The Blackhawks traded forward Dylan Sikura to the Golden Knights in order to re-acquire forward Brandon Pirri on Monday.
Sikura, a 2014 sixth-round pick, split the past two seasons between the NHL and AHL after his college career at Northeastern, where he was a top-10 finalist for the Hobey Baker Award. The 25-year-old had 14 points (one goal, 13 assists) in 47 NHL games and 68 points (31 goals, 37 assists) in 91 games for the Rockford IceHogs, but struggled to solidify a full-time spot in the NHL.
The 29-year-old Pirri split this past season between Vegas and the Chicago Wolves of the AHL. He had two assists in 16 NHL games and 35 points (15 goals, 20 assists) in 38 AHL games. He played 35 games with the Blackhawks from 2010-14, and was the AHL’s top scorer with 75 points (22 goals, 53 assists) in 2012-13 after he was selected in the second round of the 2009 NHL Draft.
Pirri has 121 points (72 goals, 49 assists) in 275 games during his 10-year NHL career with the Blackhawks (2010-14), Panthers (2014-16), Ducks (2015-16), Rangers (2016-17) and Golden Knights (2017-20).
Pirri has a $775,000 salary cap hit, and will cost the Blackhawks $25,000 more than Sikura would have. Both players are under contract through the 2020-21 season.