Not since the St. Louis Blues united the unholy trinity of David Backes, Steve Ott and Max Lapierre has the NHL seen this much pest in one place.
The Ducks acquired Garbutt, 30, from the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday in exchange for Jiri Sekac, 23, who is now on his third team in the span of a year, but will still have fans in Montreal swearing he’s one of Michel Therrien’s most lamentable exiles.
Garbutt has six points in 43 games, along with 94 hits. He came over with defenseman Trevor Daley in the Patrick Sharp trade, meaning that GM Stan Bowman has now traded away both assets he acquired in that deal – and in this case, made the Garbutt deal during a Blackhawks’ winning streak. Because that’s how they roll.
Sekac has a goal and two assists in 22 games with the Ducks this season.
Why make the deal if you’re the Blackhawks? It’s essentially a cap neutral deal, as Garbutt makes $900,000 (that’s $1.8 million, with $900,000 retained by Dallas) and Sekac makes $925,000. But Garbutt has a year left on his deal before going UFA, and Sekac is an RFA at the end of the year. Presumably, that and his age make him portable if he doesn’t latch on with the Blackhawks.
Garbutt, meanwhile, is the kind of grunt Bruce Boudreau has always loved: Throws the body around and a bit of a pest. An energy player for a team that’s lacked it this season.
No comments:
Post a Comment