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 its cap situation heading into the 2023-24 season. 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: $70,635,124 (under the $83.5MM Upper Limit)

Entry-Level Contracts

F Connor Bedard (three years, $950K)
D Wyatt Kaiser (two years, $917K)
F Lukas Reichel (one year, $925K)
D Filip Roos (one year, $925K)

Potential Bonuses
Bedard: $3.5MM
Kaiser: $425K
Reichel: $505K
Total: $4.43MM

Bedard was the player that many non-contending teams were trying to tank for last season.  Assuming he pans out as anticipated, he should become Chicago’s top center quite quickly.  There’s a good chance he hits his $1MM in ‘A’ bonuses while the ‘B’ ones are tough for anyone to get.  It’s far too early to realistically try to project his second contract but if he lives up to the hype, it could be the richest in franchise history.  Chicago has slow-played Reichel’s development so far, giving him tastes of NHL action but primarily keeping him in the minors.  While not a bad idea from a development perspective, it puts him in the category of being quite likely to land a short-term second contract that will keep his earnings upside down.

On the back end, it’s difficult to pick only a couple to highlight here as at this point, there are quite a few youngsters who could battle for a few spots on the roster.  Kaiser didn’t look out of place after leaving college last season, logging just shy of 19 minutes a night so he could have a leg up.  So could Roos who didn’t look out of place out of training camp a year ago.  But realistically, Alex Vlasic, Isaak Phillips, and Kevin Korchinski should be in the mix as well.  But for any of them to be in a position to command any sort of significant second contract, they’ll need to establish themselves as NHL regulars first.

Signed Through 2023-24, Non-Entry-Level

F Colin Blackwell ($1.2MM, UFA)
F Jason Dickinson ($2.65MM, UFA)
F Mackenzie Entwistle ($800K, RFA)
F Nick Foligno ($4MM, UFA)
F Tyler Johnson ($5MM, UFA)
F Boris Katchouk ($758K, RFA)
G Petr Mrazek ($3.8MM, UFA)
F Corey Perry ($4MM, UFA)
F Taylor Raddysh ($758K, RFA)
D Jarred Tinordi ($1.25MM, UFA)
D Nikita Zaitsev ($4.5MM, UFA)

The Blackhawks were compensated for taking on Johnson’s contract back in 2021 with Tampa Bay needing to free up cap room.  He isn’t the top-six forward he was in his prime but is still capable of playing in the middle six.  While Johnson has been on the wing lately, he’s a natural center which also helps his value.  At half this price a year from now on the open market, he should have some interest.

Dickinson is another player they were basically paid to take on.  After a disastrous year in Vancouver, he rebounded relatively well.  However, it’s hard to see him garnering more than this on his next deal since he has yet to hit the double-digit goal mark in the NHL.  A contract around the $1.5MM mark is where his value might fall.  Blackwell took a step backward last season offensively but still played an important role on the penalty kill.  He was still relatively inexperienced when he received this contract and now with what will be another couple of years under his belt when he returns to free agency, where he’s at now might be close to his earnings ceiling.

Then there are Perry and Foligno.  Chicago clearly targeted these two veterans as mentors for their younger core, trading for their negotiating rights and then handing them contracts that were extremely above market value.  Both players are best suited to play on the fourth line at this stage of their careers and had they hit the open market, they likely would have received offers for around a quarter of this amount.  Barring a high-priced one-year extension if things go well, that price range is where they should expect their next deals to be if they get one.

Among the RFA forwards, Raddysh is the most notable.  Coming off a 20-goal campaign, a repeat performance plus arbitration eligibility should push his AAV past the $2MM mark, perhaps even to the $3MM range.  Katchouk and Entwistle don’t have quite the offensive upside and are more depth players up to this point.  They will also have arbitration eligibility next summer which could work against them if we have a repeat of a run of non-tenders like we did this offseason.

Zaitsev was another player Chicago was paid to take on with him coming over midseason from Ottawa, paving the way for them to complete the Jakob Chychrun trade.  Zaitsev never has been able to live up to this contract but can log some minutes on a largely inexperienced back end so he’ll provide some value to the Blackhawks.  His next deal should check in closer to the $1MM mark though.  Tinordi came over as a waiver claim in training camp and wound up earning a regular role when he was healthy, landing this extension in the process.  It’s a bit above what his market value might have been in free agency though.

Mrazek is yet another contract Chicago was compensated to take on.  He actually posted a better save percentage than he had in his lone year in Toronto but still had a rough season.  On a better team, Mrazek could still attract some NHL interest next summer but at a price tag that’s closer to the $1.5MM mark.

Signed Through 2024-25

F Andreas Athanasiou ($4.25MM, UFA)
F Ryan Donato ($2MM, UFA)
F Taylor Hall ($6MM, UFA)
F Philipp Kurashev ($2.25MM, RFA)
G Arvid Soderblom ($963K, RFA)

This summer was a good time for teams with cap space to acquire impact players for cheap simply by taking on the full freight of the contract.  Chicago did that with Hall as Boston needed to move him to create cap room to fill out their roster.  His days of being a productive top liner are pretty much finished now based on how the last few years have gone for him but he’s someone who can play big minutes while giving Bedard a legitimate top-six linemate.  In a perfect world, Hall’s numbers go up playing alongside Bedard, giving the Blackhawks a chance to flip him in his final year while giving Hall a shot at getting close to this type of money on the open market.

Chicago handed Athanasiou this deal to get him to avoid testing free agency.  As is the case with Perry and Foligno, it’s an above-market pact but with ample cap space, it’s an overpayment they can afford.  After putting up 20 goals and 20 assists last season, he’ll need to maintain or improve on those numbers if he wants to get a similar-sized contract in 2025.  Kurashev was awarded this contract in arbitration coming off a career year that saw him get 25 points.  Playing time will be a bit harder to come by now with their extra depth so he’ll need to find a way to improve on those numbers in a lesser role to avoid the risk of being a non-tender candidate in 2025.  Donato’s per-60 numbers are pretty impressive but he has yet to lock down a full-time middle-six role.  He should get another chance to do so here and if he thrives, he could have a much stronger market as a more proven secondary scorer.

Soderblom had some ups and downs in his limited action with the Blackhawks last season, earning him a one-way deal in the process.  He’s perceived as a goalie of the future though not necessarily the goalie of the future for Chicago.  This bridge contract gives both sides a chance to see if he’s a future starter, platoon option, or if he’s better off as a pure backup and obviously, which category he falls in will determine his next contract, one that will come with arbitration rights.

Signed Through 2025-26

D Connor Murphy ($4.4MM, UFA)

At a time when stay-at-home defenders are starting to lose some of their open-market value, Murphy has been one of the exceptions.  He has logged heavy minutes throughout his time with Chicago but in a ten-year career, he has yet to reach the 20-point mark.  Coupled with plenty of bumps and bruises from his style of play, it seems unlikely that Murphy will be able to command this type of deal in three years when he might be better suited for a more limited role on a depth chart.

Signed Through 2026-27 Or Longer

D Seth Jones ($9.5MM through 2029-30)

Former GM Stan Bowman paid a heavy price to get Jones, both in terms of what it cost to acquire him from Columbus and what it costs on this contract.  With GM Kyle Davidson coming in soon after and tearing down the roster, the move looks even worse.  That said, Jones hasn’t performed poorly with the Blackhawks by any means and he is a legitimate top-pairing defenseman.  However, having a player like that on a team that isn’t set up to try to compete for a couple more years at least isn’t necessarily the most ideal while his contract is too high to try to move for anything resembling top value, especially in the current cap market.  Accordingly, Jones will be a key fixture on Chicago’s back end for the long haul.

Buyouts

F Henrik Borgstrom ($183K in 2023-24)
F Brett Connolly ($1.17MM in 2023-24)
F Josh Bailey ($2.67MM in 2023-24, $1.17MM in 2024-25)

Retained Salary Transactions

D Jake McCabe ($2MM through 2024-25)

Salary Cap Recapture

D Duncan Keith ($1.93MM in 2023-24)

Still To Sign

None

Best Value: Raddysh
Worst Value: Jones

Looking Ahead

Gone are the days of Chicago being right against the salary cap.  Well, for now, at least.  As a result of their sell-off over the last couple of years, the Blackhawks are closer to the Lower Limit than the Upper Limit, giving them all sorts of flexibility for the upcoming season if they decide they want to take on a contract for a future asset or become a third-party broker closer to the trade deadline even after factoring in the potential bonuses being reached.

Eventually, this will change, potentially with what many expect to be a significant second contract for Bedard.  Within the next couple of years, it’s likely that Davidson will be looking to build up the roster again and at that point, they’re probably going to go back to being a cap-spending squad.