Chicago Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman made sure, amid the hooting and hollering and celebratory back slapping after the franchise won their third Stanley Cup in the last six seasons, to find forward Brandon Saad.
Once he'd found the young forward, Bowman relayed a quick, simple message - you're going to be here.
Saad, a pending restricted free agent, currently lives in a kind of contract limbo as his rights belong to the Blackhawks, but he doesn't yet have a contract for 2015-16. The Hawks are facing a troubling salary cap situation next season and all kind of talk has swirled of what Bowman must do in order to maintain his base of talent and keep the team out of cap hell.
Thus, Saad's name has been bandied about quite often as a potential candidate for an offer sheet from some franchise desperate to add a bonafide Cup-winner at no cost. That talk seems to be picking up steam in league circles.
"One thing is for sure. I was just talking to another GM from another team, and he said he keeps hearing that there might be an offer sheet on Saad," TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun said Wednesday, while appearing on Vancouver's TSN 1040, via TodaysSlapShot.com.
"Well, fine. I'm sure someone may do that. I cannot imagine under any scenario Stan Bowman would not match it. I mean, I think he matches it and then he just goes from there. The one thing to remember about the off-season is that you don't have to be under the cap now. You just have to be under the cap in the fall, so you've got all summer to figure that out."
The Blackhawks cap complications have been well-documented already - with the dual contract extensions handed to captain Jonathan Toews and star forward Patrick Kane, the Hawks have about $64 million tied up in just 15 players for 2015.
In short, Bowman has some work to do. But by no means does that increase the likelihood of the team losing a burgeoning star in Saad.
Does Saad deserve a big new deal? Yes.
Will Bowman be forced to pony up the dough to keep the talented youngster from heading elsewhere? Yes.
But as LeBrun indicates, the Blackhawks can simply match whatever offer sheet is handed to the Pittsburgh native - perhaps by the Penguins - and make whatever moves are necessary from there in order to remain cap compliant.
Saad has become an indispensible part of the Hawks core and there's zero chance they'd let him walk, especially for an offer sheet which, considering he made just over $800,000 for 2014-15, would bring no compensation back to Chicago.
According to LeBrun, even as the Hawks closed in on yet another Cup victory Bowman was already hard at work outlining the various scenarios it may take to keep Saad and keep his team under the cap in 2015.
"He said listen, 'We've worked on this for a number of weeks and months here. It's not like we're just going to wake up in two days and say, 'Holy cow, we've got a lot of work to do.'
"The Hawks' front office has been on this. They have a plan. I think they're going to go after a number of different things to try and create that flexibility."
