As part of a recent article discussing the lack of new long-term extensions for Lightning star Steven Stamkos and Kings No. 1 center Anze Kopitar, the names and contracts of Chicago Blackhawks forwards Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, unsurprisingly, came up. Toews and Kane, of course, signed nearly identical eight-year deals worth $10.5 million annually, in July of 2014. They're the gritty heart and consistently point-producing soul of a Blackhawks team that has now won three Stanley Cups in the last six NHL seasons. Their big extensions, when announced, were not a surprise. What is a surprise, however, is that as part of Craig Custance's column exploring why Stamkos and Kopitar haven't signed on the dotted line for their respective teams, an unnamed Eastern Conference executive suggested that the Toews and Kane deals were already "killing" the Blackhawks.
"Those two contracts are killing Chicago," the executive said, via Custance. "At the end of the day, you've got to manage your cap. You can't allocate too many resources to any one player. You see it with Chicago -- those contracts are kicking in and they're not the same team anymore. And they have the benefit of the [Marian] Hossa and [Duncan] Keith deals that you can't structure anymore. They have two guys that are 20 to 40 percent discounted."
It's no secret that the Blackhawks and GM Stan Bowman have already felt the sting of the Toews and Kane deals this offseason. The team was forced to allow veteran defenseman Johnny Oduya to walk away because they couldn't meet his minimal contract demands. Budding star power forward Brandon Saad was dealt to the Columbus Blue Jackets after Bowman assured him that he "wasn't going anywhere." And veteran scorer Patrick Sharp was traded away as well.
While the Hawks remain an elite team with talent throughout the roster, tough decisions have already been forced by the Toews and Kane contracts. And it's a roster that will continue to change in coming years thanks to the dual deals.
While Bowman has done well to fill in areas of the roster weakened by offseason losses like Saad and Oduya with younger, cheaper options, assuming those options perform well in the next couple of seasons, they won't remain cheap for long. Marko Dano, for instance, acquired in the Saad trade, could potentially be the heir apparent to his spot in the Blackhawks lineup. He's currently signed through the 2016-17 season at cap hits of $925,000. If he performs as the team and Bowman clearly hope and expect him to, he'll be set for a significant raise.
The organization already handed Artem Anisimov, also acquired as part of the Saad deal, a five-year extension worth $22.75 million, leaving them now with approximately $231,540 in salary cap space, per GeneralFanager.com. The players coming off the books next offseason - Kris Versteeg, Brent Seabrook, Marcus Kruger, Andrew Shaw, who hits restricted free agency, and Michal Rozsival - will provide some much-needed cap relief for Bowman at the same time as they'll leave sizeable holes on the Hawks roster.
Adding in Kane's recent legal troubles and what that could potentially mean for his NHL and Blackhawks tenure, the future in Chicago really is murky. While Bowman is likely to depend on his top young prospects like Teuvo Teravainen, Nick Schmaltz, Ville Pokka and Trevor van Riemsdyk to carve out everyday roles with the NHL club sometime in the near future, it's going to continue to take creative offseason and trade deadline approaches to keep the Hawks competitive and stave off the eventual top-heavy structure that has damned teams like Pittsburgh in recent seasons.
