The Chicago Blackhawks have traded forwards Teuvo Teravainen and Bryan Bickell to the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for a 2016 second-round pick and a 2017 third-round pick, the team announced Wednesday. There is no salary retained in the deal, so the Blackhawks have just fully cleared the $4 million cap hit on the last year of Bickell’s deal.
Earlier this month, there was a report that the Blackhawks could package Teravainen with Bickell to move the latter’s contact, and now that move has come to fruition. In exchange for moving Teuvo, Chicago not only saves the $4 million in cap space by trading Bickell, but also receives a pair of draft picks to continue building for the future.
The 2016 pick is No. 50 overall and becomes the Blackhawks’ highest pick in the upcoming draft. The other selection is a 2017 third-rounder.
It goes without saying this is a monster, monster trade to set up the Blackhawks’ offseason. Teravainen was long considered a key cog in Chicago’s future and Bickell’s cap hit was a major hurdle the team had spent years working around. In one move, the team lost a key piece in Teravainen, but added some significant short-term flexibility that should make replacing the 21-year-old forward much easier.
Still, Teuvo is now a member of the Hurricanes. That’s going to sting a bit. We’ll have much more on this trade soon, but for now, the Blackhawks’ summer just got a lot more interesting.