Chicago Blackhawks Not Done Moving Players

Ding, ding, ding. We’re on to round three (at least I think it’s three, I’ve lost count) of the Chicago Blackhawks offseason makeover. OK, so nothing has happened yet, but we can feel it coming. The Blackhawks are still a victim of cap troubles and will need to move a couple of more players to get back under.

Aside from this year’s cap squeeze (right now they are over by $400,000), the Blackhawks are also dealing with bonus overages from last season, which carry over to this season and amount to about $750,000. Oh, boy.

Not to mention the team has yet to sign restricted free agent forward Marcus Kruger, which seems like a must now that Patrick Sharp and Brandon Saad are gone. Things are really tight in Chi-town!

"“We’ve had a lot of discussions,” Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman said Friday at the Hilton Chicago prior to the start of their annual fan convention. “I think we have some ideas of what we’re going to do. We’ve got a couple different scenarios that we are planning on doing and ultimately, which one we’ll land on … in time that will come to be. [NHL]"

Hmm, so who is on the chopping block? Well two of the biggest players with bullseyes are their backs are Bryan Bickell and Kris Versteeg. Bickell has two years left on his contract and a $4 million cap hit. Versteeg is due $2.2 million this upcoming season.

So is this an either or situation or can and will both players be moved? Right now, nothing would surprise me. Or at least I won’t be more surprised than I was by the Saad trade. So anything the Blackhawks do, I’ll have to believe it’s purely motivated by the team’s monetary issues.

The Blackhawks are really gutting their team.

"Six players who skated in Chicago’s six-game Stanley Cup Final win over Tampa Bay in June have already moved on as general manager Stan Bowman tries to squeeze in under the NHL’s $71.4 million cap for 2015-16 when contract extensions — with annual salary cap hits of $10.5 million — kick in for stars Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane. [Daily Chronicle]"

Six players already gone (some by choice) and more to go. Will the Blackhawks be a contender next year?

Well, they won’t be the same, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be able to contend. Yes, I believe they will miss Saad, Johnny Oduya and Sharp, but they still have Kane, Toews, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook and Corey Crawford to name a few.

It’s not like the team hasn’t dealt with player turnover before.

"“There’s confidence that we’ll always find way to come back from deficits that are created,” captain Jonathan Toews said. “The number we’ve lost this summer so far doesn’t compare to 2010, but I think the quality and what those players have meant to our locker room (is more), considering that a guy like (Patrick) Sharp has been here pretty much his whole career. [Chicago Tribune]"

Blackhawks’ coach Joel Quenneville reiterated that fact, and look what they were able to do since 2010 (win two Cups).

And, even though they did lose Sharp and Saad, the team did get defenseman Trevor Daley, winger Marko Dano and center Artem Anisimov to name a few.

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