Blackhawks: 3 Bad Contracts That Still Haunt Chicago

3. Jonathan Toews

Don’t kill me but a guy that isn’t as good as Sidney Crosby shouldn’t be getting paid as much as him. Jonathan Toews has done so many great things for this franchise and we all love him. I hope he’s a Blackhawk for life. The passion he has for the game is unreal. He’s one of the only guys in sports than would give anything to go 82-0-0 each season.

Hockey is a business thought. Everyone can agree that $10,500,000 AAV is way too much for Toews. They could have gotten him cheaper. I would never trade Toews or even debated getting rid of him. I’m fine paying him that money if it means he’s a Blackhawk for life.

That contract hurts the team though. Crosby gets paid $8,700,000 AAV each season. Toews isn’t even a point-per-game player. His career-high is 81 points. If a player is getting paid eight figures, I expect close to 100 each season.

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Patrick Kane is a different story. He is worth every penny and then some. I believe Stan Bowman has a lot of loyalty to both players. To keep the morale of the team in check, he might have paid Toews the same amount. Like I said earlier though, hockey is a business.

If they’re not even making the playoffs anymore, what does that say about the team? They’re in such a salary crunch, they can’t do much in the offseason. It’ll be a while before they can fix this mess. They’ll have to go out with what they have and hope that’s enough.

In four years, they’ll be fine again. Seabrook, Keith, and Toews’ contracts will expire. Toews will be the only one of that bunch that will be re-signed. I would expect him to get around $8,000,000 AAV. It’s a fair deal for Toews and the team.

Hopefully, he takes a hometown discount. If he pushes for more money and wants to test the market, they’ll overpay for him again. They’ve made the mistake with many older players, hopefully, that doesn’t happen with Toews.

Remember, they have a lot of younger players coming up in their system. Everyone will need to be paid.