The Blackhawks finally moved winger Patrick Sharp and his nearly $6 Million salary, sending the three-time Stanley Cup champion along with defenseman Stephen Johns to the Dallas Stars for defenseman Trevor Daley and forward Ryan Garbutt.
With the deal, the Hawks save nearly $1 Million in cap space and add a solid two-way defenseman in Daley, who may replace departing UFA Johnny Oduya.
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Right now, it seems unlikely that Kevin Shattenkirk is going anywhere. The Blues have him signed for two more years at a very reasonable cap hit. He most certainly was never being "shopped' (meaning the Blues were actively trying to trade him) this summer.
Ah, but were the Blues "listening to offers" at one point? It sure sounds like it.
GMs love to play semantic games with the press. They can be listening without shopping, and truthfully deny the latter in flat terms. Some in the hockey media use the two terms interchangeably, but there is a difference.
As a matter of fact, it is pretty common for GMs to be agreeable to listening to offers for star players-- quite often with no intention of actually trading the player unless they get a ridiculous offer -- for their own purposes. Doing this sets a market price benchmark in case the team does end up being more in a trading mindset. It tells you which teams are interested and how badly they might want the player (and what assets they may be willing to move).
Right now, even coming off injury, Shattenkirk's value is at high-water because he's an All-Star, still reasonably young and has two years left on his deal. So it was the perfect time to listen to what other teams had to say, even if the odds of an actual deal right now were slim. That's all that happened here, and is nothing to be surprised or worked up about.
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