There isn’t a team in the NHL in more cap trouble than the Chicago Blackhawks. It isn’t a coincidence that the Blackhawks have been one of the most successful teams in the league over the last half-decade; the team has had to walk a fine line between keeping itself a contender and complying with the salary ceiling.
Unlike Philadelphia, Tampa Bay and Boston (the three teams that CapGeek.com lists as currently being over the cap) Chicago doesn’t have a ready-made solution in the form of a player ready to be assigned to long-term injured reserve.
What it does have is a useful yet expendable player to dangle in front of other teams.
Back in July, we wrote that trading Nick Leddy for futures was Chicago’s easiest way out of its current cap predicament. The removal of his $2.7 million cap hit would go a long way toward getting Chicago back in the black (CapGeek’s best guess at the team’s roster has them roughly $2.2 million over the league-mandated limit), and with both David Rundblad and Adam Clendening in the system the team has built-in replacement options. Such a trade would a ...
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Article written by Jonathan Willis
The Chicago Blackhawks’ Blueprint to Solving Salary Cap Dilemma
September 22nd, 2014 by Jonathan Willis Leave a reply »
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