Parts 1 thru 4 below.
While the rosters I’ve set out above are not as strong as the 2009-10 Chicago Blackhawks roster that won the Stanley Cup, it’s still a very good team. And the future is still very bright for the Hawks.
Like all Stanley Cup champs in the cap era, it’s difficult to keep your team together. That’s what the NHL wanted when they instituted the cap, and it’s worked in that regard.
As Hawks fans, it sucks we can’t see this team kept together as it’s obvious from all the interviews and behind the scenes stuff we see, that this team has great chemistry. Not to mention they’re pretty good at hockey too.
The future is more than bright though for the Blackhawks. Anytime that your core consists of all-world players such as Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Marian Hossa, Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook, you’re going to be good for a long time. Unfortunately in 2010-11 they’re going to lose some key supporting pieces, but that’s the nature of the beast.
I look at 2010-11 as somewhat of a “fiscal correction” for the Hawks. The Hawks are going to have to work with a cap of $55-$56M or so whereas the rest of the league will have $59M to work with. This is only for 2010-11 however. Once 2011-12 rolls around, the Hawks will be able to spend the same as everyone else.
The NHL seems to be growing and it wouldn’t be crazy to think the cap moves up another $2M or so in 2011-12. So the Hawks would have a roster at $56M and still be able to spend another $5M or so in 2011-12. Some of this will go towards Seabrook’s new contract (RFA after next year and will probably get $2M increase), but the rest of it can go towards bringing in free agents to help supplement the roster in 2 years time.
Which brings us to another point. Gone are the days where free agents would need a lot more money from the Hawks to consider playing there. Now, the opposite is going to happen. Free agents will be willing to take less money for the opportunity to play for a Stanley Cup contender, in the great city of Chicago. This will also help the Hawks in the long run.
Finally, any trades of Versteeg, Byfuglien and Ladd (or whoever else gets traded) are going to land the Hawks a number of draft picks and prospects which will help for the future as well. It’s possible that if the Hawks hit on these picks the team could be even stronger 2 years from now.
So while the next couple of weeks and months here are going to suck as the Hawks try to get under the cap and are forced to trade away some good players, it’s still refreshing to know that this team is going to be good for a long time. Oh, and they went for it in 2009-10 and won the Stanley Cup. I don’t know about you, but I’ll take that trade-off any day of the week.
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