**BREAKING NEWS**

A number of sources are now reporting that the Chicago Blackhawks are about to announce "multiple deals" now that free agency is open.... see below for details...

Acquire
LW - Brandon Saad (77)
D - Dillion Fournier (79)

Acquire
2018 - 3rd Round Draft Pick
2018 - 4th Round Draft Pick

Quick Hit -
A deal that really had to be done, basically because our roster is full. That is a good thing and a bad thing, the good is that our AHL squad is made up entirely of our draft picks, no AHL contracts to anyone outside of the origan-I-zation. The bad is that we have guys that we want to sign to entry levels but can't because we are full. So Saad, and Fournier will be moved to open some space, and Calgary is a team that will utilize both guys.

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Acquire
RW - Brian Connolly (85)
G - Timo Niemi (84)

Acquire
G - Jacob Markstrom (89)

Quick Hit -
Really thrilled with this deal, why? I'll tell you. It's a fair trade, for both teams. Connolly got second line minutes last year and was only able to put up 30 points. Niemi played really well for us, he's young, but I think he is just a couple years away, and I don't know how much more he will improve. Coming back to us is a goalie that I think will do an adequate job of replacing Crawford right now. Based on what our lineup is going to look like with Connolly gone, I didn't feel comfortable with throwing Niemi to the wolves behind a young group of forwards. With Markstrom, I think we can compete right away, while our young talent gets a couple years to get better. Markstrom has 3 years remaining on his deal, and is 3 years younger than Crawford. Seems like a win-win for me at this point. Thanks for following, massive prospect report is on deck.