The trade
Blackhawks get: Defenseman Nikita Zaitsev, 2023 second-round pick, 2026 fourth-round pick.
Getting Senators: Future Considerations
Sean Gentille: The price Ottawa paid to lose a year and the change in Nikita Zaitsev’s $4.5 million AAV probably doesn’t bode well for the rest of the league — the exchange rate (second- and fourth-round picks) is high and teams that might be interested in negotiating your way out of Hell should be a little afraid of it.
However, the Senators can get away with it despite already stripping their 2022 first-round pick in the Alex DeBrincat deal. Its core is young, talented, and in most cases — Tim Stützle, Brady Tkachuk, Josh Norris, Drake Batherson, Jake Sanderson — are either locked in long-term or early in their contracts. Ottawa’s potential pipeline isn’t spectacular (24th in Scott Wheeler’s ranking), but it’s as solid as it needs to be, with projected contributions at the top. It’s easy to use a few tips to make bad money go away when you find yourself in such a situation.
Above all, the space created is really worth more than the picks to Ottawa. Next season, the last that Zaitsev would be on the books, Stützle’s overtime occurs and DeBrincat, an upcoming RFA, will likely be back on the books. The Sens need money to accommodate this, build the rest of the roster and maybe have some room to work in the next 10 days.
The Blackhawks could use Zaitsev’s help to reach the cap floor next season. Whether that’s the case or not, his goal won’t matter. They bought a pair of pickaxes for $5 million. Neat deal.
senator class: B
Blackhawks class:A
Shayne Goldman: Zaitsev has been a drag on the Senators backend, an area they need to improve on, so this is an addition through subtraction. While he did have a positive impact on the team’s expected goal suppression in 2020-21, he has hurt the team defensively for the past few seasons. As it stands, Ottawa allows the 10th-highest shooting average at five-for-five and sits in the bottom half of the league in terms of expected goals. This year, in his 28 games played, he’s increased shot rate against roughly five tries per 60 (second-worst on the team) and expected goals conceded by .23 (third-worst).
So it all clicks that the Senators have to pay to postpone his contract and it makes even more sense that the Blackhawks would be willing to absorb him. They already have one of the worst blue lines in the league, and that’s on top of that. Anything to sink her to Connor Bedard and bring her closer to the Cap bottom next year. Since Chicago literally doesn’t care about the bottom line this year or next, the on-ice aspect of this move doesn’t matter, the addition of draft picks does. It’s even more important now that they lost a trade chip in Jonathan Toews and who knows how much leverage they have in a Patrick Kane situation.
This is helping Senators increase their salary flexibility – they have rising costs and should be looking to the market for more defenders to become available – and it’s a cost they can bear considering they’ll be salespeople for some time were and have built up their pool of interested parties. But if that sets the bar for the rest of its competitors as they shift salary to add, some managers will find it difficult to navigate.
Blackhawks class:A
senator class: B
(Photo: Eric Bolte / USA Today)