The NHL trade season happens every year, but it doesn’t always cushion the shock of a teammate being transported away.
It came twice for MacKenzie Entwistle last season.
Brandon Hagel, his 2019-20 Rockford IceHogs teammate, was dealt to the Tampa Bay Lightning three days before the 2022 close.
In another stunner, Hawks general manager Kyle Davidson struck a draft-day deal with the Ottawa Senators for Alex DeBrincat, the 5-foot-7 winger who used the 6-3 entwistle in most practices and morning skates playfully “bullied”.
“Me and Brinksy were pretty close, and even Hags,” Entwistle told the Tribune. “So obviously it was difficult for these two guys to get traded last year. But that’s part of the game.”
Entwistle has developed a thick skin for such an eventuality, as do most Hawks if you ask around.
Hawks icons Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews are dominating the rumor mill this season. Max Domi and Andreas Athanasiou were candidates for a trade deadline flip before they ever donned a Hawks sweater. And others like Sam Lafferty and Jake McCabe have emerged as surprising targets for the March 3 deadline.
Nobody is taboo.
The trade deadline has no regard for dressing room borrowing, but if one group is poised for it, this is it.
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“We’ve developed some pretty good relationships with some of the guys, and at the end of the day, most of it is talk until it happens,” Entwistle said. “Then there can be a realization that it’s real.”
From players to their coach, the Hawks have seen all sides of the trade and shared their perspectives with the Tribune.
“Twisty” had become captain in his fourth season with the Hamilton Bulldogs when he had the surprise turn of his junior career – a move to the Guelph Storm on January 5, 2019.
“It’s a weird situation to just have to get up and pack when you’re living with a host family,” Entwistle said of his host family, Dave and Christa Copeland.
“I was with them for four years of my life. So when you sit down to dinner with your family every day, you’re like their fourth child. They had their three little boys. Now I go back and they are almost taller than me.”
Four years later, Entwistle prepares for the possible departure of teammates who are like older brothers to him.
“It’s a bit different because everyone has their own family here,” he said. “You’re still traded, you’re still moving. And so it’s a little different, but the same.”
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Entwistle soaks up knowledge from Hawks veterans while he can.
“There are countless types,” he said. “I’m sitting next to Jack Johnson, a guy who won a Stanley Cup last year (who) has been in the league for a long time.”
And then there’s Kane and Toews, two future Hall of Famers on expiring contracts who’ve had more of an impact on Entwistle than he cares to admit.
“Being able to learn from them and take little things from their daily habits is something that — I don’t know if I would ever tell them that — but it’s definitely what I do on a daily basis.” do,” Entwistle said.
“They’re in the gym every day, they’re always learning games, they’re watching movies, their diet is good. They do all the little things that some people in the hockey world or not in the hockey world don’t get to see every day.
“These are just little things that I get to see and am lucky enough to see.”
The former NHL defenseman, now the Hawks’ freshman coach, was traded twice in his 21-year career.
The first time, on September 19, 1991, Richardson was part of the package that sent Craig Berube, Glenn Anderson and Grant Fuhr to the Toronto Maple Leafs and Richardson to the Edmonton Oilers in his fifth season in the league.
“I was traded in training camp, so I had a little bit of time to sort things out and rent my house and move and all that,” Richardson said. “Then I was traded once on deadline and that was at the end of my career and I asked for it so I was prepared and it was a good thing.”
On March 8, 2006, the Columbus Blue Jackets traded him to Toronto for a conditional midround selection. It was Richardson’s second, albeit brief, stint with the Leafs.
“When you get over the shock of moving, you get excited that someone really wanted you and brought you here for a reason,” he said. “And then there’s an excitement of going to a new place and that puts energy into your game when you go to the rink. Even your routine will be different. So it puts a little tingle in the body and probably adds a little bit to your game.”
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But Richardson saw the other side of a trade when it wasn’t exciting.
It was the 1990-91 season and Richardson was playing his first stint with the Leafs, although he didn’t know it at the time. Defender Brad Marsh had become a fan favorite in Toronto.
“He was a thoroughbred player and very popular in the dressing room,” Richardson said.
But the Leafs traded Marsh to the Detroit Red Wings for an eighth-round pick on February 4, 1991.
“I remember he was devastated,” Richardson said. “He cried in the dressing room. To see a man (32) crying like a baby and hugging the sneakers and not wanting to leave a place that he thought would fit in well.”
The trade, which posted Leafs winger Robb McIntyre, who tied for first place with the AHL St. John’s Maple Leafs in 1994-95, was a “head-scratcher,” Richardson recalled.
“It didn’t make sense for us,” he said. “(Marsh) was a glue in the dressing room. He fixed things and went to a team in our department. We didn’t really benefit from it, it didn’t help the player and it might have disrupted our space more than anything else.”
When Davidson acquired Lafferty from the Pittsburgh Penguins on Jan. 5, 2022, it seemed like the deal was more about getting rid of Chicago bust Alex Nylander than getting a difference maker.
“High-energy hockey,” Lafferty said. “That was[Davidson’s]expectation for me when I came to Chicago.”
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Lafferty has been a surprise hit, having seven goals and five assists in 19 games since Jan. 1. He’s one of the Hawks’ penalty killers (three shorthanded goals and one assist) and had a career-high 53.3% at the time of the point.
A contender this season could fare worse for a bottom sixer. When his name surfaced in trade rumours, few were perhaps more surprised than Lafferty.
“It’s hard to turn around, it’s just so out of (your) control,” Lafferty said, adding that a large part of his ascent was opportunity.
“Everyone here trusted me and put me in many situations. I think that boosts your confidence.”
Lafferty could become one of the Hawks’ leaders by default should some veterans leave by deadline.
“Maybe March 3 is coming, that could all be resolved,” Lafferty said. “I don’t think we think about it that way, but you know that a season has to end at some point.
“We know that nothing is forever and we want to enjoy it while we have it.”
Source: www.chicagotribune.com
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