The Chicago Blackhawks have traded Marian Hossa, Vinnie Hinostroza, Jordan Oesterle and a third-round pick in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft to the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for Marcus Kruger, Mackenzie Entwistle, Jordan Maletta, Andrew Campbell and a fifth-round pick in the 2019 fifth-round draft pick, the Blackhawks announced Thursday.
OFFICIAL: The #Blackhawks have acquired Marcus Kruger, MacKenzie Entwistle, Jordan Maletta, Andrew Campbell and a 2019 fifth-round draft pick from Arizona in exchange for Marian Hossa, Vinnie Hinostroza, Jordan Oesterle and a 2019 third-round pick. pic.twitter.com/2C2QxZkIGX
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) July 12, 2018
This move serves largely as a salary cap dump for the Blackhawks who will be saving $4.65 million in this deal with Kruger being the only player sent to Chicago who will account for any sort of cap space. This gives the Blackhawks a hair over $8.5 million in available cap space which should give them some room to maneuver this offseason where they previously were hemmed in due to the contract of Hossa.
While Hossa was an excellent player for the Blackhawks and is a sure-fire Hall of Famer with three Stanley Cup rings to his name, the Blackhawks simply couldn’t afford to keep him on their books knowing he wouldn’t be playing for them again after reports surfaced last June that Hossa’s career may be over.
In this deal, the Blackhawks are also seeing the return of Kruger to their lineup following a season away from the club. The Blackhawks originally traded Kruger to the Vegas Golden Knights in July of 2017 in what was seen as a cap dump at the time. Kruger was later moved again to the Carolina Hurricanes just three days later and had arguably the worst season of his professional career with his new club.
The 28-year-old would be moved to the Coyotes in a deal during the 2018 NHL Playoffs and just a few months later finds himself back home in Chicago with the team that drafted him in 2009 and that he called home for seven seasons, winning two Stanley Cups in that time.
The Blackhawks also received Entwistle, a third-round pick of the Coyotes in 2017, Campbell, primarily an AHL-level defender and Maletta, a 23-year-old who has spent two seasons in the AHL since going undrafted out of the OHL.
Coyotes Making Familiar Moves
For the Coyotes, this type of deal is nothing new. In the last few years, the team has made trades to acquire an inactive contract on three separate occasions, including the acquisition of Chris Pronger in June 2015, Pavel Datsyuk in June 2016 and Dave Bolland in August 2016. In these trades, the Coyotes have done their best to recoup some valuable assets in exchange for taking on the bad contracts.
Because Hossa’s contract is insured for 80% of its value, per CapFriendly, the $1 million in base salary that Hossa is due in each of the next three seasons will cost the team $200,000 instead. An affordable tradeoff for the cap space that the Coyotes already had in spades.
The Coyotes are also getting a solid addition to their lineup in Vinnie Hinostroza who was just re-signed by the Blackhawks in June as a restricted free agent. While he may not have shown star potential as a forward on the scoreboard, Hinostroza’s versatility and solid two-way game make him an appealing piece for the Coyotes.
The Coyotes also received Oesterle from the Blackhawks, a 26-year-old defender who played in 55 games with the Blackhawks in 2017-18 and scored five goals and 15 points. The 26-year-old Oesterle also spent parts of three seasons with the Edmonton Oilers, playing in 25 games with the team and recording six assists.