The salary cap helped end the Blackhawks' dynasty and now it may hurt the rebuild

This summer, after winning back-to-back Stanley Cups, the Florida Panthers were able to re-sign Brad Marchand, Sam Bennett, and Aaron Ekblad.

Ten years ago, after winning their third Stanley Cup in six seasons, the Chicago Blackhawks dealt away Brandon Saad, Patrick Sharp, Kris Versteeg, and Antti Raanta through trades and lost Brad Richards, Antoine Vermette, and Johnny Oduya in free agency.

That is a lengthy group of the roster to lose in free agency. Part of the reason for the loss has to be because of the flat cap the NHL faced. From 2014-15 to 2015-16 the NHL salary cap went from 69 million to 71.4 million, an increase of just under 2.5 million. This season, the NHL salary cap is at 95.5 million, an increase of over 7 million from 88 million in 2024-25.

That seven million would include all of Aaron Ekblad's new deal, and the Blackhawks missed out on a salary cap boom like that after their third championship.

In fact, from 2015-16 to 2021-22 the salary cap would go up by just 10 million from 71.4 million in 2015-16 to 81.5 million in 2021-22.

The NHL salary cap helped put an end to the Blackhawks dynasty. With Toews and Kane both on matching massive contracts carrying a cap hit of 10.5 million, the Blackhawks would have need a bigger salary boom to hold onto the players they coveted.

In the three or four years after their last Stanley Cup, the Blackhawks summer was filled with the team parting ways with players they just could not afford to hang onto, and now the Hawks are missing out on the other end of that as a rebuilder.

The Blackhawks rebuild is seeing the negative affects of a rising salary cap.

So many contending teams were able to make key signings this summer. The Panthers kept all three of their top guys, Mitch Marner joined the Vegas Golden Knights, and going back to late last season - the Dallas Stars were able to sign Mikko Rantanen to a massive contract.

The free agent market was underwhelming this summer, and that is in part due to a rising salary cap benefiting contending teams. Chicago lost out on a larger pool of players this summer, and they are likely to miss out on another group next summer.

Next summer's free agent cast could include guys like Kyle Connor, Connor McDavid, Kirill Kaprizov, and Jack Eichel, to name a few, but with a rising salary cap, teams will have more room to keep their stars in the locker room—there is a good chance most of top guys might not even hit free agency.

The salary cap is also having an affect on the Blackhawks roster.

With Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar both looking for new contracts for 2026-27, there is a good chance the Blackhawks will have to overpay them just to sign long-term, considering players and agents are aware of the salary boom to come in the next few years.

The salary cap has been haunting the Blackhawks year in and year out since 2010. Even though the roster is not up against the cap ceiling, the cap continues to haunt the team.