The Chicago Blackhawks trade forward Brandon Saad and defenseman Dennis Gilbert to the Colorado Avalanche for defensemen Nikita Zadorov and Anton Lindholm.
The Blackhawks are retaining $1 million of Saad’s contract.
The 27-year old Saad was 43rd drafted overall in the 2nd round of the 2011 draft. He has one year left at $6 million.
The 23-year old Gilbert was drafted 91st overall in the 3rd round of the 2015 draft. He carries a $925,000 cap hit.
The 25-year old Zadorov was drafted 16th overall in the 1st round of the 2013 draft. He’s an RFA.
The 25-year old Lindholm was drafted 144th overall in the 5th round of the 2014 draft. He carries a $742,500 cap hit.
Ryan S. Clark: Avalanche GM Joe Sakic on Brandon Saad: “In Brandon we are acquiring a two-time Stanley Cup champion who brings veteran leadership and experience to our team. He is a proven goal scorer and at age 27, is in the prime of his career.”
Ben Pope: “Nikita Zadorov is a 25-year-old RFA defenseman. He’s a 2nd-pair caliber defensive defenseman. He racks up a lot of hits with his 6’6″, 235 lb. body but not a lot of points. Analytically, he’s slightly above average defensively and well below average offensively.”
Ben Pope: “Zadorov is a solid player, and by no means old. But I will say, this does not really fit with the new rebuilding/youth-oriented ideology Bowman laid out Thursday. I expected Saad to be dealt for picks + prospects based on that.”
Dimitri Filipovic: “Brandon Saad is going to be awesome for the Avalanche. They already have the high end finishers. He can just play a secondary puck retrieval role and thrive with the pace they play at as a team. The fact that they got Chicago to retain money in the deal is just straight up funny”
🔷 Brandon Saad 🔷
👉🏼Scores goals at a nice clip. 16 5v5 goals this season.
👉🏼But, not much success on the PP this season with only crumbs for minutes,
👉🏼the D-side isn't pretty tho.#GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/oOHyRYqzjP— Jason Paul 🥥 (@WaveIntel) October 10, 2020
Brandon Saad
Dennis Gilbert
Nikita Zadorov
Anton Lindholm