Hawks trade Bickell, Teravainen to Carolina in salary dump

Bryan Bickell earned his four-year, $16-million contract. Stan Bowman said as much. Bickell himself believed as much. His name engraved on the Stanley Cup proved as much.

“Obviously, it’s nice to get paid for what you’ve done,” Bickell said. “There are regular season players and playoff players. I was pretty much a playoff player. All the rumors and the talk about how you’re not performing, you’re not doing this, you’re not doing that — I think I helped out in both Cup runs. I definitely did what I needed to do.”

But as his numbers and minutes dipped and his injuries and confidence issues rose, Bickell’s contract became a burden not only to the Blackhawks, but to Bickell himself. He wanted a fresh start as much as the Hawks wanted to give him one, asking for a trade that seemed like it would never come.

Well, after more than 18 months, Bowman finally unloaded the biggest mistake of his wildly successful tenure as general manager. As a result, a source indicated the Hawks expect to re-sign versatile agitator Andrew Shaw, who seemed destined to be another cap casualty as long as Bickell’s albatross of a contract hung around Bowman’s neck.

But it cost the Hawks one of their most promising young players.

The Hawks sent Bickell and Teuvo Teravainen to the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday in exchange for a second-round pick in next week’s draft and a third-rounder next year. It was a pure salary dump, as the cap-strapped Hawks desperately needed to shed Bickell’s $4-million cap hit in order to retain Shaw, a restricted free agent, and fill in the other holes in their lineup.

“This is a step in the right direction,” said Bowman, who is still waiting for next week’s reveal of the 2016-17 salary cap number before locking in Shaw. “We certainly had to move Bickell to have some flexibility going into next season.”

Asked what his initial reaction to the trade was, Bickell, who spent most of last season buried in the American Hockey League, said: “Finally.”

“I’ve got a good opportunity with Carolina,” Bickell said by phone. “They’re willing and excited to get me in the lineup. That’s the biggest thing. To be back in the NHL is my goal.”

For Teravainen, the trade was far more surprising.

“It was just a normal day, then this,” he said by phone from Finland. “You never know what’s going to happen, especially with Chicago with their cap situation. You never know, but I was not expecting anything.”

Teravainen now joins the likes of Dustin Byfuglien, Kris Versteeg, Andrew Ladd, Brian Campbell, Dave Bolland, Nick Leddy, Brandon Saad, Patrick Sharp, Johnny Oduya and a host of other cap-related casualties for the Hawks — all Stanley Cup champions whom the Hawks were compelled to unload by the realities of the salary-cap era. But unlike those names, Teravainen wasn’t the problem. Bickell was. Teravainen was just the price the Hawks paid, and it’s a steep one.

After posting four goals and six assists in the playoffs last spring, the 21-year-old Finn had 13 goals and 22 assists in 78 games this year, but came into his own in a defensive role. He also was Joel Quenneville’s most versatile forward, plugging holes on all four lines and playing all three forward positions throughout the season. Teravainen was a first-round pick in 2012, and had top-six ability. But with Jonathan Toews and Artem Anisimov ahead of him on the depth chart at center, and Marian Hossa and Patrick Kane ahead of him at right wing, there wasn’t much room for upward mobility.

“Playing with a team with a lot of superstars, it’s hard to [get a bigger role] because there’s a lot of good players,” Teravainen said. “Maybe now I get a chance to play more, and I’m excited about it.”

The looming expansion draft next summer might have made moving Teravainen easier to swallow, as the Hawks can only protect so many forwards from the new Las Vegas team. Bowman also pointed to the fact that he was entering the last year of his entry-level contract, and will need a new deal next summer — as will Artemi Panarin. Bowman mentioned Nick Schmaltz, who still is deciding whether to sign a pro contract or return to school at North Dakota, as a Teravainen-type player who can step in.

“The goal is to try to keep this thing going, and have young players coming in,” said Bowman, who was glad to recoup some draft picks. “Even though Teuvo is young. It’s hard these days when you have guys that are entering the final year of their first contract, then things get tricky when players get raises. You’re always looking for the next wave to come in.”

Bickell signed his four-year deal in the summer of 2013 after his breakout performance in the Stanley Cup playoffs, in which he had nine goals and eight assists in 23 games. But he never lived up to the contract. After dealing with vertigo and eye issues during the 2015 Stanley Cup Final, he had no goals and two assists in 25 games with the Hawks last season.

The Hawks had the option of buying out the last year of Bickell’s contract, which would have left them with a $1-million cap hit next season and a $1.5-million cap hit in 2017-18. Or they could have kept him buried in Rockford, which still left them with a $3.05-million cap hit.

The Hawks now have about $63 million tied up in 16 players for next season, including Richard Panik, who signed a one-year deal on Wednesday worth a reported $875,000 after his strong performance down the stretch as a top-liner. He had six goals and two assists in 30 games after being acquired from Toronto, and had three assists in six playoff games. Finding cheap players to flesh out the roster will be key for the Hawks, who now have lost three such players via trades in Teravainen, Phil Danault, and Marko Dano.

Both Bickell and Teravainen had nothing but good things to say about Chicago and the Hawks. But both are looking forward to a bigger role for a young, up-and-coming Hurricanes team.

“It was special to be part of such a great organization and fans and everything, such great players,” Teravainen said. “Especially winning the Cup is something special. I just want to thank everyone.”

Said Bickell, who was active in the community and ran a pit-bull rescue foundation with his wife, Amanda: “We always said Chicago is our second home. It’s definitely still going to be that. With the season going the way it did last year, I didn’t want to leave that way. But I’m looking forward to a fresh start with Carolina.”