Defenseman Chris Campoli passes the puck around the Islanders' Zenon Konopka. (US Presswire)
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The Blackhawks acquired defenseman Chris Campoli in a trade with the Ottawa Senators on Monday.
The Hawks sent minor-leaguer Ryan Potulny and a conditional second-round draft pick in 2011 for Campoli, who is a restricted free agent in the final year of a $1.4 million contract. The Hawks receive a conditional seventh-round pick along with Campoli, who had three goals and 11 assists in 58 games with Ottawa.
"I'm pretty excited to be joining the Chicago Blackhawks," Campoli told TSN. "It's a young core group that's had a lot of success, so that's exciting. My game is skating, moving the puck and chipping in on the offensive side. It looks like a good fit."
General manager Stan Bowman has expressed his desire to acquire a defenseman to add depth and that became even more important when Hawks blueliner Jordan Hendry suffered an apparent left knee injury on Sunday night. There hasn't been an update on the severity of the injury Monday.
The trade deadline was at 2 p.m. Central. Deals are often announced long after the deadline as a deluge of trades can get backed up at the NHL office.
Campoli ranked third on the Senators with 70 blocked shots and second with 73 hits. The Mississauga, Ontario, native has 128 points (32 goals, 96 assists) and 190 penalty minutes in 378 career regular-season games. He also had four points (goal, three assists) in 11 postseason games over parts of seven NHL seasons with Ottawa (2009-11) and the New York Islanders (2005-09).
Originally selected by the Islanders in the seventh round (227th overall) in the 2004 Hockey League Entry Draft, Campoli was honored as the 2004 Canadian Major Junior Humanitarian Player of the Year as a member of the OHL's Erie Otters.
Potulny, 26, was scoreless in three NHL games with the Hawks this season and had 41 points (18 goals, 23 assists) in 58 games with the American Hockey League's Rockford IceHogs.
Doug - its sad because alot of cry baby fans sounding off are the bandwagoners who latched onto the hawks last year. They had no idea about the gross spending that dale tallon did before bowman came in. So it comes to them as a surprise that we had to dump so many players. They like to use that excuse as to the hawks poor play early in the season, and not realize that the star players were the ones playing poorly (who are playing awesome right now btw).
Less than one year after winning the Stanley Cup, Hawks fans are complaining about management. Funny how no one was complaining about Hossa's contract or trading guys like Cam Barker and James Wisniewski at this time last year. Funny too how five years ago no one was complaining about the Hawks overspending mainly because the Hawks weren't spending, period. Heck, five years ago no one was complaining about anything Hawks-related because no one really cared about the Hawks!
Remember, the NHL is different from all other sports because you don't need to be one of the top four teams in your conference/league to reach the Stanley Cup Finals. As you may recall, Philadelphia was the 7th seed in the East and yet they outlasted more-talented Washington and Pittsburgh and took the Hawks to six games in the finals. In the NHL, all you need is a competitive team that gets hot at the right time.
True, the Hawks traded away a lot of role players from last year's team (thanks in whole to the salary cap), but they are still competitive and they are now mostly healthy and are heating up. And they are also relatively young, which means they have a decent chance at being a competitive team for several more seasons. It's hard to repeat in the NHL, however it's not hard to remain competitive and possibly win a couple times in the span of a decade.
hankchifan - check your facts. Trading wisniewski wasn't bowman's action, that was dale tallon. Hossa also signed with the hawks when tallon was GM. And if we didn't spend the money on hossa to sign him in '09, then we probably end up resigning havlat using most of that money. And we got Leddy in the Barker deal. Barker hasn't exactly lit things up in minnesota btw (1G, 5A, -11). AND...dale tallon also overpaid guys a few years ago (bolland, barker, buff were slightly overpaid, campbell and huet grossly overpaid).
And sure buff is an all star d-man in atlanta, but do you think he'd get that opportunity here with Keith/Seabrook/Campbell? Yeah he's lighting up the scoreboard but as we all know he's an adventure defensively.
Hendry tore his ACL. Out for the season.
Thanks to all of the dopes on this thread that don't understand what a salary cap is. I really hope that you are all Red Wing fans trying to cause trouble, because I hate to think that there are Blackhawk fans that are that stupid.
Gotta be better than Boynton!!!
talk about destroying a team...Stan does it best, get rid of half the heart and soul of this team and goes out and gets panzies who don't finish their checks. WTG Stan, thank Dale for your cup ring asshole.
We had Cam Barker and Wisniewski and we have nothing to show for them. We had an All Star defenseman in Big Buf, which we should had kept at all costs...We had Sopel...I think we overpaid for and older, injury prone Hossa which made us get rid of Buf and Sopel, etc. Not too convinced on Bowman's moves..
I like this deal...comes at a perfect time with jordan hendry out for the season. And like George said, its a low-risk move.
Matt, apparently we were supposed to acquire a superstar defenseman that makes less then $2.5 million for the rest of the year for our 7th round pick next year.
This is a no lose deal, we didn't give up a top prospect and Campoli is an RFA after this year.
the guy was one of the team leaders in hits and blocked shots and only scored 32 goals in 370+ games, and you people are complaining that he's too offensive minded, not defensive, and not physical? Wow, is there any deal at any time that you'd be happy with??
Furthermore,
Campoli was playing top 4 D-man minutes in Ottawa, thus exposing flaws that he may have. Here he will be a 5-6, I don't see an issue with this deal at all. What's the worst that can happen? We don't improve?
24 out of the 30 teams have a legit chance to make the playoffs, you think they are just going to sell off their talent to help us? Let's see how this plays out.
You can only get what is out there.. Smid was a target of a lot of teams and he wasn't moved, why? Because the asking price was thru the roof. With Hendry going down it makes sense to get Campoli. Potulny can't crack an NHL lineup, 3rd team already and we have a surplus of 2nd round picks still. Campoli > Hendry, and >> Scott and or Cullimore on the backend.
I really don't know what people expect anymore. Another big splash via a trade? So then what, you can complain about the cap situation? Some of this stuff in mind numbing.
Was there nobody in Rockford? Must be looking for experience.........
welp that makes it official, the cup is ours
While I haven't followed Campoli enough to make an observation, from looking at his stats, he is third on the team in blocked shots, and second in hits and you say he isn't very physical, I guess the Senators must be pretty week on the physical side. And as for what Bowman wanted, vs what he got, he can only get what is available.
Campoli is next to useless as far as helping the Hawks ( other than a warm body ) coming from someone who has seen him play. Weak on the puck and certainly not physical in any way. Wow, I cannot believe I have to watch him on a regular basis STILL! ottawa had high hopes but it looks like he is as good as he's gonna get. Hendry was playing better the last few games than Campoli ever has in Ottawa, too bad about the injury. Oh well.....
Way to go Stan, you come out and say you want a stay-at-home, penalty killing defenseman; and you go out and get a offensive minded, skating defenseman.
He never ceases to amaze me
Too little, too late.