Zack Smith’s tenure in Chicago has been rather short thus far as he’s only in his first season with the Blackhawks after being acquired for Artem Anisimov over the summer. However, it appears that they’ve seen enough from him already as Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch reports that Chicago is shopping the center around the league.
The 31-year-old has played in just five of Chicago’s eight games so far this season and was scratched for the other three. When he has played, his role has been rather limited as Smith has averaged just 9:52 per night, well below his career average of 14:56.
Smith is signed through 2020-21 with a cap hit of $3.25MM. Considering the price tag and term relative to his limited role, it’s hard to imagine that there will be a long list of suitors; it’s worth noting that Smith cleared waivers outright last season. As a result, it’s likely that Chicago would have to retain on the contract to find a taker, take another not very good contract back, or both in order to facilitate a trade.
Smith joins Brendan Perlini as players that are known to be available from the Blackhawks in the early going of the season. While neither player has made much of an impact, it seems as if GM Stan Bowman is open to shaking up the bottom end of his roster with the team off to a quiet 2-4-2 start in 2019-20.
Ottawa fleeced ’em
Anisimov has been horrible.
I like him better, but not sure you can call that a win.
Traded a really bad forwards for a bad forward making more money.
not exactly a fleecing
Is Stan overruling the scouting staff? Or, is he getting stooged by the scouting staff?
In my opinion it means that Kirby Dach is staying in the NHL.
Nah. It just means Smith is really bad.
Bottom six needs revamping except , Kampf, Kubalik ,Nylander are playing well , a few minor tweeks with moving Smith and Perlini would help for bottom 6 forward would help. Hope they keep Dach has looked good playing with Kane and Strome. would like to throw in sweetner in maybe Saad and his $6 million cap hit, in order to acquire a defenseman or forward with $3 million in cap space gonna be tough.