Blackhawks gain cap flexibility, send Artem Anisimov to Senators for Zack Smith

The Blackhawks finally unloaded Artem Anisimov on Tuesday after months of speculation, sending the expensive forward to the Senators in exchange for the similar but cheaper Zack Smith.

The first priority for general manager Stan Bowman was to gain enough cap space to re-sign restricted free agent Brendan Perlini and have wiggle room for in-season call-ups. By swapping the two 31-year-old forwards — Smith carries a $3.25 million cap hit for the next two seasons; Anisimov a $4.55 million hit for the same time period — the Hawks accomplished that goal.

The second priority for Bowman was to get a fair return for Anisimov, who was rumored to be on the trade block for at least a year. And Smith seems to check that box.

“He certainly plays with a competitive side to him,” Bowman said. “He’s had some years in the past where he’s scored a lot, but what we like about his game is the versatility. You notice him, he’s tough to play against out there. Other teams don’t find it too fun sometimes.”

Smith is significantly better in regards to faceoffs and defensive play, particularly the penalty kill — all areas that Bowman identified as in need of improvement this summer.

Smith, who was with the Senators his entire 11 seasons, won slightly over 50 percent of 2,778 draws over the last four seasons. Anisimov, conversely, won only 45.2 percent of 3,706 over the same time period.

“I prefer, I feel more comfortable at center, but I’ve had more success — especially offensively — playing the wing,” Smith said. “I guess the most ideal situation is to play wing and still take draws. I still enjoy taking draws and I feel that’s one of my strong suits.”

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Advanced stats paint a good picture of Smith in his own zone.

Overcoming the Sens’ tremendous overall team struggles, Smith allowed 0.48 scoring chances per minute at 5-on-5 and 0.72 per minute short-handed last season. Anisimov allowed 0.54 and 0.78 in those two categories, respectively.

“At this point, I know what my game brings, and I pride myself on being a defensively responsible player,” he said. “Over the last two years, I’ve been in more of a shutdown role . . . [and] once I wrapped my head around that you don’t have to put up big points, my game started improving.”

Marc Crawford, recently hired as a new Hawks assistant after three years in Ottawa, was consulted about Smith before the trade went through, Bowman said. Smith quipped that he must not have “had anything bad to say.”

In terms of pure scoring, there is a downgrade. Outside of a fluky 25-goal eruption in 2015-16, Smith has never tallied more than 16 goals and 32 points in a season. He scored nine goals and 28 points in 70 games last year.

Anisimov has regularly exceeded those scoring totals. He registered 15 goals and 37 points in 78 games last season and had previously hit the 20-goal plateau in three consecutive seasons.

Bowman justified that downgrade by noting that the Hawks still have plenty of offensively inclined players, and that the flexibility of now owning so many dual-position forwards (new additions Andrew Shaw and Ryan Carpenter also fit that description) will create a more dynamic group overall.

For the Hawks’ newest acquisition, make that multiple positions.

“I’m just excited beyond words to be playing for Chicago,” Smith joked, “so if they want to put me in goal or on ‘D,’ I’d be fine with that too.”