The rising NHL salary cap could have a negative impact on the Blackhawks

What was once one of the most fun and entertaining days of the NHL calendar has become a total dud. With the skyrocketing salary cap, almost all teams have the necessary cap space to re-sign their best players. This has resulted in the death of the chaotic free-agency period.

A rising NHL salary cap is hurting the Chicago Blackhawks in free agency.

In the past, the strict NHL salary cap made it difficult to retain a full roster of players year over year, prompting players to move from a team with no salary cap space to a team with more salary cap space. But now that every team has open cap space, what is the incentive for a team to just not re-sign their star players? There isn't one.

The Florida Panthers were expected to lose one of Marchand, Bennett or Ekblad. The thinking was clear. there was no chance that the Panthers could find a way to keep all their big name free agents. All of NHL history post salary cap implementation has shown that great teams are forced to lose their good players due to cap restraints. Well, it is a new day in the NHL and the Florida Panthers kept ALL of those three guys.

I see bad things arising for the Chicago Blackhawks' rebuild. A big part of the NHL "rebuild theory" is predicated on taking advantage of other teams that are sinking as you are rising. When your young players get better, and as another team full of veterans is getting worse, you offer draft capital for their good players. You get a good player, and they get future assets as they begin rebuilding themselves.

But what if there are no sinking teams? What if every team has the cap space needed to just re-sign their players or tempt the few free agents to sign with them, as they have better situations available than the Hawks? What if the Blackhawks simply won't be able to sign any free agents to fill their needs? I think that is what is about to become our reality.

If I am right, the development of the Hawks' internal prospects becomes completely essential to the success of the Chicago Blackhawks. These guys must succeed and become star-caliber players. Guys like Frank Nazar, Sam Rinzel, and Artyom Levshunov must pan out. Even the newest draft star, Anton Frondell needs to be an impact player sooner rather than later.

The Hawks have no choice, and the kids are our only real hope at accelerating this long rebuild.

Furthermore, it is becoming clear that the only way the Hawks can possibly get a "star" player to join their team will be via trade. The problem is this: why would that other team trade their star players? They can just re-sign them. They will have the necessary cap space to keep them, and unless the player is dissatisfied with the team or the city, they won't have great reasons to leave. I am becoming very, very worried about the future of this Hawks rebuild, and this dud of a free agency period has only cemented my fears.