Blackhawks' Trading of Brandon Saad Shows Free-Agent Dynamic Changing in NHL

It’s as if after years of honoring unwritten rules and being too timid to buck the establishment, the NHL is becoming a place where prized restricted free agents on teams facing salary-cap issues are no longer impervious to offer sheets.

Or at least, the threat of offer sheets.

That’s great news for the league as a whole—not so much for the Chicago Blackhawks.

According to BlueJackets.com, the Blackhawks traded Brandon Saad, a 22-year-old RFA thought to be a big piece of Chicago's future, along with two prospects to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday in exchange for Artem Anisimov, Marko Dano, Corey Tropp, Jeremy Morin and a fourth-round pick in the 2016 draft.

This deal comes on the heels of the Boston Bruins shipping 22-year-old RFA defenseman Dougie Hamilton to the Calgary Flames for draft picks in another move involving a team lacking cap space that was having a hard time signing its young rising star. 

There have been just three offer sheets signed since 2008 and all were matched. Be it the fear of retaliation or just a quiet understanding between general managers, even the threat of an offer sheet wasn’t being exercised with any sort of frequency before this recent deluge. 

Derek Stepan, P.K. Subban and Ryan Johansen are just a few elite players over the past few years who had very public contract squabbles as RFAs yet remained with their teams in what was nothing more than a glorified hostage situation. 

Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

Maybe it’s just a coincidence that Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen, on the job since 2013, and Flames GM Brad Treliving, hired in 2014, don’t seem to have any qualms about strained relationships with their peers or awkward moments in press-box elevators during games as a result of poaching young talent. Kekalainen and Treliving are doing everything they can to improve their teams at the expense of rivals, which seems like an odd thing to praise in competitive sports, yet here we are.

This shift in free-agent dynamic isn’t possible unless the sport’s top RFAs begin asking for what they’re truly worth and not accepting “bridge” deals because general managers are overpaying unrestricted free agents for their declining years instead. As players on teams pressed against the cap, Saad and Hamilton were in unique positions to ask for bigger deals than others.

According to TSN’s Bob McKenzie, Saad asked for six years and $39 million; TSN’s Darren Dreger reported that Hamilton turned down offers of six years at $5.5 million per season before signing with the Flames for six years and $5.75 million. If Hamilton was truly unhappy in Boston and the Bruins knew it, that swung the door open for the Flames to pounce.

For the Blackhawks, the Saad situation was a little different. 

With Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews about to embark on new deals in 2015-16 worth $10.5 million per season apiece, Patrick Sharp with a $5.9 million cap hit over the next two seasons and Bryan Bickell having a $4 million cap hit through 2016-17, GM Stan Bowman had to make room to get Saad under contract. The Blackhawks only had about $6 million in cap room ($71.4 million is the cap number for 2015-16) when Bowman woke up this morning, so something needed to be done to get Saad under contract.

Saad’s asking price would have put the Blackhawks at about $70 million, so it’s not as though the Blackhawks couldn’t have signed him and moved Sharp or Bickell, but the timing was the problem.

Teams can be 10 percent above the cap in the offseason, but the Blackhawks have just nine forwards and five defenseman under contract for next season, so not only was the buffer maybe not enough with free agency opening Wednesday, but RFA Marcus Kruger would’ve been susceptible to the same offer-sheet tactics. 

Perhaps more importantly, Saad would’ve been the team’s third-highest-paid player behind Toews and Kane, and that may have been too rich for Bowman’s blood.

In almost any other season, Bowman would’ve shrugged and waited all summer for Saad to accept whatever number presented to him; in this brave new world of free agency—a world where Matt Beleskey is one of the big names—teams are no longer willing to sit back and let other teams with prized RFAs off the hook in times of cap adversity.

Despite all this, Bowman, unlike GM Don Sweeney in Boston, did OK for himself given he made the deal with his back against the wall. 

Anisimov is a steady two-way center who can assume a top-six or top-nine role vacated by Brad Richards and Antoine Vermette. According to ESPN.com's Craig Custance, the Blackhawks and Anisimov have a five-year extension in the works.

Dano is a 20-year-old forward who had 21 points in 35 games last season, his first in the NHL after the Jackets selected him with the 27th pick in the 2013 draft. He's sort of the centerpiece of the deal because of his potential and ability to take Saad's place in the lineup. Morin, 24, and Tropp, 25, are cheap depth.

The only problem is the Blackhawks still need to make a cap-clearing move. With Saad and his 23 goals heading to Ohio, it only makes sense that the offensively useful Sharp is off the trading block. The truly poetic move to wrap these three days between the draft and free agency would be Bowman dumping Bickell's contract on Sweeney.

From the Blue Jackets' perspective, they have added a potential 30-goal scorer around a great young core with Ryan Johansen, Nick Foligno, Boone Jenner and Sergei Bobrovsky. The Blue Jackets were a playoff team two years ago before injuries destroyed their 2014-15 season. There's every reason to think a healthy squad will push for not just a postseason berth but a Metropolitan Division title next season.

The two prospects in the deal—defenseman Michael Paliotta and forward Alex Broadhurst—could be helpful to the Blue Jackets. Paliotta, especially, has tremendous potential; the 6'3", 207-pounder had 36 points in 41 games during his senior season with the University of Vermont. 

It's a fair deal for both sides considering the circumstances, ones that could present themselves more often in the coming years as GMs become more comfortable with at least saying the word "offer sheet" aloud in a conversation with another GM.

Statistics via NHL.com. Contract information via Spotrac.

Dave Lozo covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @DaveLozo.