Chicago Blackhawks make third trade by sending Tomas Kopecky to Florida Panthers –NHL Update
The Chicago Blackhawks made their trade transaction of the offseason as they traded their 29 year old Tomas Kopecky to the Florida Panthers for their seventh-round pick in the 2013 draft pick, as announced by the club on Monday.
Prior to this deal, the Blackhawks had also dealt defenseman Brian Campbell to the Panthers for Rostislav Olesz over the weekend. Also, left wing Troy Brouwer was also sent to the Washington Capitals on day one of the 2011 National Hockey League (NHL) Entry
Draft for their 26th pick.
Brouwer had mixed emotions at the situation.
“I’m a little surprised but very happy about it, just moving to a new team, a team like Washington, where I’m going to have the opportunity to play for the Stanley Cup again”, Brouwer said after being traded.
Kopecky was the 38th overall pick of the 2000 NHL Entry Draft by the Detroit Red Wings and remained with them for four seasons. He was traded to the Blackhawks at the end of the 2008-2009 season and played his best ever season with Chicago in
the previous season in which he played 81 games and recorded a career high of 42 points (15 goals, 27 assists).
The Ilava, Slovakia, native was also part of the 2010 Stanley Cup winning Chicago Blackhawks team and registered six points (four goals, two assist) in the 17 games he played in the playoffs.
Since now the move has been announced and is official, the Florida Panthers must negotiate with Kopecky and sign him before he becomes an unrestricted free agent on Friday, July 1. If he does, Florida will have no chance of stopping him whatsoever.
This became the third trade between the two Eastern Conference teams in the duration of a year as the Blackhawks had traded Jack Skille for Michael Frolik and goalie Alexander Salak.
Chicago was not able to get through the first round in the last playoffs, even though they won the Stanley Cup only a year ago from that date. They hope that these small changes will allow them to transform into that championship winning team they once were.
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