Blackhawks News: Jake McCabe signs four year contract with Chicago

The Chicago Blackhawks might have just added another defenseman to their roster. Jake McCabe is coming to Chicago.

The Chicago Blackhawks added long-time Buffalo Sabres defenseman Jake McCabe on Wednesday during the afternoon. McCabe was added in the second round of the 2012 NHL draft. The move shows a commitment to get this team to the next level as quickly as possible from Stan Bowman.

Jake McCabe missed a lot of last season with a knee injury, but should he be ready to go by the time the season starts in October, he will be a nice addition to the roster. With McCabe under contract, the Blackhawks are now pretty much out of cap space unless there is some kind of trade – which I think we will see another few deals.

Here is what the defense could look like with McCabe on the roster:

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Riley Stillman – Seth Jones

Jake McCabe – Connor Murphy

Caleb Jones – Wyatt Kalynuk

Not a bad group of defensemen right there. That does not include Calvin de Haan due to his contract being one of the most likely the team will want off of the books during the coming days.

Chicago does have a pretty good team on paper right now. I think this group could actually make the postseason and then see what happens. With McCabe, they get their new Oduya. Oduya was a really good three or four defenseman. Someone the team counted on in the top four to block shots and be good in their own end. He was not expected to score goals or play on the power play – just in his own end.

This Blackhawks rebuild seems to be on the back end, I guess it was more of retool and not a rebuild as the group will be competitive once again. The only thing that worries me with McCabe is that four million number seems to be a little high, especially for a player that wanted to play in Chicago.

The future core is taking shape now. McCabe is under contract for four more years, and the length of the contracts in the organization continues to grow. A few weeks ago the longest contract in the system was Riley Stillman, now we have Seth Jones and the company under contract for years to come.