This morning, The Hawks traded Ryan Garbutt to Anaheim for Jiri Sekac.
Just to get it out of the way, The Hawks have now netted Jiri Sekac and Rob Scuderi in exchange for one of the most dynamic players to wear The Indian Head. Yeah, yeah, salary cap, bla bla bla... it still bugs me. Were there that few GMs interested in Sharp?
Anyway...
What We Lose:
Very little, as it turns out. Garbutt had the lowest shooting percentage of any Hawks player who has bothered to score a goal this season, despite having hurled more shots on net than Panarin or Anisimov, among others, and possessed the worst plus/minus rating on the club. He had a look on the Toews line and spent a very short period in the PK rotation. He was a healthy scratch a handful of times, as well. Garbutt had another year on his current contract which is now Anaheim's millstone.
What We Gain:
Hard to say. Sekac put up okay numbers while with Montreal last season (7G, 9A in 50 games) considering the ice time (not much) and the quality of his usual linemates (rarely good). It appears that Sekac was unable to infiltrate Bruce Boudreau's Inner Circle (or possibly even his Outer Circle, if that's a thing), even after a brief audition on The Ducks' second line. He missed about six weeks with an ankle injury and has been a healthy scratch off and on during the last week+.
Sekac is smallish "skill" player who is believed to have considerable offensive potential. As he will likely enter The Hawks' lineup alongside Rasmussen and Panik he's not going to be lining up with premier talent but, that said, it's certain that Ras and Panik just got a better linemate. Did that make sense? I wouldn't be shocked, either, if Sekac gets deployed in Desjardin's spot on the third line, but that seems less likely due to the Des/Danault/Teravainen trio playing rather well together.
Money-wise it's a push, with Sekac earning a few bucks more than Garbutt, but that contract expires this spring, so Stan Bowman gets to Try Before he Buys.
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