Patrick Sharp may not even be the best Patrick on the Chicago Blackhawks team - though he is now considering Kane's injury - but he's been an integral part of the continuous run of success the NHL's Windy City franchise has enjoyed in recent seasons.
He, along with a healthy handful of the remaining formerly Cup-winning Blackhawks, may be headed elsewhere once this current NHL season draws to a close though.
"This group that's going for the Cup this year, as it's constructed - I mean, Bickell could be gone. Versteeg could be gone. Brent Seabrook may eventually be gone. He's a year away from unrestricted free agency. There's no question in my mind that Johnny Oduya is not likely to be back," TSN's Bob McKenzie said, per NicholsOnHockey.com.
As for Sharp?
"Oh, Sharp will be gone. Sharp's gone. Sharp is gone for sure," McKenzie said.
Cap constraints - the team currently has just over $1.5 million in space, per Stats.NHLNumbers.com - will force Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman into a number of tough decisions this offseason.
Bowman is likely to do whatever it takes to keep a guy like Seabrook, but it seems that the rest of the players mentioned by McKenzie could potentially find themselves playing elsewhere.
The Blackhawks recently added Kyle Baun, a coveted 22-year-old right winger, currently in his junior season at Colgate. Baun is big - 6-foot-2, 204-pounds - and plays a "responsible game with offensive touch," according to his agent Brian Bartlett via the Chicago Tribune.
If Sharp (13 goals, 25 assists), Versteeg (13 goals, 19 assists) and Bickell (12 goals, 13 assists) are jettisoned in the offseason, several large holes will have been created in the Blackhawks lineup.
Baun will, hopefully, fill at least one of them.
"There's going to be a big turnover here once you get past the top five or six forwards on the Blackhawks and I think this kid recognizes that if he goes and develops and plays well in the American Hockey League, he's going to have a chance to play on what will still be a good team, but there will still be an opportunity for him," said McKenzie.
The team also has the opportunity to attempt to work out a new deal with center Antoine Vermette, formerly of the Arizona Coyotes. Vermette was added in a trade deadline deal and his contract expires at the end of this season.
He's reportedly looking to cash in on what will most likely be his last major NHL deal, so Chicago may not be able to make the numbers work.
