I can smell the hate coming in already and I’ve only written thirteen words. To get to my point very quickly, Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane have put the Chicago Blackhawks in a bit of a cap crunch. Before people do start yelling at me, yes they are great players, yes they have won three Stanley Cups, both winning a Conn Smythe trophy as playoff MVP Toews in 2010 Kane in 2013. Toews has won two Olympic goal medals, Kane winning a silver medal in 2010. Both are obviously top ten talents in the entire world you can definitely argue Toews is top five.
$10.5 million per season each. Yes they’re good, but not that good. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin are probably two of the top three players in the world and combined they make around $16 million, Toews and Kane combined make $21 million? I can hear the counterargument already, “Well Toews and Kane have three Stanley Cups, Malkin and Crosby only have one.” Yeah, I’m willing to bet if Crosby and Malkin had players like Keith, Seabrook, Hossa, Sharp, Hjalmarsson and Saad they would have more than one Cup too. Sid and Geno as they’re called in Pittsburgh have had good if not great teams, but they have never had a Keith, Seabrook and Hjalmarsson on defense.
Toews and Kane should have stepped back, gathered together with their agent and say, “We have Cups, we want money, but we want to make sure the team can not only remain competitive but stay on top.” They could have easily said that and got $7-$8 miliion. Doesn’t sound like that much of a cutback but that’s $4-$6 million to free up then guess what, the Chicago Blackhawks don’t have to tear down a pretty scary roster. If they have that money available they don’t have to trade the twenty-two year old Saad because they can’t afford him. Saad was looking for $6.5 million for five or six years, they give him that money maybe a little less if he was willing to negotiate a little bit down.
The rest is easy trade Patrick Sharp who is thirty-four years old, trade him while he has value and get something back for him and free up his near $6 million cap hit, get rid of the $4 million cap block that is Bryan Bickell and you still have room to spare for a new player.
This is a Chicago Blackhawks team that needs help on the blueline. We saw Duncan Keith get run into the ground for the majority of the playoffs, I know Keith is conditioned well to the point where most people question his authenticity as a human but he cant play those many minutes 82 times a season then hope to play even more for the playoffs. You’re asking way to much of him at that point. Other than Keith and Seabrook the Chicago Blackhawks really only have Hjalmarsson. This team can’t afford to rely on just three defensemen, they play in too tough of a conference and too tough of a division to be lacking depth. The Blackhawks only made the division playoffs by two points, who’s to say next year maybe Minnesota takes another step up? Maybe Colorado rebounds after winning the division the season before last. Maybe Dallas figures it out this season and becomes a contender.
We are suddenly now talking about the Blackhawks missing the playoffs because they can’t afford hardly anything. Maybe they sneak in as a wild card but you have to believe the pacific division will have something to say about that. I think the LA Kings and San Jose Sharks will have rebound seasons and the Flames don’t look like they plan on going down. Who the hell knows what’s going to happen in Edmonton this season but maybe they make the wild card race more interesting.
Is this overreaction? Yes, maybe some. But with Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane just taking at least $2 million off each of their contracts they could maybe afford a little more and avoid trading a valuable piece like Saad. Right now the Chicago Blackhawks have a little over $7 million to spend but just fourteen players signed, Seems simple, trade Sharp, get rid of Bickell any way possible free up that combined $10 million in space then you have $17 million to spend and things get a whole lot easier.
Are Toews and Kane special players? Yes, I will never say they aren’t, but do they deserve to be the highest paid players in the league at $10.5? No. How does Toews and Kane get a combined $21 million and perhaps the MVP’s of the team Keith and Seabrook get a combined $11 million. How the hell is Bickell making $4 million. Bad GMing and bad cap management. Are the Chicago Blackhawks going to miss the playoffs and ruin the dynasty? Maybe not, but if this does happen, blame three people, GM Stan Bowman, Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane.
