The Horrific Artemi Panarin Trade That Sent the Blackhawks Into a Downward Spiral
The Blackhawks failed miserably with a trade in 2017 and the team went downhill quickly from there.
The Horrific Artemi Panarin Trade That Sent the Blackhawks Into a Downward SpiralThe Chicago Blackhawks have not been a Stanley Cup contender since 2016-17. They've barely qualified for the playoffs once in the past seven seasons.
The downfall of this team was largely its own doing. It started with a horrible, unnecessary trade of sniper Artemi Panarin in June 2017.
Former general manager Stan Bowman dealt a then-25-year-old Panarin to the Columbus Blue Jackets after the winger came in hot to the league with consecutive 30-plus goal, 74-plus point seasons. Signed as a free agent in May 2015, Panarin won the Calder Trophy in 2015-16 and often clicked with Patrick Kane in his first two NHL seasons.
Panarin was moved from Chicago to Columbus along with center Tyler Motte and a 2017 sixth-round pick in exchange for forward Brandon Saad, goalie Anton Forsberg and a 2018 fifth-round pick. It goes down as one of the worst trades in Blackhawks history and up there in league history.
Seven full seasons have played out since this deal and Panarin — now leading the President's Trophy winner New York Rangers into the playoffs — hasn't finished under a point-per-game in any of them. In 510 games, the Russian star has recorded 204 goals, 426 assists, and 630 points. He has not only led his team in points all seven seasons, Panarin ranks fifth in the league in points since being traded from the Blackhawks.
The Blackhawks last won the Stanley Cup in 2014-15 and traded Saad that offseason to create cap space. Chicago followed with strong regular seasons in 2015-16 and 2016-17 (103, then 109 points) but lost in the opening playoff each time. The Blackhawks made the trade to bring Saad back, thinking this was going to improve postseason success.
Saad had put up back-to-back 53-point seasons with the Blue Jackets, scoring a total 55 goals and 106 points in 2015-16 and 2016-17. Meanwhile, Panarin recorded 61 goals and 151 points in the same span with Chicago.
Saad hasn't hit 50 points since the trade back to the Blackhawks, and over the last seven years (only three on Chicago), he has scored 146 goals and recorded 267 points in 495 games.
Other Players in Deal
Forsberg, now with Ottawa, played one season as the backup in Chicago before moving on. In the 2017-18 season, he started 30 games and posted a record of 10-16-4. While he had a .908 save percentage, this value doesn't come close to what Panarin brought to the Blackhawks and has continued to for the Blue Jackets and Rangers.
With consecutive losing seasons post-Panarin, the Blackhawks ended up removing the second-winningest coach in NHL history, Joel Quenneville, near the start of the 2018-19 season. Of course, Quenneville is currently banned from coaching in the NHL in the aftermath of the Brad Aldrich sexual assault scandal. See story in link.
In the seven seasons since the Panarin trade, Chicago has finished last in their division four times, second-last twice, and third-last once (6th of 8th).
After attempts to make the Blackhawks competitive again, all failed and full-sale mode started at the 2022 trade deadline when Brandon Hagel was dealt to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
There's no telling where the Blackhawks would have been today (likely without Connor Bedard), but the team would not have struggled to make the playoffs and went from first in the division to last place if Panarin was still there. This is one of those trades you would like to forget, but won't until after Panarin retires or the Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup again.
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