Just after the Chicago Blackhawks acquired him in Tuesday's blockbuster Brandon Saad trade, general manager Stan Bowman said that Artem Anisimov is a player they had been chasing after for quite a long time. Now that they have him, they are prepared to make sure they keep him.
The Blackhawks and Anisimov agreed to a new five-year contract extension on Wednesday that is reportedly worth $22.75 million. That comes out to a salary cap hit of $4.55 million per season. The contract will kick in for the 2016-17 season; Anisimov still has one year remaining on his current contract that carries a salary cap hit of $3.2 million.
Anisimov spent the past three seasons playing for the Columbus Blue Jackets after he was acquired by the team in the Rick Nash trade. He is a solid two-way center that is usually good for 15-20 goals and 35-40 points over 82 games and should slide nicely into a second-line center role for the Blackhawks, replacing what they're losing in Brad Richards.
Along with Anisimov, the Blackhawks also received top prospect Marko Dano along with Jeremy Morin and Corey Tropp in exchange for Saad.
Even though they don't have to worry about Saad's new contract extension as a result of the trade, the Blackhawks still has a ton of work to do this summer when it comes to getting under the NHL's $71.4 million salary cap for the upcoming season. A Patrick Sharp trade, among others, still remains very likely, if not necessary.
