With Nikita Filatov on a plane to Saskatoon, he didn't know that he would be changing addresses before he hit the ground.

The young Russian was packaged up with Niklas Grossman, Marek Svatos, Brett Sutter and recently acquired Gary Roberts for star forward Nathan Horton  from Calgary.

"This one was Dave's baby.  I chatted a bit with Kevin in regards, and I feel like we again paid top price for Horton.  But he is a point per game type player and signed to a decent cap hit for three seasons.  Again that is huge.  We have some great young players coming into their own and should be reasonably fit in our salary structure for some time."

"Just a good deal for us." continued GM David Yee.  "An early Christmas present for the fans of Chicago."

There had been some rumour that Filatov, since back in Russia since not making the Hawks at camp might consider staying longer in the KHL.

"I don't know." started Bachul.  "But that is probably the worst situation to be in...is not knowing.  I feel like Filatov is probably the best player not in the BRHL.  But with the indecisiveness comes risk, which is why we had to add a bunch in this deal to make it work."

"That said, I like the looks of the squad moving forward." Smiled Bachul.