Nick Leddy joins the Blackhawks All-Decade Team

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Trading Cam Barker to the Minnesota Wild for Nick Leddy and Kim Johnsson on Feb. 12, 2010, proved to be one of the greatest moves Blackhawks vice president and general manager Stan Bowman ever made. Leddy was originally selected by the Wild in the first round at No. 16 overall in the 2009 NHL Draft.

Barker went on to have 12 points in 71 games with Minnesota before being bought out by the team in June of 2011 and his career fizzling out after brief stints in Edmonton and Vancouver.

Johnsson played only eight games with Chicago because of concussion symptoms and Leddy would go on to be one of the most dependable Hawks defensemen on any of their three recent Stanley Cup runs.

Leddy played four seasons with the Blackhawks, including all 23 games of their 2013 Stanley Cup-winning postseason, before being traded to the New York Islanders on Oct. 4, 2014, for prospects Ville Pokka, T.J. Brennan and Anders Nilsson. 

With the Hawks' defensive struggles currently, Leddy would make an appetizing first pairing defenseman, which is where he's wound up in New York. The Eden Prairie, Minn., native was incredibly valuable as a third pairing D man in the Hawks' 2013 championship. 

While his ceiling was never as high as Duncan Keith, he fit the mold the Hawks still hunger for: a puck-moving defenseman with offensive talent, that's strong in their own end. The last part is what made him so unique, and ultimately so hard to replace. 

Leddy had 93 points (20 goals, 73 assists) and a +/- rating of +10 in 258 regular season games with Chicago from 2010-2014. He had 10 points (two goals, eight assists) in 54 postseason appearances with the Hawks, not to mention one of the most epic playoff bears in Blackhawks history. 

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