Blackhawks sign former first-rounder Nick Schmaltz to deal

After dealing away Teuvo Teravainen, Stan Bowman said the cap-strapped Blackhawks needed not only affordable young talent, but the kind that’ll stay cheap for a while. Enter Nick Schmaltz.

“He has some dynamic skills, but he’s not entering the last year of his deal,” Bowman said. “He’s a guy who will have a three-year entry-level deal. A lot of it is the timing game.”

Schmaltz was leaning toward staying at the University of North Dakota — the defending national champion — for his junior year, but the Hawks convinced him to turn pro, and he signed a three-year contract on Sunday. With Teravainen gone and several roster spots up for grabs, players such as Schmaltz and Tyler Motte — who turned pro after a prolific junior year at Michigan — could compete for an NHL job right away.

Teravainen was entering the last year of his contract, and was due for a raise next summer — the same time that Artemi Panarin will be due a huge bump in pay.

“It’s not that we don’t like certain players,” Bowman said. “But with the system we play under, timing plays [a role] in a lot of it.”

Schmaltz, the Hawks’ first-round pick in 2014 (20th overall), had 11 goals and 35 assists in just 37 games for North Dakota. The Verona, Wis., native also played for Team USA at the World Junior Championships, where he had two goals and six assists in seven games.

Motte, meanwhile, was the NCAA’s fourth-leading scorer with 32 goals and 24 assists in 38 games, and had two goals and three assists in five games with Rockford after turning pro.