Blackhawks gain cap flexibility, send Anisimov to Senators for Zack Smith

Smith comes to Chicago after spending his first 11 NHL seasons all in Ottawa.

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Anisimov and Smith are both 31-year-old centers, but Smith comes $1.3 million cheaper.

The Blackhawks finally unloaded Artem Anisimov on Tuesday after months of speculation, sending the expensive forward to the Senators in exchange for the similar but cheaper Zack Smith.

Smith and Anisimov are both 31-year-old centers, and the former will likely slot into the same spot on the third line that the latter previously filled in Chicago.

But the difference in their contracts — Smith carries a $3.25 million cap hit for the next two seasons; Anisimov a $4.55 million cap hit for the same time period — gives the Hawks a valuable extra $1.3 million. They now have the space to comfortably resign RFA Brendan Perlini, who is projected to get about $2 million, and have wiggle room for call-ups during the season.

Smith is also significantly better at the faceoff dot, an area that GM Stan Bowman identified as an area in need of improvement this summer (the Ryan Carpenter signing on July 1 should also help in this regard).

Smith has won slightly over 50 percent of 2,778 draws over the past four seasons; Anisimov has won only 45.2 percent of 3,706 draws.

Anisimov was a decent scorer with the Blackhawks, but struggled on faceoffs.

The downside comes in the pure scoring department. Outside of a fluky 25-goal eruption in 2015-16, Smith has never tallied more than 16 goals and 32 points in a season. He scored nine goals and 28 points in 70 games this past year.

Anisimov, despite the bad reputation his contract created on his behalf, has regularly exceeded those scoring totals. He registered 15 goals and 37 points in 78 games last season and had previously hit the 20-goal plateau in three straight seasons.