The Chicago Blackhawks acquired veteran defenseman Rob Scuderi from the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for defenseman Trevor Daley, the team announced Monday. The moves ends Daley’s brief tenure with the team after being acquired from the Dallas Stars over the summer as part of the Patrick Sharp trade.
Scuderi, 36, has a $3.375 million cap hit for this season and next season. The Penguins are retaining one-third of that figure, or $1.125 million, which means the Hawks come out of this deal with some financial savings. Daley is owed $3.3 million through 2016-17, so Chicago comes out with $1.05 million in extra space.
The Hawks have reportedly been looking to make an addition to their blue line since early in the season. Daley failed to step up and grab a steady top-four role after coming over from Dallas, and while he showed signs of improvement, it wasn’t too long ago that we were wondering whether his time in Chicago was running short.
Now we see that the team was indeed looking to move Daley and get a different veteran defenseman in a single move. Scuderi will likely take over as a third-pairing blue liner for the team going forward, and while he’s not exactly exciting, the flexibility added by shedding over $1 million in salary both this year and next year is definitely valuable. Even if Scuderi doesn’t have Daley’s offensive upside, it’s not surprising that the Hawks ran out of patience with a player who openly struggled to adapt to the team’s system.
Daley finishes his 29-game stay in Chicago with zero goals and six assists. Scuderi comes over after recording four assists in 25 games with the Penguins. A 12-year NHL veteran, he’s won Stanley Cups in 2009 with Pittsburgh and in 2012 with Los Angeles. That championship experience likely played a factor in the Hawks’ interest in Scuderi as well.