Blackhawks GM turns Trevor Daley lemon into salary cap lemonade

What the hell happened with Trevor Daley and the Chicago Blackhawks?

He came over in the Patrick Sharp trade from the Dallas Stars, where he scored 16 goals last and had the worst possession stats for any regular defenseman in the NHL.

He ostensibly was there to replace Johnny Oduya, who was a stay-at-home defenseman. He was a good soldier and worked at changing his game to fit the Blackhawks’ system, which isn’t easy, and it was a struggle for Daley.

He turned around his possession numbers, but that was also a product of usage: Daley was sixth on the Blackhawks in defensive zone start percentage at 21.2 percent, and second in offensive zone start percentage at 41.1 percent. Daley was being protected by Joel Quenneville, given a chance to offer offensive spark while limiting his potential for defensive lapses.

We expected Quenneville to shelter Daley, but this was like putting him in a defensive zone fallout shelter.

But if you are given ample chances to score, you best score, and Daley didn’t. He had six points in 29 games with no goals. His ice time was all over the map until recently, when he went five straight games with under 13 minutes of ice time before skating 13:09 in his last game with the Blackhawks.

They knew it wasn’t working, and he knew it wasn’t working, so Daley requested a trade to Pittsburgh. "I have more to give than they allowed me to do,” he told Pens Inside Scoop.

So Stan Bowman flips him for Rob Scuderi. The Penguins get a mobile, puck-moving defenseman who arrives 48 hours after they fired a coach whose system was contingent on mobile, puck-moving defensemen. (Whoops.) The Blackhawks get a castoff from Pittsburgh who was their worst possession defenseman (sound familiar?) but plays a stay-at-home game where Daley obviously did not.

But the key to the deal is cap space. The Penguins are retaining one-third of Scuderi’s salary to make this deal work. Daley’s cap hit was $3.3 million; Scuderi comes in at $2.25 million. (Both are signed through 2017.)

That sliver of cap savings could be huge down the line, considering how close the Blackhawks are to the ceiling; and considering how shrewd and aggressive GM Stan Bowman can be around the deadline ...

In the end, it’s not a bad deal for either team. Daley should thrive in the Penguins’ new system under Mike Sullivan, which promises to be a bit more free-wheeling than in Chicago. Scuderi is a character guy who can play on the PK (Daley played 1:17 in total shorthanded time) and won’t have to be zone-coddled like the player he’s replacing.

But, most importantly, the trade gives Stan Bowman a cap space gift card to spend before the deadline. The Central should take notice…

____
Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

MORE FROM YAHOO SPORTS