Trading Teravainen was a necessary evil for Blackhawks

Upon first hearing about it, Chicago Blackhawks fans likely winced when they saw the trade their team had completed with the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday.

Losing such a highly-touted prospect like Teuvo Teravainen for a couple of draft picks — neither of which are first-rounders — was a grim reminder of the team’s terrible cap situation entering this off-season.

Of course, the scapegoat for all of this is Bryan Bickell.

Last year, the Blackhawks were forced to trade top-six forward Brandon Saad who, at just 22 years old, was coming off a Stanley Cup championship and looking toward a break-out 2015-16 campaign.

Chicago was unable to sign the restricted free agent to a smaller deal and decided the best way to remain a contender would be to trade his rights. That way, the money that would have been used on a single player like Saad was instead awarded to several players in the interest of maintaining depth.

Now, yet another cap casualty has occurred. While the Blackhawks got a bountiful return for Saad, they had to sweeten the pot in this deal to find a taker for Bickell’s $4 million contract.

The Hurricanes had plenty of cap space, but they weren’t just going to settle for being a salary dump. Instead, they insisted on getting an A+ prospect in return, and it made sense for Chicago to send Teravainen the other way as Artemi Panarin was obviously not going anywhere.

But faulting Bickell is unfair. He impressed in the team’s 2013 Stanley Cup run, and as a result, he earned himself a big contract. Sure, maybe general manager Stan Bowman should have been a bit more cautious since he was nearing the cap ceiling — especially since he had to remake his roster just a few years prior in 2010 because of similar cap troubles — but he took a chance on the gritty, two-way forward.

Needless to say, the Chicago GM expressed his gratitude toward both players following the trade.

“I would like to thank both Bryan and Teuvo for their contributions to the Blackhawks organization,” Bowman said. “Both players were drafted by our organization and developed to play important roles on Stanley Cup championship teams. We wish them the best as they continue their careers with Carolina.”

The trade left the Blackhawks with just seven signed NHL roster mainstays, but it opened up plenty of much-needed cap room for them to use on several bottom-six players.

They locked up their eighth man shortly after the trade, inking Richard Panik to a one-year deal. He fills the final spot in the top-six, but what do the bottom two lines look like heading into next year?

One possibility is that Illinois native Ryan Hartman and NCAA standout Tyler Motte take over some of the responsibility, making the leap to full-time NHL hockey.

Motte is a small, scoring forward who is better-suited for a third scoring line. Hartman, on the other hand, is a grungy, two-way right-winger who can put up some decent points but is known mostly for his grinding, physical style of play and can be utilized on either the third or fourth line this coming season.

Making this deal also gave Bowman a lot more flexibility in his contract negotiations with Andrew Shaw, a bottom-six forward who can slot into the top six when necessary.

And that gives Chicago room for one more forward, perhaps in the form of another trade. Or maybe Bowman can get Dale Weise to agree to a minimal pay cut to remain in the Windy City.

Thinking long-term, now he can begin talking with Panarin, whose deal expires at the conclusion of this coming season, about a contract extension.

Essentially, without this trade, Chicago would have let Bickell’s contract loom over their heads, nixing any potential for re-upping certain key players and making future trades. Plus, it gives other players, like Panik, a solid opportunity to thrive in a scoring role. And with two more higher-round picks (especially their new second-round pick), it appears as though Chicago has gotten back into the business of drafting and developing.

It’s all about cycles for Bowman — he wins a Cup, re-tools the roster significantly, then puts a new, full unit on the ice that basically trumps the previous. And this cycle has just begun.

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