Sept. 11--With the start of the regular season less than a month away, the Blackhawks made a series of moves Friday to shore up their roster and get under the menacing salary cap.
Veteran winger Kris Versteeg, once a cap casualty after the 2010 season, became one again after the Hawks traded him and young forward Joakim Nordstrom to the Hurricanes.
That move allowed the team to re-sign center Marcus Kruger, who was a restricted free agent, to a one-year deal.
The Hawks dealt Versteeg along with Nordstrom and a third-round pick in 2017 to the Hurricanes for defensive prospects Dennis Robertson and Jake Massie and a fifth-round pick in 2017.
"Kris is a skilled forward who has won a pair of Cups with the Blackhawks and can provide veteran leadership in our room," Hurricanes general manager Ron Francis said. "Joakim is a solid, 200-foot player who can kill penalties. This gives us more options up front for this season, while also now giving us 10 picks in the first three rounds over the next two drafts."
The deal was essentially a cap-clearing measure for the Hawks to re-sign Kruger, a key cog for the Hawks' checking line and their penalty kill.
Versteeg had carried a $2.2 million cap hit for the Hawks with the Panthers paying half of Versteeg's $4.4 million salary as part of the deal that sent Versteeg back to Chicago in 2013. Versteeg, who also was on the 2010 Cup-winning team, has one year remaining on his deal.
Nordstrom was a serviceable fourth-line player for the Hawks who played 54 games the last two seasons. Nordstrom had recently re-signed a one-year deal with the Hawks.
In the deal, the Hawks received a pair of players who likely won't contribute right away.
Massie, 18, was a sixth-round pick of the Hurricanes in June while Robertson, 24, tallied 17 points in 57 games last season for the Charlotte Checkers of the AHL in his first full season as a professional.
chine@tribpub.com
