Salary Cap Deep Dive: Chicago Blackhawks
Navigating the salary cap is one of the more important tasks for any GM. Teams that can avoid total cap chaos by walking the tightrope of inking players to deals that match their value (or compensate for future value without breaking the bank) remain successful. Those that don’t see struggles and front office changes.
PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation for the 2022-23 season and beyond. This will focus more on players who are regulars on the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL. All cap figures are courtesy of CapFriendly.
Chicago Blackhawks
Current Cap Hit: $76,467,143 (under the $82.5MM Upper Limit)
Entry-Level Contracts
D Alec Regula (one year, $867K)
D Filip Roos (two years, $925K)
Roos signed as an undrafted free agent after spending last season in the SHL but not many were expecting him to make the team right away. That’s what he did, however, as he is logging over 16 minutes a night in the early season thus far. It’s still too early to forecast his next deal as a lot will depend on whether he keeps his lineup spot throughout the season or if they decide time in Rockford is required. Regula spent most of his first two professional years in the minors and has had a limited role when he has been in Chicago. That’s the type of player that will likely receive a short-term bridge deal, perhaps a two-year pact that checks in a little lower than this but with more guaranteed money on a two-way contract with possibly one of those seasons being a one-way deal.
Signed Through 2022-23, Non-Entry-Level
F Andreas Athanasiou ($3MM, UFA)
F Max Domi ($3MM, UFA)
D Jack Johnson ($950K, UFA)
D Caleb Jones ($1.35MM, RFA)
F Patrick Kane ($10.5MM, UFA)
F Jujhar Khaira ($975K, UFA)
F Philipp Kurashev ($750K, RFA)
G Alex Stalock ($750K, UFA)
D Jarred Tinordi ($900K, UFA)
F Jonathan Toews ($10.5MM, UFA)
Kane and Toews have been on identical contracts for 13 straight years now but that will come to an end after this season. Kane remains one of the top offensive threats in the NHL and while it’s fair to expect that he’s going to slow down, he still should be an impact player for a few more years. His next deal probably won’t be $10.5MM but something around the $9MM mark should be achievable on a four-year deal or longer. Toews, on the other hand, has only had one high-end offensive season in recent years. While he remains a strong player at the faceoff dot and can kill penalties, his days of being a top-liner are over. Accordingly, his market value might be closer to half of his current price tag.
Domi and Athanasiou both came on identical deals this summer but at a much lower cost. They’re both looking for bounce-back seasons to build back some value. However, Athanasiou has had some good years lately and still didn’t have a particularly robust market in his previous trips through unrestricted free agency. Unless he gets closer to the 50-point mark this season, it’s hard to see his price tag going higher. As a center, Domi has a bit more potential when it comes to a bigger contract. He has had some down years since his 72-point campaign in 2018-19 but in a bigger role with Chicago, he at least has an opportunity to try to re-establish himself as a second liner which could give him a chance at a small raise.
Khaira has dealt with some injury issues the last couple of years and has been more of a fourth liner in that time. Accordingly, his next contract will come in close to this one. As for Kurashev, he’s on his prove-it deal, one that saw him take less than his qualifying offer to get a one-way guarantee. He has shown some flashes of promise early in his career and if he’s able to even get to 25-30 points this season, he’ll do enough to warrant a raise past the $1MM mark, especially with arbitration eligibility.
The younger Jones is still trying to get himself established as a full-time NHL player and has been on the third line when he has played for most of his career. He’ll be arbitration-eligible again this summer with a $1.35MM qualifying offer and a small raise could come his way if he’s able to stay healthy and on the third pairing. Johnson signed as a free agent this summer after being a depth player in Colorado. He could legitimately sign a similar type of contract in July around this price tag as it’s unlikely he’ll garner a multi-year deal now as he’ll turn 36 in January. Tinordi was somewhat surprisingly claimed off waivers after spending most of last season in the minors. It’s hard to see him getting much of a raise this summer but if he stays up for the full year with Chicago, another one-way deal could be doable.
The last two years have been tough for Stalock who was unable to play for most of that time due to myocarditis and he struggled in limited AHL action last season which limited his market this past summer. At his age (35), he’s probably going year-to-year moving forward but if he stays healthy and has a decent season, he should command more interest in July which would likely push his price tag past the $1MM mark.
Signed Through 2023-24
F Colin Blackwell ($1.2MM, UFA)
F Mackenzie Entwistle ($800K, RFA)
F Jason Dickinson ($2.65MM, UFA)
F Tyler Johnson ($5MM, UFA)
F Boris Katchouk ($758K, RFA)
F Sam Lafferty ($1.15MM, UFA)
G Petr Mrazek ($3.8MM, UFA)
F Taylor Raddysh ($758K, RFA)
Johnson was a cap dump by Tampa Bay and hasn’t produced at a top-six level with consistency for a few seasons now. On top of that, he is more of a winger than a center now which doesn’t help his value. He’ll be in his age-34 season on his next contract and it’s one that should be 50% lower at a minimum as things stand. Dickinson was a cap dump by Vancouver recently and isn’t too far removed from showing some third-line potential. If he can play at that level in Chicago, he could have a chance at a similar contract two years from now. But if he plays at the same level as last season with the Blackhawks, he’ll be closer to the level of a PTO candidate.
Blackwell came over in free agency after being a late-bloomer, only securing a regular NHL roster spot at 27. He has shown some offensive upside in that stretch and a contract like this for a fourth liner that could have a little upside is certainly reasonable. A similar showing to his last two seasons could give him a small bump in pay in 2024. Lafferty hasn’t produced much in his career but showed that he was capable of logging third-line ice time with Chicago last season. Maintaining that role would help his market value two years from now but he’ll need to produce more than single-digit goals to have a chance of really pushing his AAV up.
Entwistle is in a similar situation as Lafferty, just with a shorter track record. He provides Chicago with some physicality but the offense will need to come around if he wants a chance at a seven-figure contract. Raddysh didn’t produce much with Tampa Bay last season but impressed down the stretch with the Blackhawks, producing at close to a top-six level. Similar production coupled with arbitration rights could push him past the $2.5MM mark two years from now. Katchouk also came over from Tampa Bay and once he’s able to return, his priority will be simply securing a spot in the lineup on a regular basis which doesn’t bode well for the chances of a sizable increase in 2024.
Mrazek was a cap dump from Toronto back at the draft in a move that saw Chicago elevate a second-round pick into a first-rounder. He has shown flashes of playing at a number one level in the past but has struggled with consistency and staying healthy. He’ll need to provide at least some stability if he wants to land a contract around this price tag two years from now; at this point, a dip seems quite likely.
Metro Notes: Guentzel, Blueger, Leonsis
The Pittsburgh Penguins have started the season off extremely well, collecting three wins and four games. A major contributor to that early-season success has been winger Jake Guentzel, who is tied for second on the team with three goals and five points. The Penguins are getting ready to begin a five-game road trip, and they may be without Guentzel for some of that period.
Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan told the media today, as relayed by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Jason Mackey, that Guentzel missed practice and is being evaluated for an upper-body injury. Guentzel was hit by a Kris Letang shot late in last night’s win over the Los Angeles Kings and also suffered a collision with Kings forward Brendan Lemieux. In Guentzel’s absence, Danton Heinen was elevated to the Penguins’ top line, while Brock McGinn took Heinen’s slot on the team’s third line.
Some other Metropolitan Division notes:
- If Guentzel does indeed miss time with an upper-body injury, the Penguins could be forced to use seven defensemen until he returns. Injured forward Teddy Blueger is still wearing a non-contact jersey in practice, and as Taylor Haase of DK Pittsburgh Sports notes, the Penguins don’t have the cap space to recall a forward. Coach Sullivan is no stranger to guiding the Penguins through injury troubles, though, and he’ll definitely have his hands full as he looks to sustain the Penguins’ hot start.
- Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis is leading a group that is reportedly the front-runner to purchase Major League Baseball’s Washington Nationals, per reporting from The Athletic’s David Aldridge, Brittany Ghiroli, and Ken Rosenthal. Leonsis has been the owner of the Capitals since 1999 and would become just the second owner of teams in three of the four major U.S. professional men’s sports leagues. For more information on Leonsis’ potential purchase, we refer you to the more extensive coverage over at MLB Trade Rumors.
Nikolaj Ehlers Placed On Injured Reserve
The Winnipeg Jets have moved Nikolaj Ehlers to injured reserve, retroactive to October 18. The retroactive placement suggests that he won’t be out very long, but will miss at least the team’s next two games. With the roster spot, the team recalled Dominic Toninato, who cleared waivers recently and was playing in the AHL.
Ehlers, 26, played a full allotment of minutes in each of the team’s first two games of the season, registering three points along the way. He missed Wednesday’s matchup against the Colorado Avalanche after leaving the morning skate early, and then didn’t play last night in the loss to the Vegas Golden Knights. Amazingly, despite missing two games he still is in a tie for first among Jets forwards in scoring, showing just how important he is to the offensive performance of the team.
Toninato, meanwhile, broke camp with the team but was sent down after they claimed Axel Jonsson Fjallby on waivers. The 28-year-old forward played in 77 games with the team last season and scored 14 points, the best performance of his career so far.
It is not clear yet how long Ehlers will be out but the Jets sure could use him. Key forwards like Blake Wheeler, Adam Lowry, and Mason Appleton still haven’t scored, leaving the Winnipeg depth lacking at the moment. Neal Pionk leads the team in scoring with four points in four games, not exactly ideal for a group that has been so reliant on their forward group over the years.
Lawrence Pilut Recalled By Buffalo Sabres
After Henri Jokiharju took a puck to the face and exited last night’s game, the Buffalo Sabres have recalled Lawrence Pilut from the minor leagues. The team has not yet announced the extent of Jokiharju’s injuries.
Pilut, 26, is still waiver-exempt (amazingly), one of the biggest reasons why he wasn’t on the team to begin the year after a strong preseason. The Swedish defender is back in North America after spending the last two seasons in the KHL, and had two points in his first three games with Rochester before the recall. Undrafted, Pilut has found success at basically every level of hockey, including for a time in the NHL. In 2018-19 he played 33 games with the Sabres, recording six points and generally looking as though he could handle minutes in the big leagues.
When those minutes didn’t continue, he took an opportunity to play a bigger role in the KHL and had 28 points in 57 games during his first season in Russia. While he may never become a full-time player with the Sabres, Pilut represents some very solid depth for a club that looks like a real playoff contender this year. Buffalo is 3-1 and coming off an impressive victory over the Calgary Flames last night.
With Jokiharju exiting early, Mattias Samuelsson and Rasmus Dahlin both logged huge minutes, each nearing the 26-minute mark in the game. Jacob Bryson and Owen Power each cracked 20 themselves, while Casey Fitzgerald played just over 15. Where Pilut fits into that group remains to be seen, though with Ilya Lyubushkin nearing a return from his day-to-day injury, it’s not even a guarantee that he gets into a game at all. The Sabres continue their western trip with a stop in Vancouver tomorrow night.
Chicago Blackhawks Activate Jake McCabe
The Chicago Blackhawks are getting some veteran depth back on the blueline, activating Jake McCabe from injured reserve today. Recovered from cervical spine surgery that took place earlier this offseason, he’s expected to be in the lineup for the team tonight when they take on the Detroit Red Wings.
McCabe, 29, is one of the key pieces brought in during a 2021 offseason that ended up being too little, too late for the Blackhawks. The team struggled out of the gate, was embroiled in controversy, and quickly turned things over to general manager Kyle Davidson, who promptly started a full rebuild. The four-year, $16MM deal that Stan Bowman handed to McCabe doesn’t seem very practical now, though he is at least still young enough to remain an attractive trade candidate.
That is, of course, if he’s fully recovered from the back surgery, which remains to be seen. The long-time Buffalo Sabres defenseman is known for his physical, all-out style, blocking shots and punishing attacking players with equal frequency. Last season for the Blackhawks he led the team in hits and was behind only Calvin de Haan in blocks, while also putting up a very solid 22 points, only trailing Seth Jones in offense from the defense.
If McCabe can get back to a strong level of play, it’s easy to wonder if he’ll be shipped off like the rest of the valuable chips in Chicago. He does hold a seven-team no-trade clause and has a back-loaded contract, but minute-munching defensemen like him are always in demand at trade deadline time.
Minnesota Wild Loan Vladislav Firstov To KHL; Recall Mason Shaw
Jordan Greenway‘s return to the Minnesota Wild lineup lasted just six shifts. The bruising forward managed to land four hits during that time, but after leaving with an upper-body injury he was quickly ruled out for the rest of the game. Head coach Dean Evason told reporters including Michael Russo of The Athletic after the game that Greenway would be evaluated today and won’t play tomorrow afternoon in Boston.
With that news, it makes sense that Mason Shaw is back in the AHL transaction portal and on his way back to the NHL level. Shaw had only been sent down a few days ago when it was clear that Greenway would be returning. More importantly, perhaps, is that the portal also includes Vladislav Firstov, who has been reassigned by the team to Torpedo Nizhny Novogrod of the KHL.
Firstov, 21, was a second-round pick of the Wild in 2019 and signed his entry-level contract in March. The young Russian forward hadn’t played in his home country for years, coming over to spend his draft year in the USHL and then the last three seasons at the University of Connecticut. After just one game with the Iowa Wild this season, he’s apparently on his way back overseas to continue his development in the KHL.
Notably, he remains under contract with the Wild, so this isn’t a long-term plan. But the team will lose at least a bit of control over his deployment and development this season as he plays in Russia. In eight games down the stretch with Iowa last season he managed just two assists, meaning he’ll have to wait even longer for his first professional goal in North America.
Florida Panthers Sign Eric Staal
After skating on a professional tryout that extended into the regular season, Eric Staal has earned a contract. The Florida Panthers have agreed to a one-year, one-way contract with the veteran forward according to Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff. The deal will carry a salary of $750K.
Staal, 37, is quite the story of perseverance, after not playing in the NHL at all last season. Instead of signing on with a team, he played a handful of games for the Iowa Wild before captaining Canada at the 2022 Olympics. While there were many reports that he was hoping to sign for a stretch run after the tournament ended, a contract never materialized.
Now, he’ll join brother Marc Staal with the Panthers for at least one last go-round in the NHL, and try to show once again why he may one day get into the Hall of Fame. The second-overall pick from 2003 has 1,034 points in 1,293 career regular season games and won the Stanley Cup in 2006 with the Carolina Hurricanes.
Even in his last appearance in the NHL, with the Montreal Canadiens in 2021, he somehow found a new gear in the postseason. After being rather underwhelming during the regular season, Staal put up eight points in 21 games for the Canadiens as they took a Cinderella run to the Stanley Cup Final.
While he certainly won’t be a huge difference-maker for the Panthers, there are worse depth options to bring in with the added cap space from moving Aaron Ekblad to long-term injured reserve. Staal is, after all, 78th all-time in NHL points, and has been skating with the team long enough to fully understand their systems and structure.
Tampa Bay Lightning Assign Gabriel Fortier To AHL
No matter how many times the Tampa Bay Lightning trade away young depth players at the deadline to bring in talent for their Stanley Cup push, they always seem to have another prospect ready for the NHL. Recently it was Gabriel Fortier, a second-round pick who played ten games for the team last season and cracked the roster out of camp this time around.
Fortier, 22, played just one game out of the first few, however, and has now been assigned to the minor leagues as the Lightning arrive back in Florida for the next couple of games. Tonight’s match is actually a road game as they take on their cross-state rivals but they’ll then host the New York Islanders tomorrow night before going on a west coast trip.
At that point, Fortier or someone else could be recalled as an extra forward, however, there is also another possibility. Anthony Cirelli and Zach Bogosian have both been skating in non-contact sweaters with the team, meaning one or both could be back at some point soon. The Lightning had been carrying a maximum of 23 players, meaning someone would need to go down to make room.
If that’s Fortier, the young forward shouldn’t be too disappointed. He isn’t even two full seasons into his professional career, and will get his chance at some point in the future.
Minnesota Wild Activate Jordan Greenway
8:22 PM: Greenway’s current return effort could end up short-lived. The Athletic’s Joe Smith reported that Greenway will not return to tonight’s game against the Vancouver Canucks. Greenway apparently suffered an upper-body injury during play. We will have more information on the nature of this injury as it becomes available.
5:05 PM:When the Minnesota Wild sent forward Mason Shaw back to the AHL yesterday, it was a sign that injured forward Jordan Greenway was nearing a return to the active roster. Today, his return was made official. The Wild have announced that Greenway has been activated off of injured reserve, and he is expected to make his season debut in just a few hours when the Wild take on the Vancouver Canucks.
Greenway, 25, has missed the first few Wild contests recovering from the shoulder surgeries he underwent this summer. The Wild are still looking for their first victory of the season, and the return of Greenway could help them get back into the win column. Last season, Greenway was one third of the team’s “GREEF” line, skating with Joel Eriksson Ek and Marcus Foligno. Together on that line, each of the three players enjoyed extremely successful seasons on both ends of the ice.
While it might take some time for Greenway to return to playing as he did last season, he could represent an immediate improvement to the team’s defensive fortunes if his old line is reunited. The Wild’s ability to keep pucks out of their net has been under great scrutiny in the early days of this season, so getting a true shutdown line back on the ice could go a long way towards righting the ship on that front.
If nothing else, though, the Wild are sure to be happy to have Greenway, ever energetic and hard-working, back on the ice.
Snapshots: Zub, Toews, Megna
While he might soak up more of the headlines, Alex DeBrincat isn’t the only Ottawa Senator on playing expiring contract. Defenseman Artem Zub, a fan favorite in Ottawa, is a pending unrestricted free agent, and most believe that he is sure to get a sizeable raise on his current $2.5MM cap hit. Zub, 27, is in his third season in the NHL and is now playing top-pairing minutes next to franchise defenseman Thomas Chabot. Zub has gotten off to a hot start this year with two points in three games, and is sure to want to put the best platform season forward as he readies for a potential trip to the unrestricted free agent market.
According to TSN’s Chris Johnston on tonight’s Insider Trading program, he may get to the market, and if he does, he’s unlikely to stick around long. Johnston reports that there haven’t been substantive extension talks between the Senators and Zub, and if Zub does indeed hit the open market he “won’t be an easy player” for the Senators to keep. It’s expected that there will be leaguewide interest in acquiring Zub’s services should he hit the open market, so if the Senators wish to keep their budding star it might be best for them to hammer out an extension sooner rather than later.
For some other notes from across the NHL:
- Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar issued an update today on defenseman Devon Toews. As relayed by the Denver Gazette’s Kyle Fredrickson, Bednar says Toews is being evaluated for an injury and his status for tomorrow’s game against the Seattle Kraken is unknown. The Avalanche recently found out that they’d be without captain Gabriel Landeskog for quite a while, so they have to be hoping that whatever Toews is dealing with won’t keep him out for long.
- In other Avalanche news, the team announced today that forward Jayson Megna had been recalled from their AHL affiliate, the Colorado Eagles. As The Athletic’s Peter Baugh detailed, Megna was only sent down for cap purposes and his recall was expected. The Avalanche are one of the many teams trying to manage with extremely limited cap space, so paper transactions such as this are likely to become more common as the season wears on.