Kings and Blackhawks have pulled off a 1 for 1 trade.

Details inside.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 3 years ago
Kings and Blackhawks have pulled off a 1 for 1 trade.
Mike Wulf/CSM/Zuma

The Chicago Blackhawks and the Los Angeles Kings have struck a deal.

According to an official announcement from the Los Angeles Kings, the Kings have acquired veteran defenseman Olli Maatta from the Blackhawks in exchange for forward Brad Morrison. Although this is a one for one trade, this was clearly designed to be a salary dump on the part of a Blackhawks organization that had not been particularly overwhelmed by the contributions of the aforementioned Maatta.

Maatta, a former first round pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins, is clearly the better player here and is the only one in this trade deal that has experience in the National Hockey League. Last season he made 65 appearances for the Chicago Blackhawks in which he recorded 4 goals and added 13 assists for 17 points and a plus minus rating of 0. 

Morrison on the other hand has never played in the NHL. The former 4th round pick of the New york Rangers spent his early career in the Western Hockey League before spending time with the Ontario Reign of the American Hockey League two seasons ago. Most recently he appeared in just 17 games for the Fort Wayne Komets of the ECHL during the 2019 - 2020 season, recording 6 goals and 13 assists for 19 points.

As I stated this was clearly a move designed to clear cap space for the Blackhawks, with Morrison's addition to this deal likely coming due to a desire on the part of one, or both, teams to even out the contracts being moved in this deal. The Blackhawks will retain $750,108 of Maata's cap hit as per Chris Johnston of Sportsnet.

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