Chicago Blackhawks Still Have Plenty of Work To Do After July 1

Who would have thought on July 1 that the Chicago Blackhawks would be major players in the free agent market? At the end of the day, the Blackhawks added the most dynamic free agent in Marian Hossa, John Madden, a veteran center, and a gritty forward in Tomas Kopecky.

Even though all those addition will help the Blackhawks in the coming year, they still have plenty of work to do. The biggest concern the Blackhawks need to address this offseason is the contract situations with Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, and Duncan Keith.

After reading a piece by the Daily Herald's Barry Rozner, I begin to see the challenge the Blackhawks face to sign these three stars. Rozner speculates on what each player will demand and here are his numbers: Jonathan Toews ($6.5 million cap hit), Patrick Kane ($6 million cap hit) and Duncan Keith ($5.5 million cap hit).

Once I read those numbers I realized that the Blackhawks have a ton of work to do and that they will need to move some players they have under contract. Currently, the Blackhawks have $11.8 million in cap space remaining after the signings of Kopecky, Madden, and Hossa.

Let us speculate that the Blackhawks do sign Toews, Kane, and Keith to those numbers this offseason, and you are then looking at $10 million worth of raises and that will bring the cap space down to $1.8 million—certainly not enough to resign the Blackhawks' RFA's.

If this is the case, then that means the 'Hawks will need to move several rather large contracts to make space for players such as Kris Versteeg and Cam Barker. The two contracts that the Blackhawks should look to shop are Brent Sopel ($2.3 million) and Dustin Byfuglien's ($3 million).

Moving these two players for picks or prospects will free up $7.1 million in cap, which is likely enough money to sign Kris Versteeg and Cam Barker but might cost the 'Hawks players like Ben Eager, Troy Brouwer, and Colin Fraser.

The Blackhawks could also use another solid defenseman via free agency, but with these extentions likely to come this summer, the Blackhawks might not be able to afford that and will have to rely on rookies.

Although I agree with Rozner's suggestion that these young talents need to be locked up this summer, I think that you will see a little less money per year on their contracts. The main example I have used for Toews is Mike Richards of the Philadelphia Flyers, who received a 12-year, $69 million contract, but who knows?

Even though day one of free agency was quite an exciting one, Blackhawks fans must realize that there is still plenty of work that needs to be done to keep this youg core intact.