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Ryan S. Clark, NHL reporter
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Chicago Blackhawks remain busy after taking Connor Bedard with the first pick in the draft.
First Thursday, they acquired winger Josh Bailey and a 2026 second-round pick from the New York Islanders for for future considerations. They turned around and put Bailey unconditional waivers for the purpose of buying out his contract.
Bailey, 33, who played more than 1,000 games with the Islanders, has a year left on his contract worth $5 million. It’s a move that gives the Islanders a little more than $9 million in projected cap space, according to CapFriendly. Chicago entered the offseason needing to add salary to get to the cap floor, so it has been a willing trade partner for cap-strapped teams.
The Blackhawks then gave the Tampa Bay Lightning a 2024 seventh-round pick for the negotiating rights to free-agent winger Corey Perry.
Perry becomes an unrestricted free agent on July 1. He had 12 goals and 13 assists in 81 games for the Lightning last season, skating 11:34 per game, his lowest average since his rookie season for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in 2005-06. He has 417 goals and 466 assists in his 1,257 game NHL career, having won the Stanley Cup in 2007 with the Ducks.
These are the latest moves for Chicago in what’s been a busy week. It started Monday when Chicago landed past Hart Trophy winner Taylor Hall and the rights for Nick Foligno from the Boston Bruins in exchange for the rights to defensemen Ian Mitchell and Alec Regula. A few hours later, the Blackhawks signed Foligno to a one-year, $4 million deal.
Then, of course, Wednesday arrived and they drafted Bedard with the No. 1 pick.
Last season was a challenging one for Bailey. He finished with eight goals and 25 points in 64 games. It was an average of 0.39 points per game, a decline from Bailey’s career average of 0.55 points per game. It was the fourth time Bailey has scored fewer than 10 goals in a season since his career started in the 2008-09 season.
Information from ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski was used in this report.
Source: www.espn.com