Blackhawks Trade Trio To Clear Cap Space

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Jun 24, 2010 2:00PM

The Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup just two weeks ago, and the city is still feeling the excitement of its rekindled romance with hockey. Many new fans just learned how to properly pronounce Byfuglein, and now the Blackhawks have gone and traded Big Buff away. With salary cap constraints preventing the Hawks from keeping this year's winning team intact, they made their first moves of the off-season by sending Dustin Byfuglein, Ben Eager, Brent Sopel and prospect Akim Aliu to the Atlanta Thrashers in return for a first-round pick, a second-round pick, prospect Jeremy Morin and veteran forward Marty Reasoner. The move clears about $5 million in cap room for the Hawks, who can use the money to re-sign those who remain. How might the team's finances be different had former GM Dale Tallon not fucked up the restricted free agent tenders last summer, which cost the team big bucks to re-sign some of their own players? Still, it's good to know that regardless of the trade, Sopel will still be at Sunday's Pride Parade, Stanley Cup in tow (on board the float sponsored by the bar Crew).

For a bit of good Blackhawks related news, Duncan Keith was named the NHL's top defenseman and won the Norris Trophy at Wednesday night's NHL awards ceremony.