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Trade to Chicago was a ‘disaster,’ says Weise

St. Louis Blues v Chicago Blackhawks - Game Six

CHICAGO, IL - APRIL 23: Dale Weise #25 of the Chicago Blackhawks celebrates a second period goal against the St. Louis Blues in Game Six of the Western Conference First Round during the 2016 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at the United Center on April 23, 2016 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

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None of Chicago’s trade deadline pickups last season panned out very well.

Andrew Ladd was OK, but didn’t produce much in the playoffs. Tomas Fleischmann looked decent during the regular season, then faded. Christian Ehrhoff was a non-factor.

And then there was Dale Weise.

“Going to Chicago was a disaster,” Weise said of his brief cameo in a Blackhawks uniform, per Philly.com. “I played like five minutes a night. It’s pretty tough to do anything when you play so little. It was a new experience for me.”

Weise is mitigating his role. To be accurate, he averaged 9:57 over 15 regular season contests, and 8:24 in four playoff games.

But that doesn’t mean he was a bigger presence on the team than he thought. He sat as a healthy scratch on a few occasions and really struggled to find the back of the net, which was at direct odds with the rest of his campaign -- prior to the trade, Weise scored a career-best 14 goals with Montreal, in just 56 games.

It was pretty clear head coach Joel Quenneville wasn’t a huge fan.

But you know who was? Flyers GM Ron Hextall, who opened up the checkbook this summer to ink Weise to a four-year, $9.4 million deal.

That contract carries a $2.35 million average annual cap hit, which is a really nice payday. Prior to this, Weise had never earned more than $1.025M in a single season.

It’ll be interesting to see if Weise can match the success he had in Montreal. Philly does need someone to replace the sandpaper lost with Ryan White’s exit in free agency, and could use some more balanced scoring in the bottom six forward group.