, tallying 71 points in his first 5 seasons in Chicago. Murphy has also been among the team leaders in +/- for defensemen, which has earned him first paring minutes on a team that has trouble keeping pucks out of their own net. Murphy inked a new extension this past season that runs through the 2025-26 season with a 4.4 million annual cap hit.
There are two different ways to view the outcome of this trade. Hindsight is always 20/20. It is clear what Bowman saw in Murphy, which was a young, proven defenseman with the potential to slide into Hjalmarsson's role. The trade also freed up $250,000 in cap space, which was fairly significant for a team that was right up against the salary cap. While the trade made sense on paper, I do not think It was the right trade at the time. During that time period, the Blackhawks were fresh off a cup run and a decade of playoff success. They were trying to squeeze the last ounces of playoff hockey from the core that they had left. There is no telling for sure if the results over the last few seasons would've been different had Hjalmarsson been present on the blueline and in the locker room.
On the other hand, Murphy has aged nicely in Chicago. While he may not be the type of player Bowman had envisioned him to be, Murphy has carved out a fairly nice career up to this point. Murphy has been one of the best defensemen on the roster over the past few seasons, and there is no telling where this defensive core would be had Hjalmarsson stayed, and Murphy had not been acquired. What do you guys think? Was this a good move?
| POLL | ||
Do you think the trade of Niklas Hjalmarsson was needed? | ||
| Yes, Connor Murphy is great! | 45 | 32.8 % |
| No, they should've kept Hjalmarsson! | 92 | 67.2 % |
| List of polls | ||
