Hawks accept that in a heartbeat! And the only thing the Pens are competing for with that 3rd pair is better tee times come the end of the regular season.

If we're being fair and honest...You don't want Zaitsev.

huh? the team got way worse.

Hawks accept that every day of the week however, there are a couple of problems with your proposal.

First, Zaitsev sucks, even at $1.5m retained he is an overpay. I can’t see any team wanting him.

Second, Shea is a former fourth round pick of the Hawks who refused to sign with them coming out of college. Now that the Hawks prospect pool is seven deep with LHD (Vlasic, Korchinski, Kaiser, Philips, Roos, Allan, Del Mastro), f**k him there is no room at the Inn. Good news is, you could remove Shea from the proposal and the Hawks would still accept!

What are you competing for, a lottery pick?

Hawks take that and run

Shea didn't refuse to sign, CHI just let his rights expire. He had one decent season at Northwestern during the Sikura/Gaudette hobey baker season and that was about it. I WAS excited for him after he was drafted, but in the end, i'm not surprised they let him walk.

Blues say no thanks

That isn’t my recollection of events, I seem to recall he chose to pursue free agency on August 15th so he could choose his landing spot. At the time the Hawks had a group of young D graduating to professional hockey (Boqvist, Gilbert, Beaudin, Mitchell etc) and he thought there would be better opportunities elsewhere… perhaps I have him confused with someone else.

Yeah, these moves don't make us better. Joseph and Ruhwedel are better and cheaper than Smith-Zaitsev. Nylander didn't impress in the preseason. None of the roster changes do us any good.
I think our defense is fine as is. Maybe a midseason/deadline upgrade at 3RD. What this team really needs is a 3rd liner that can contribute some depth scoring.

I mean, if it was his choice, I don't recall there being any reporting on it. At that point in time, I wouldn't have blamed him for not seeing a path with CHI, they were very high on those other defenseman and he was sort of an afterthought. I don't remember there being any sort of public scene or it being a "bad blood" breakup. More than likely, it was just a mutual decision, and he hasn't had much luck at the NHL level since. The last time I can remember there being any bad blood about a prospect walking away from CHI out of college was Kevin Hayes back in 2014.