FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Chicago, February 26th 2005
The Chicago Blackhawks announced today that they have made two trades on the OTHL's deadline day. The first trade saw defender Jonathan Aitken being traded to Colorado Avalanche in exchange for defender Jeff Finger. Finger a un-signed prospect is a offensive defender who can jump up in the play.
"While we liked the physical attutide Jonathan Aitken brought to our team, we feelt that Jeff Finger gives us the potential of a solid offensive defender who can give us a solid offensive impact any time soon." - Blackhawks GM Mathias Vaigur said.
The second trade saw the Blackhawks trade Denis Gauthier back to the Calgary Flames. Coming back to Chicago are winger Marek Svatos, defender Andrew Hutchinson and center Mike Green who has been a nice suprise in terms of scoring this season. According to GM Vaigur, the main pice of the return was Marek Svatos.
"In Marek Svatos we get a young up and coming winger who has top line potential. While some fans see this as we are giving up this season, we have to remember that our goal is not to be a playoff team this season, but in a few years time when we hopefully can fight for the cup. And adding Svatos gives us a player who has top line potential. And in Andrew Hutchinson we recive a future top defender who has all the tools needed to be a force on a powerplay or in any offensive situation. Mike Green has been a plesant surprise this sesaon, he is among the league leaders in rookie points. And he gives us some more offensive fire power up front." - GM Vaigur said. Who admited that while he would have loved to have Gauthier still on the team, could not turn down the return from Calgary. "In the end it was a decision in witch direction to go. If we had keept Denis around we could have made the playoffs, and there we most likley would have been out in the first round. We must remember that we are building for the future. And therefore the package from Calgary was hard to turn down."