Chicago Blackhawks must effectively use Marian Hossa’s LTIR Cap Relief
By Adam Hess
The Chicago Blackhawks suddenly have more cap space thanks to Marian Hossa’s possibly career ending allergy. But they must use it effectively.
The Chicago Blackhawks were dealt a major blow early on this summer when they announced that star forward Marian Hossa would not play in the 2017-18 NHL season due to a progressive skin condition. According to Hossa and Dr. Michael Terry, the team’s Head Physician, it was a condition that Hossa had dealt with for years.
Losing a first line forward and surefire hall of fame player in the blink of an eye is a blow that would usually set teams back quite a bit. Chicago made an effort to mitigate the loss of Hossa by trading for Brandon Saad. But because they had to send Artemi Panarin to Columbus in that deal, the Blackhawks are still worse off due to Hossa’s absence.
However, there is a silver lining for the Blackhawks, as they will receive cap relief from Hossa’s contract by placing him on Long-Term Injured Reserve (LTIR). The worst-kept secret in hockey is that the Blackhawks have salary cap issues. Stan Bowman and his staff each have struggled with this each offseason, and Chicago has had to trade away key players after each of their three Stanley Cup championships since 2010.
However, due to the rules that the NHL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement has in place to monitor LTIR use, the Blackhawks will not receive relief for the complete cap hit. LTIR relief is calculated by taking the cap hit of the player minus the amount of cap space the team has available when placing the player on LTIR. For example, if Chicago had $1 million in cap space when they officially place Hossa on the injured list, they would receive $4.275 million in cap relief. Ergo, it would benefit Bowman if he got his team as close to the $75-million salary cap ceiling as possible at the start of the season.
Getting close to cap ceiling
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The Hawks are currently $34,795 over that limit with a roster of 14 forwards, five defensemen, and three goalies, according to CapFriendly. It’s obvious that either Jean-Francois Berube or Anton Forsberg will end up in the AHL. For this exercise, we are assuming Forsberg gets the demotion. With this, we can shift Chicago’s cap room to $715,205.
Chicago will allocate most of that money to adding a sixth defenseman to the roster so that head coach Joel Quenneville has a complete roster to work with. The easiest candidate for that is young defenseman Ville Pokka. Pokka played in AHL Rockford the past two seasons. He will likely get strong consideration for a spot on the NHL roster this year.
Pokka carries a cap hit of $650,000. Having him on the roster to start the season would leave Chicago with $65,205 in cap space. Hossa’s contract going to LTIR would then give Chicago $5,209,795 in cap relief. Let’s move forward assuming Stan Bowman rolls with this strategy entering the season.
However, the roster at this point is not very strong. Bowman is still going to have some work to do to get this roster to a point where they have a competitive roster.
Building the real team
With essentially $5.21-million in bonus money, Bowman gets to round out his team for real. Defenseman Jan Rutta, who is not included in CapFriendly’s roster breakdown, will likely be added to the roster. So will Gustav Forsling. Removing one of Roszival or Pokka from the NHL club leaves the Blackhawks with $4,062,295 in cap relief.
Chicago Blackhawks
The forwards get a little interesting as well. John Hayden will likely make the Hawks out of camp, but he and his $925,000 are not included on CapFriendly’s projection. Neither is 19-year old phenom Alex DeBrincat, who should get a serious look in training camp after another monster year in OHL last year. Let’s play it safe and assume only Hayden makes the NHL roster.
Now the Hawks have 14 forwards, seven defensemen, two goalies, and $3,137,295 worth of cap relief space remaining. And while they still don’t have the most impressive roster, they can remain competitive with what they have on hand.
The key here for Chicago, though, is that they have more than $3-million of cap space to work with, as well as the ability to accumulate more throughout the season. That gives Stan Bowman a lot of flexibility. If they want to call up a prospect like DeBrincat, they can. They should also have sufficient cap space to add a good player at the trade deadline.
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So Chicago is going to have to get really creative to truly make the most of this tight situation they’re in. But if Stan Bowman plays his cards — and the system — right, he could have a pretty good roster on his hands for opening day, while also putting himself in a very good place to make some major changes once the season starts.