Hawks forced to make a trade as they can’t face projected flat salary cap

The NHL pause caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is not only hard on fans and players, it will also have a tremendous blow on teams’ wallets for the next season.

According to insider Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun Times, the Blackhawks will be forced to make moves whenever the free agency kicks off. He believes that if the cap remains at $81.5 million, it’ll leave the Blackhawks only $8 million to re-sign Corey Crawford, Dylan Strome, Dominik Kubalik  and Drake Caggiula. 

And that’s on top of the backup goaltender position they need to fill before the start of next season. 

It seems almost clear as day that the Hawks will have to shed salary to be able to re-sign Crawford, Kubalik, Strome, Caggiula and others. According to Cap Friendly, the Blackhawks have over $73 million tied up in 17 players.

Pope suggests buying out defenseman Olli Maatta and forward Zack Smith, which would free up an additional $5.5 million, however the Hawks would still need to replace them on the roster. He also wonders if oft-concussed winger Andrew Shaw and his $3.9 million annual average value could could be put up on long-term injury reserve.

The Blackhawks will need to get creative, there is no doubt about it, and we strongly believe this will all lead to another round of Brandon Saad trade rumours. He’s got a year left on his contract with an annual average value of $6 million.