Blackhawks Trade Saad to Avs for Zadorov, Leafs Trade Johnsson to Devils
NBC Sports Chicago’s Charlie Roumeliotis reports the Blackhawks traded winger Brandon Saad and defenseman Dennis Gilbert to the Colorado Avalanche for defensemen Nikita Zadorov and Anton Lindholm.
Chicago Blackhawks trade Brandon Saad to the Colorado Avalanche (NHL Images).
SPECTOR’ S NOTE: The Blackhawks are also retaining $1 million of Saad $6 million salary-cap hit for 2020-21.
This move should take the Avalanche out of the bidding for unrestricted free agent left wing Taylor Hall. Saad, 26, will skate on left wing on the Avs’ second line. He’s a former two-time Stanley Cup champion with the Blackhawks who tallied 20-plus goals in five of the last six seasons, including 21 in 58 games last season. Saad is slated to become an unrestricted free agent next summer.
Gilbert, 23, is a physical defenseman who split last season between the Blackhawks and their AHL affiliate. He’s in the third year of his entry-level deal at a more affordable $925k, far cheaper than what it would’ve cost the Avs to re-sign Zadorov, a restricted free agent coming off a one-year, $3.2-million contract. Whether he’ll earn a full-time role with the Avs remains to be seen.
The 6-foot-6, 235-pound Zadorov will bring size and physicality to the Blackhawks’ blueline. Cap Friendly reports he’s already agreed to a one-year. $3.2 million deal with the Hawks. Lindholm, 25, spent parts of the past four season between the Avs and their minor-league affiliate.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports the Toronto Maple Leafs traded forward Andreas Johnsson to the New Jersey Devils for forward Joey Anderson.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Friedman’s colleague Chris Johnston reports the Devils are acquiring Johnsson’s full $3.4 million annual average value through 2022-23. Anderson, 22, is a restricted free agent who played 52 games over the last two seasons with the Devils.
This is an obvious salary dump by the Leafs to clear cap space following yesterday’s signings of T.J. Brodie and Wayne Simmonds. The Leafs were above the $81.5 million cap by over $1 million following those signings. This will provide some additional cap space but they could need a little more to re-sign Anderson and fellow restricted free agents Travis Dermott and Ilya Mikheyev.
Johnsson will provide some much-needed depth to the Devils’ forward lines. While the 25-year-old winger was hampered by injury last season, he’s a good skater with a decent scoring touch. He tallied 20 goals and 43 points as a rookie in 2018-19.
Dubas has no clue how to build an NHL team.
LEAFS
With the emergence of Nic Roberston on an entry level contract and the salary woes the leafs had to make Johnson expendable …pretty predictable.
I have been wanting the Leafs to pick up Bogosian for 3 trade dead lines now so happy with that !
I have a 10 pack of Buffalo Sabres games each year for the past 7 years …living in the Golden Horse shoe…. when healthy he was always one of the best D men…. smart and quick with the puck and plays a strong game has a really good first pass out of Zone …he shows to be a better player live than on TV ..he is also a very big boy !
I understand he will get negative feedback due to his age bit for 1 million he is a teal to plug in with Muzzin Brodie Dermott and Riel and will settle things down back their which they desperately need!
Still want a Nylander trade for a bigger body and skill on the wing !
Any DEVILS fans here ???
Have not seen nor heard of the prospect
Joey Anderson ..any thoughts on this player ..most likely a 3rd liner for an NHL Career any upsides to look out for ??
Lyle…. any thoughts on this player at all..thx
as always thx Lyle ..for your work on the Draft and free agency good info as usual
…take care.. be well.
Cheers
@Kal El -Devs fan here. Anderson is a hard worker but tops third line RW. He is the type of player fans will love. On a decent third line 15-20 goals is likely with sound defensive game. I really liked him, but believe Devs got good value here.
@ Redmonsyers
thank you …seems to be the consensus …from what I’ve been reading
I appreciate the feedback
Johnson will be an upgrade can play on any line and is a very good skater can kill penalties and give you some shorties if used properly ..has really good hands in close as well..
Id like to se him play with Gusev
( who Iam a BIG fan of )
If you’ve read any of my posts in the past …he is one of the leagues best passers…. IMO !
Should have an upgrade now on the power play with Johnson as a second unit !
Cheers
Who cares and who cares…respectively.
Well I’ll give Dubas credit for the Begosian signing as he paid little for a great 30 year old. 6’3″ Right Shot defencemen with tude to his game.
I don’t care what anybody says here on this signing. Begosian blows Marincin out of the water once and for all
Joey,
Bogosian played on an extremely strong group of D-men in Tampa. That probably raised his game to level it was, much like does forLuke Schenn.
I don’t believe the Leafs group of D-men can be compared to that of Tampa’s.
But for 1 mill per, no harm no foul he if he doesn’t work out.
Lol, Bogo does love Blow, the guy is made of glass, always hurt. Hopefully he doesn’t go back to his old ways and end up in rehab again.
Andreas Johnsson : TML: You gave this guy away for a contract you likely won’t qualify. So it really is about a money dump on behalf of TML
Joey, no need to qualify Joey Anderson, he has no bargaining power because he hasn’t played enough NHL games. Anderson will be happy to sign for $700k with no cut for playing in the minors.
Colorado got a steal in this deal getting Chicago to retain 1million on Saad and dumping 2 D that had no place on the team. Zadorov never lived up to expectations, 3.2 million for a pylon.
Dubas & the Leafs are doing what they have to & many other teams are going to have to realize this & have to do the same.
Problem being, Dubas is doing it now while their are other willing & most importantly able to do this.
Vegas, Tampa, Anaheim & a couple others may have to “give away” players they really don’t want but will need to. Then finding dance partners to do so may be difficult because of their own economic issues!!!
Tampa could give Johnson away for SFA & now will need to pay, overpay to get another team to take him!!!
Could get extremely interesting real soon folks.
Should have read, ” Tampa couldn’t give away….”
Joey, CapFriendly shows Anderson as an RFA on the minor league roster – not the main roster – so there’s no reason not to qualify him.
Yeah, Johnsson is virtually a pure salary dump but the fact Dubas would need to do something along those lines was hardly a secret once the flat cap hit – and he’s not the only one. As I’ve kept saying, there are far more teams needing to make moves like that than there are teams with sufficient cap space to take them all.
The “winners” – if we can use a term like that in this instance – will be the ones who do it early.
And no one should try and argue that Bogosian isn’t an improvement over Marincin. OK, so he’s one of the hat-in-hand UFA signings we’ll see more of who had to take a big salary cut ($5 mil + to $1 mil in his case) to keep playing, but it’s only for 1 season and that provides him with plenty of motive to show he’s not completely finished at 30.
Now they have $1,306,467 with which to sign 2 so Dubas is going to have to make another similar move in order to re-up RFAs Mikheyev and Dermott. And again, some of us have been saying this was coming for weeks now. That’s the cost of finding yourself stuck in a flat cap world.
LOL, Uwey, we were on the same wave-length at the same time.
HaHa George,
Old minds think alike!!!!
George, I could see Toronto moving Dermott at some point. They may view Sandin as a better bet.
Good trade for the Avs. Now they just need to find one more experienced D to fill out the back end and figure out what to do with Jost.
@ NMAvsFsn
You are asking for a versatile D man ..I just noticed that the AVs gave up on Rosen ..and he is on the Leafs roster ..I did not know this or se when this happened ..is this a mistake …as it looks as if the leafs picked him up along the line again !
Who are you hoping to sign for an extra D man ?/
Cheers
He was traded for hutchison which turned out sort of for Sakic as he needed another goalie in the playoffs.
Rosen will play in ahl or sweden
Well, it’s off to Moncton now, eight hour round trip drive. Looks like rain for some of it!!!!
I would rather sit here & debate hockey, but it’s the things we do for family.
Safe drive Uwey. That’s a long haul!