Ways the Chicago Blackhawks can fix their salary cap burden

The Chicago Blackhawks are up against the salary cap for next season. It is going to take a little bit of swindling but I believe the Blackhawks might find a way under the cap with their stars.

It really does not make sense what Stan Bowman did during last seasons offseason. He brought in so many players on big contracts like Calvin de Haan Olli Maatta and Andrew Shaw to name a few. Those three deals cost the Blackhawks almost 12 million in cap space.

While we might not have made the playoffs if it was not for those two defensemen throughout the regular season, it comes with a cost as we try to sign our new free agents. Chicago has some big-name players trying to stay with the team, and things are not going to be easy.

The Blackhawks are paying the price for having stars like Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane. Those two players earned their contracts when they signed for 10 million, and I will never say that those contracts were mistakes.

Now Brent Seabrook also earned his contract. I know we all might not like it, but he earned it the years prior when he helped get the Blackhawks their championships. All of these cap issues now might be a burden, but I would take it any day if it meant we got to watch the Blackhawks win their three championships in six seasons.

With that in mind, let’s look at the free agents the Blackhawks are going to need to get under contract this offseason.

Ball Park Estimates of Free Agents

We have talked a lot about the free agents the Blackhawks have going into this offseason, but right now I just want to talk about the ones we might be able to keep.

So as of right now, we have seven million in cap space according to CapFriendly. While that might be enough to keep a few of our big-name players around, I want to look at a longer list of players, so we are going to go over the seven million. Here are the players I want the Blackhawks to have back next season, and also the minimum I think they can sign them for.

Drake Caggiula – 1.5 million for two years

Dominik Kubalik – 4.5 million for two years

Dylan Strome – 3 million for three years

Corey Crawford – 2.5 million for two years

I do no think Slater Koekkoek or Malcolm Subban will be back next season with the Blackhawks. I think both of those guys are great players, I just do not think they are really part of the future of the team. Chicago has a number of young defensemen ready to make the jump next year, and they are going to need more space to get things done.

So in all, to keep all of these players around we are going to need 11.5 million in salary-cap space, that is not that bad considering we already have seven million in space to work with. We are going to have to get rid of a few players though.

So let’s jump right in with how the Blackhawks are going to clear the cap space to keep these players around!

Prediction of the roster for next season

I know it might seem like the Blackhawks would be bringing back a pretty similar roster if this is what we look like on opening night, but I could see them doing some trades during the season as well.

I liked what our group brought to the table last season, and I think we are really close to reaching the playoffs with this group. We just need to continue to improve our defense and work on bringing in more depth.

The idea of having good depth is why I believe Brandon Saad stays with the Blackhawks. He was dominating this season when he played in the bottom six, and only got better when they moved hi to the top line with Jonathan Toews and Dominik Kubalik. I would love to see Dach and Saad play with Pius Suter.

Forwards

Dominik Kubalik – Jonathan Toews – Drake Caggiula

Alex DeBrincat – Dylan Strome – Patrick Kane

Pius Suter – Kirby Dach – Brandon Saad

Ryan Carpenter – David Kampf – Matthew Highmore

Defense

Duncan Keith – Adam Boqvist

Calvin de Haan – Connor Murphy

Ian Mitchell – Brent Seabrook

Goalies

Corey Crawford 

Collin Delia 

Who else do you think the Blackhawks are going to have to trade to get ready for next season? I am sure that there are other ways the team could get under the salary cap and keep the players they need around, this is just what made the most sense to me.