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Patrick Sharp Trade: How It Affects The Avalanche

By Janik Beichler

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The Colorado Avalanche’s division rivals from Dallas and Chicago have made a blockbuster of a trade, with forward Patrick Sharp being the main piece in the deal. From the Blackhawks’ official release:

"The Chicago Blackhawks announced today they have acquired defenseman Trevor Daley and forward Ryan Garbutt from the Dallas Stars in exchange for forward Patrick Sharp and defenseman Stephen Johns.“On behalf of the entire Blackhawks organization, I’d like to thank Patrick for all that he helped our franchise accomplish during his time in Chicago, especially serving an integral role in bringing us three Stanley Cup championships,” said VP/GM Stan Bowman. “He was one of our leaders on the ice, most notably as an alternate captain for several seasons, as well as off the ice with his countless contributions and volunteer work with team partners, sponsors and Blackhawks fans everywhere. He will forever be a Blackhawk and we wish him and his family nothing but the best in Dallas and beyond.”"

The reason for the deal is obviously that Chicago was in desperate need of a salary dump and that is what they get here. Patrick Sharp has a cap hit of $5.9 million, according to General Fanager. Furthermore, the Stars are retaining 50 percent of Garbutt’s salary, as per ESPN Hockey Analyst Pierre LeBrun.

Obviously, the deal will also affect the Colorado Avalanche in one way or the other. In my first early Central Division power ranking, I had Patrick Sharp’s Blackhawks as the clear-cut No. 1 and the Dallas Stars on the last place. That, however, could now change.

The Blackhawks lost Brandon Saad, Brad Richards, Antoine Vermette, Johnny Oduya, Michal Roszival and now Patrick Sharp. In return they got Artem Anisimov, Marko Dano and now Ryan Garbutt and Trevor Daley. It seems harsh, but if you just go by position and what holes the new players will fill, it is almost like the trades shook out as the following:

  1. Anisimov for Richards
  2. Dano for Vermette
  3. Daley for Oduya
  4. Sharp for Garbutt
  5. Saad and Roszival for, er, well….

It doesn’t look great to me overall. Of course it was all about saving money — otherwise you wouldn’t just give away two stars like Saad and Sharp. However, the Blackhawks still have an outstanding roster with players like Toews, Kane, Hossa, Keith or Seabrook. Nevertheless, the race for first place in the Division may have got a fair bit closer.

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For the Stars, it looked much worse before and it still does. The club had no problems scoring goals for the most part last season, but couldn’t keep the puck out of their own net. So now they traded for another scoring forward and gave away one of their best defensemen in the process.

It is beyond me how that will fix the problems. Outscore all the defensive problems? My personal assumption is that there is a UFA signing coming for the Stars — perhaps Cody Franson or even Blackhawk Johnny Oduya?

So overall, there won’t be a lot of change for the Avalanche. If they get their possession stats up, they may be able to win about, well, every game against the Stars again next season. It will still be tough against the Hawks, but perhaps a little bit easier than last season. We’ll see how it goes.

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