Following the Chicago Blackhawks’ final pre-season game against the New York Rangers Friday night, a 3-2 shootout loss, rumours began to fly about the future of defenseman Nick Leddy.
Chicago is approximately 1.3 million over the salary cap ceiling, something that they absolutely have to correct before opening night on Wednesday, October 8th.
Da Windy City
The 23 year-old Leddy carries a cap hit of 2.7 million and is a restricted free agent at season’s end. Considering the Blackhawks may be forced to move more salary given the combined 21 million they committed to Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, it’s a question of when, not if Nick Leddy becomes a cap casualty.
The game in New York was the second consecutive game that Leddy was scratched. He also was replaced by Brad Richards on the point of the second powerplay unit and has failed to gain the coaching staff’s trust in important situations in his four-year stint under Joel Quenneville.
After the game, “Coach Q” was questioned regarding Leddy being scratched.
"Organizationally we have to see what’s going on."
He was also asked whether Leddy would be part of the opening night roster, to which he simply replied, “We’ll see”.
Add to all that the fact that the top three spots on defense are all locked up by Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook and Niklas Hjalmarsson and it becomes apparent that there is very little room for the offensive defenseman.
The other names that have been linked to possible trades in order for the Blackhawks to become cap compliant have been Kris Versteeg, Johnny Oduya and Michal Rozsival.
Versteeg has had an excellent training camp and looks to finally be recovered from his knee injury. He’s looked faster and more confident, and capable of providing the kind of depth scoring the Hawks expected when they re-acquired him last season.
As for Oduya and Rozsival, it’s simply a case of Leddy being a more attractive option for other teams and thus, bringing in a much better return. Nick Leddy could be the odd man out in Chicago.
If I were a betting man, I’d put good money on Nick Leddy starting the season in a city that isn’t so windy. But is that necessarily the correct choice?
While it’s true Leddy has some issues to work out when it comes to his own end, an area the Hawks coaching staff absolutely requires all their players to perform well in, the organization simply doesn’t have another defenseman other than Keith in the system that can push the puck up ice like he can.
To most Blackhawks fans that may sound crazy, but the Oilers learned the hard way that if the defense can’t get the puck up ice, it doesn’t matter how much talent you have up front.
My intention is not to compare the Blackhawks to the Oilers. I’m simply saying that for a team built to win it all this season, and built on speed and a strong transition game, it may be more beneficial to take a lesser return by trading a Rozsival than by dealing Nick Leddy.