Chicago Blackhawks are providing their newly-appointed head coach Jeremy Colliton some more talent to work with. The team announced on Tuesday that they have acquired forward Alexander Nylander in a trade with Buffalo Sabres.
As part of the deal, Blackhawks will send promising defenseman Henri Jokiharju to the Sabres. Jokiharju made his NHL debut last season and ended up playing 38 games and providing 12 assists.
Blackhawks move for Alexander Nylander isn’t a surprise when you know that the organization admired the 21-year-old long before he made his NHL debut. Chicago’s general manager Stan Bowman had interest in drafting Nylander in 2016 NHL Entry Draft, but Sabres beat them to it and took him eighth overall. This is why it wasn’t hard for Bowman to pull the trigger when he got the opportunity to acquire him in a trade.
“It’s not easy to acquire talented players like Alex,” – said Bowman. “He’s somebody we scouted … (and) we were very impressed with him. He’s a guy we had a lot of time for and we knew we weren’t going to be able to draft him, drafting in the second round. But he’s such a high-skilled, talented player so when those are the situations you’re looking at, trying to acquire someone like that, you have to deal from a position of strength.”
So far, Nylander didn’t manage to live up to his potential, as he struggled with consistency and injuries in the past two seasons. He ended up playing only 12 games in 2018/19 and contributed with two goals and two assists. But the Sweden international is hoping that he will get the opportunity to bounce back with the Blackhawks.
“Buffalo, that kind of stuff, that’s in the past. Obviously thought maybe I would be in the NHL sooner than I have been, but I’m just really excited, looking forward to being part of the Blackhawks organization,” – said Nylander after the trade. “Really good with development players, so they actually know what they’re doing.”
