Canes Aid Blackhawks in Savings Deal

To Carolina	Pos	Age	GP	G/W	P	Years	Cap
Teuvo Teravainen	F	21	78	13	35	1	$894k
Brian Bickell	F	30	25	0	2	1	$4 mil
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To Chicago	Pos	Age	GP	G/W	P	Years	Cap
2016 2nd Round Draft Pick
2017 3rd Round Draft Pick

Being a budget team in the NHL has very few perks, but in the case of the Carolina Hurricanes, they have made the most of taking on some salary from the strapped Chicago Blackhawks, as they acquired the pool worthy talent of Teuvo Teravainen.

The downside to this deal was that they did have to part with a couple of draft picks and they will have a lump, like Brian Bickell, in their organization for a season.

Nevertheless, the addition of Teravainen is a pretty good add, since he will bring some much-needed skill and size to the Hurricanes lineup and the 21-year old Finn will likely give a comfort to the recently signed Finns, including youngster Sebastian Aho.  He hasn't quite shown off his full potential quite yet in the regular season, but he has been a good playoff performer, when called upon.  That may not be of much concern to the Hurricanes today, but if this franchise can get off the ground again, he will certainly be a great asset down the road.

As it stands though, Teravainen could log some pretty good minutes in Carolina and whether or not it will be with a kid like Aho or established players like Jeff Skinner or Jordan Staal, he has the potential to lift up his draft ranking in next year's pool, but I wouldn't go too crazy, when doing up his projections for next season.

Last season, Bickell was a buried contract in the minors for the better part of the year and came up, as cap space opened up and the team drew closer to the playoffs.  The depth in Carolina may mean that he will have a place to play in the 2017 season or he could be bought out to save their own cap space and bottom line.  The Hurricanes will have until the end of the month to decide his fate.

The Blackhawks, on the other hand, add some much-needed cap flexibility with this deal, dropping nearly $5 million in cap space.  I currently have their projected roster at 13 players and $59.5 million, with plenty of youth to fill in the gaps, if needed.  Andrew Shaw remains as the key restricted free agent in the Summer.

At the draft, Chicago now has a decent 2nd round pick, something they didn't have before this deal, so they can start adding to their young stock with the 50th overall draft pick next week.