Blackhawks: Stan Bowman might have caught a break

Stan Bowman has dug his own hole when it comes to the salary cap issues the Blackhawks are facing. However, he might have been given a get out of jail free card when it comes to next year and the offseason.

Bowman might not be the general manager for that much longer. He has made countless mistakes over the past few seasons and has lost the respect of a lot of fans. In the off chance, he is still here next season, Bowman has a lot of things to get done when it comes to contracts.

Drake Caggiula, Dominik Kubalik, Dylan Strome, Slater Koekkoek, Corey Crawford, and Malcolm Subban are all on expiring contracts right now. Not all of these players are going to return for next season, especially when you consider the fact that they only have about 8 million in cap space to get all of these players under contract via CapFriendly.

Until the shut down of the NHL, Bowman had no excuses. He needed to get both Strome and Kubalik re-signed in order to please the fans, and both those players were going to ask for a lot of money.

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However now he can delay re-signing them even longer and use these changing circumstances with the salary cap as a negotiation chip when it comes to their contracts. The market in the NHL is not going to be giving a player like Strome or Kubalik as much money as they would have last year due to the changes in the cap, this means Bowman might be able to get them re-signed for less money.

If Crawford wants to play in Chicago I do not think he is going to ask for more than two million. That could give this team nearly six million in cap space to give out for the remaining players. I like Drake Caggiula, Malcolm Subban, and Slater Koekkoek, but those players might become salary cap casualties.

Bowman has the power moving forward, especially when you look at what Mark Lazerus of The Athletic reported on twitter.

Now we the fans just have to wait. Maybe the NHL will allow their teams to buy out a player or two to get under the salary cap if it goes down. If that is the case maybe we can get rid of Seabrook’s contract.

How much money do you think Strome and Kubalik are going to ask for this offseason and do you think they are going to be willing to take a pay cut to stay on this team together?