From the Chicago Tribune's Chris Kuc:
An update from his agent sent Brandon Saad's mind racing on the night of June 29.
Negotiations between the restricted free agent and the Blackhawks had stalled earlier that day and one of the most talented young players in the NHL was at home coming to grips with a new reality: Saad was about to become another in a long line of Hawks salary-cap casualties.
"You go through different scenarios," Saad said. "You really don't know where you're going or if it's really going to happen. It's a feeling … I for the first time went through and it's not fun."
The next day Saad got the word: He was no longer a Blackhawk. He had been traded to the Blue Jackets. Suddenly, one of the building blocks of the Hawks' future was sent packing in the most surprising move of the summer.
"You never think it's going to be you until it actually happens," said Saad, who will face his former Hawks teammates for the first time when the Blue Jackets visit the United Center on Saturday night. "Going back and forth with numbers, years (and) things like that, we didn't see eye to eye so at the end of the day it had to be done."
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