One team needed to reach the salary cap floor. The other needed to duck under the ceiling.
The Carolina Hurricanes acquired forwards Teuvo Teravainen and Bryan Bickell from the Chicago Blackhawks Wednesday in exchange for a 2016 second-round draft pick and a 2017 third-round draft pick. A trade made for this salary cap era.
“The goal is to try to keep this thing going and have young players coming in,” Blackhawks senior vice president and general manager Stan Bowman said on a conference call. “Even though Teuvo is a young player, it’s hard these days when you have young guys that are entering the final year of his first contract and then things get tricky when players get raises and you’re always looking to have that next wave of young guys coming in.”
Bickell has notched 65 goals and adding 70 assists in 384 games with the Blackhawks, spanning nine seasons. A member of the 2013 and 2015 Stanley Cup championship teams, he was the Blackhawks second-round selection (41st overall) in the 2004 NHL Draft.
The 30-year-old Bickell has been shopped by Chicago for months and, with one year and $4.5 million left on his contract, he would’ve been a prime buyout candidate if Bowman wasn’t able to strike a deal like this.
Bickell failed to score a goal in 25 NHL games this past season but put up 31 points in 47 AHL games with Rockford.
Teravainen was the cost Bowman had to pay for the low-budget Hurricanes to take on Bickell.
The 21-year-old Helsinki native has one year remaining on his entry-level contract. He recently completed his third NHL season—all with the Blackhawks—and has collected 17 goals and 27 assists in 115 games. Chicago’s first selection (18th overall) in the 2012 NHL Draft, Teravainen was an important member of the 2015 championship squad, putting up 10 playoff points on that run to the Cup.
At the 2015 Cup Final, Stan Bowman said Blackhawks' future was bright because of Saad and Teravainen. Both gone a year later. #CapCrunch
— luke fox (@lukefoxjukebox) June 15, 2016
Carolina had stocked up 10 draft picks in each of the 2016 and 2017 drafts to use as currency. Evan after this trade, the Hurricanes still hold a second-rounder in 2016 and two third-rounders in 2017.
“This deal allowed us to use some of our collected draft picks to improve our group of forwards for the coming season by added two Stanley Cup champions,” said Carolina GM Ron Francis, who was in need of boosting his forward core.
“Teuvo is a young, highly-skilled player still on his entry-level contract who is coming off of a strong first full NHL season, and Bryan is a veteran who has experienced great success in his career. Both players give our organization more options and flexibility among the forward ranks.”
I asked Bickell if he started to look at his contract the way Luongo did in Vancouver — a curse as much as a blessing. "Somewhat, yeah."
— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) June 15, 2016
— With files from The Associated Press
