NHL Trade Rumors: Blackhawks trying to acquire Evgeni Malkin?

Are the Blackhawks trying to trade for Penguins center Evgeni Malkin?

The Chicago Blackhawks are trying to upgrade their team while staying under the salary cap. However, according to a recent rumor that just won’t go away, the Blackhawks are talking to the Pittsburgh Penguins about acquiring star center Evgeni Malkin.

How could the Blackhawks, a team that was willing to get rid of an extremely talented young forward in Teuvo Teravainen just to get rid of Bryan Bickell’s contract, possibly find the cap space necessary to add Malkin? While they could trade Jonathan Toews or Patrick Kane straight up for Malkin, that sounds like a trade that the Penguins would decline because they too are very close to the cap ceiling and Toews and Kane each have a cap hit of $1 million greater than Malkin’s $9.5 million cap hit.

In order for a Malkin trade to the Blackhawks to happen, the money would need to work perfectly for both sides. A package including, say, Artemi Panarin and Artem Anisimov, might get the ball rolling. Panarin is a bright young star who the Penguins could hypothetically extend without Malkin’s salary around. Anisimov is a nice value at his cap hit and his chemistry with Panarin is valuable. However, in that hypothetical scenario, there would still be roughly $4.2 million that would need to be added from the Blackhawks side. Where’s that coming from?

Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman has never been one for huge trades unless his hands are tied. That’s why these Malkin to the Blackhawks rumors are exactly what they are – rumors. Because they likely are impossible to occur.

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