Today’s Trade Deadline…*Update 2:20 CST

As the pre- Olympic trade deadline is upon us one thing has become obvious. 

There are only a handful of teams which are clearly out of the playoff chase. That would be the reason for a general manager to acquire someone today, before a two week hiatus and pay his salary. There is a more limited amount of players available and so a GM may have no other choice but to pay the added expense. 

I am not sure if Stan Bowman will feel a compulsion to pull the trigger today. If he does it will be because of a fear of missing the chance to acquire a valued piece to the Blackhawks playoff puzzle. 

Teams which are sellers today will probably be overpaid. 

Matt Cullen is a solid veteran player but Ottawa paid a stiff price to acquire him. They gave up a NHL player but more importantly also sent a second round draft pick to Carolina. Being able to get second rounder included signals the sellers are in control today and probably will be on March 3 as well. 

The Blackhawks fourth line has not had the consistency of last year’s group. 

A couple of forwards which may be available today and could add some grit to the Hawks lineup are from the Blue Jackets. Left wing Raffi Torres and right wing Jared Boll have expiring contracts and the Blue Jackets need to shuffle the deck. Columbus has changed their head coach and next they will reshape the roster. 

Because of frequent injuries to Ben Eager and the inconsistency of Tomas Kopecky, Bowman may look to add to the grinders. Normally the Hawks and Columbus wouldn’t help each other with a trade but these are different times. It will be interesting to see if the Jackets jump up as a seller today. 

The Oilers are obvious sellers and Mike Comrie and a couple of others could be on Bowman’s radar.  

Almost  everyone will be available for the right price from Edmonton….maybe even tough guy Zach Stortini.

More later on if need be. 

I will have a blog out tomorrow regardless of whether the Hawks are involved in a trade today.

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Per Bob McKenzie….. it appears the Hawks and Wild have traded defensemen, maybe more. They could be finalizing with the league.

Stay tuned….