Blackhawks trade Nick Leddy to the Islanders

The Blackhawks trade Nick Leddy to the Islanders. Finally.

After a day filled with speculation and heresay, the Chicago Blackhawks have finally dealt the 23 year-old defenseman, getting them under the 69 million dollar salary cap ceiling about a million bucks.

Here’s how the deal breaks down:

In Leddy, the Islanders get a very good puck-moving defenseman who will get an opportunity to develop his somewhat untapped offensive potential. They also get a player who has played and learned behind some of the better transition defensemen in the NHL in Duncan Keith and Niklas Hjalmarsson, something that can’t be overstated. He’s also a Stanley Cup Champion.

The former first round pick has scored 93 points in 258 games over the last four seasons for the Blackhawks, while playing 18 minutes per game.

The questions surrounding Leddy are regarding his defensive game, an area he still needs to improve on if he wants to fulfill his obvious top-4 potential.

If he lands on the Isles top powerplay unit with John Tavares and co., look for him to post career numbers across the board.

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In return, the main piece going the other way is 20 year-old finnish defenseman Ville Pokka. He had an excellent showing on a Gold medal winning team at last year’s World Junior Championships and projects as a two-way defenseman with excellent positioning and a decent offensive game.

He scored 27 points in 54 games with an excellent +32 for Karpat of the SM-Liiga in Finland last season. Pokka was selected in the 2nd round, 34th overall by the Islanders in 2012 and has been compared to former NHLer Toni Lydman.

TJ Brennan is a smooth-skating defenseman with a booming shot who is now on to his 6th NHL organization. For a former 31st overall pick who is only 25 years old, that has to be a little concerning. Still, he’s proven to be quite dominant at the AHL level (25 goals and 72 points last season), so there is definitely some untapped potential there.

As for the goalies swap, I don’t expect to see Anders Nilsson (who is playing in the KHL this year) or Kent Simpson in the NHL any time soon. It’s likely just a changce of scenery for both players. It is worth mentioning however that Nilsson has had a good start to his season in Russia, posting a 4-1-2 record with a 2.10 goals-against-average and a .928 save percentage in his first 8 games with Kazan Ak-bars.

In the end, both teams make out pretty well in this deal. The Islanders upgrade their defense substantially with the addition of Leddy and the earlier trade for Johnny Boychuk, and the Blackhawks receive the salary cap relief they needed as well as some good young players who aren’t too far off from NHL action.