A Look at The Chicago Blackhawks Salary Dilemmas

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The other important RFA, Duncan Keith, will most likely also ask for quite a raise. Tallon seems pretty confident he can strike a deal with Keith before the season ends and will probably be worth around $5 million.

If Chicago is already over the cap by $4 million, how can they ever expect to retain these three guys, plus others?

Here is my solution.

The Blackhawks have 12 players on their current NHL roster that have no contract next summer. Without these twelve players, the Blackhawks have a payroll of $43,009,208. If the salary cap drops, as it is supposed to, it will most likely be $52-53 million. This leaves Chicago with about $10,000,000 in cap room.

With a few trades and an on-going rumor of waiving Brent Sopel, the Hawks can have around $15,000,000 in cap room.

If the cap should not fall, but in fact raise as it has the past few years, it will be around $58 million. If that does happen, Chicago will be pretty safe as they will have around $17 million to spare. We might see Versteeg or Sharp in a new home next year because they are the top two candidates to be moved if such a thing occurs.

Sharp makes $3.9 per year and Versteeg makes $3.06 per year. The Hawks might consider giving one of these guys up for not much in return in order to free up some cap space.

If Kane, Toews, and Keith all accept to play for less money in Chicago, they will accumulate around $11 - $13 million together. Hopefully this plan falls through, because if it should, the Hawks will have their top three RFA's back, but are at risk of losing some players.

I know this might seem like quite a stretch, but it could happen. I have no doubt Chicago is in trouble, but the situation may turn out in a pleasant way.

This dilemma truly comes down to next year's salary cap and what Bettman decides to do.

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