The Chicago Blackhawks and Los Angeles Kings are swapping veteran defensemen according to multiple reports Friday. Heading to California is Rob Scuderi, while Christian Ehrhoff will be bound for the Windy City, as first reported by TSN’s Bob McKenzie.
While the full details haven’t been revealed, there will be retained salary in the deal. Both defensemen were buried in the AHL prior to the trade.
The retained salary portion has the potential to be complex, with both teams near the cap and Scuderi having another season left on his contract that pays him $2.25 million (Pittsburgh is still paying another $1.125 million in retained salary on top of the $2.25 million).
Scuderi came to Chicago as a part of a deal that sent Trevor Daley to Pittsburgh. He’s played a total of 45 games this season, with 17 of those coming in a Blackhawks sweater. He didn’t register a single point with Chicago and averaged just 11:06 of ice time with them.
Chicago waived Scuderi on Feb. 16 and subsequently assigned him to AHL Rockford.
Scuderi will be returning to a franchise he’s familiar with, having played four season for the Kings from 2009-13. He was a part of their Stanley Cup championship team in 2012. He will come out of the AHL and join the Kings’ NHL roster. They have assigned defenseman Kevin Gravel to the Ontario Reign of the AHL.
Ehrhoff played 40 games for the Kings this season, scoring two goals and 10 points before he was waived and assigned to AHL Ontario.
The Blackhawks have not made an announcement as to where Ehrhoff will be assigned to start his career in Chicago.
UPDATE:
The trade has been made official.
The #LAKings have acquired defenseman Rob Scuderi from the Chicago Blackhawks.
> https://t.co/pBhVMJzNja pic.twitter.com/Q0IvJdqkZn— LA Kings (@LAKings) February 26, 2016
The Blackhawks will retain 50% of their portion of Scuderi’s salary and Los Angeles will retain 15% of Ehrhoff’s salary, reports ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun.
RELATED: Andrew Ladd Traded to Chicago