Sharp Crunched, Off to Dallas

			2015		2016
To Dallas	POS	Age	G/W	P	Cap
Patrick Sharp	F	33	16	43	$5.9 mil
Stephen Johns	D	23	0	0	$800k
Retained salary from deal					$900k
--------------
To Chicago	POS	Age	G/W	P	Cap
Ryan Garbutt	F	29	8	25	$900k
Trevor Daley	D	31	16	38	$3.3 mil

The Chicago Blackhawks and Dallas Stars didn't take Friday afternoon off from work, as they sat down and ground out a pretty big deal for both sides.

The Blackhawks were able to deal away one of their big salaries in Patrick Sharp to Dallas, taking on a reasonable salary on the blueline in Trevor Daley and also adding another body up front with Ryan Garbutt also heading to the Windy City.  The deal also sees 2010 draft pick, defenseman Stephen Johns, who signed his entry-level deal in April, head to Dallas as well.

It was a poorly kept secret that the Blackhawks were shopping Sharp around the league, as the cap crunch was doing a number on them and it was too bad that they had to let go of a clutch playoff performer to move forward.

Sharp joins a Stars team that is growing at a rapid pace and even more so, up front, with the acquisition of the veteran forward.  With the talent already in place, the Stars should start to make moves towards the playoffs again and once there, Sharp can finally bring what he offers to the table, the will to win.

The Blackhawks are not fooling around with their obvious cap-related re-tooling, as they are able to pick up a key piece to their ability to make another run in the playoffs, acquiring Daley for their already impressive blueline.

There have been rumblings that the defense may see some further changes in this off-season and the acquisition of the ever-steady Daley should help that cause.  When it comes to scoring in the regular season, Daley nearly matches Sharp from the back end and costs less, so that turns out to be a big win for the Blackhawks already.  Throw a grinding kid like Garbutt into the mix and Chicago could have easily won this deal, off the hop.

Starting with the Stars, I don't think the move makes a great difference on Sharp's projections in the middle of Summer, as he isn't a prolific scorer in the 82 games, but he does help his team win and that may be more a benefit to the team's goaltending projections, more than his own.  I have him coming in as even to start.

The move for Daley and Garbutt to Chicago shows some minor gains, thanks to the coaching staff in Chicago and being implemented well will be half the battle.  Both players are going to feature in the hockey pool draft more prominently, thanks to the move to Chicago, but the trick will be trying not to get too excited about it.