The Chicago Blackhawks are in real bad shape at the moment and it sounds like there may be wholesale changes coming to the roster very soon. Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman has already shown a willingness to shake things up this season with several major moves already under his belt.
The Blackhawks of course began their shake up by firing long time head coach Joel Quenneville, considered by many to be the very best coach in the entire National Hockey League at the moment. That change did not seem to bring a great deal of improvement with it and following the firing of Quenneville, Bowman moved on to a trade. This time it was talented young forward Nick Schmaltz who was on his way out of Chicago as the Blackhawks looked to bring in 2 former 1st round draft choices in Dylan Strome and Brendan Perlini. In spite of that 2 for 1 trade deal however the Blackhawks have continued to struggle and remain firmly in the NHL's basement this season.
Now it sounds like there are two more players who could soon be moved but what makes this particular rumor so shocking is the fact that the Blackhawks are reportedly willing to take just about anything to get one, or both, of these players off of their current roster. Scott Powers of The Athletic claims that a source has informed him that Chicago is looking to move defenseman Brandon Manning and defenseman Jan Rutta in order to clear cap space. It's unclear if the Blackhawks only wish to move of these two, whichever one that may be, but whats is clear is that it won't cost you much to get them.
According to Powers the source informed him that the Blackhawks would be "willing to accept anything" for either player and there may be some good reasons why.
“I don’t know if they’ll find suitors,” the source said as per The Athletic. “It all depends. Manning is a 6/7 defenseman guy. If you want to get your depth guy now, then maybe. The problem is he has that extra year. Management doesn’t usually want that. It’s about the flexibility. The Blackhawks could eat some of his salary. As for Rutta, I don’t know. I never say never. Some people think they can turn a player around.”
