OffThePost.org

Player Contract Status for 2009-10 Season:

Under Contract (38; 50 is league maximum)
*Cap Hit is the salary shown*

Centre

19 Jonathon Toews (21): $2 800 000*
36 Dave Bolland (23): $3 375 000
?? John Madden (36): $2 750 000
46 Colin Fraser (24): $700 000
49 Jacob Dowell (24): $500 000*
?? Evan Brophey (22): $850 000*
?? Adam Hobson (22): $503 333*
?? Nathan Davis (23): $850 000*

Left Wing

10 Patrick Sharp (27): $3 900 000
16 Andrew Ladd (23): $1 550 000
22 Troy Brouwer (23): $1 000 000
?? Tomas Kopecky (27): $1 200 000
55 Ben Eager (25): $965 000
?? Robert Klinkhammer (22): $500 000*
?? Bryan Bickell (23):
?? Adam Berti (22):
?? Kyle Beach (19):

Right Wing

Patrick Kane (20): $3 725 000*
Marian Hossa (30): $5 166 667
Kris Versteeg (23): $3 066 666
Dustin Byfuglien (24): $3 000 000
37 Adam Burish (26): $712 500
11 Jack Skille (22): $1 275 000*
?? Akim Aliu (20): $875 000*
?? Adam Pineault (23):
?? Dan Bertram (22): $850 000*

Defense

2 Duncan Keith (25): $1 475 000
7 Brent Seabrook (24): $3 500 000
51 Brian Campbell (30): $7 142 875
25 Cam Barker (23): $3 083 333
5 Brent Sopel (32): $2 333 333
23 Aaron Johnson (26): $540 000
4 Niklas Hjalmarsson (22): $643 333*
6 Jordan Hendry (25): $625 000*
?? Tim Hambly (26)
?? Logan Stephenson (23)
?? James Sharrow (24)
?? Mike Brennan (23): $750 000*
?? Jean-Claude Sawyer (22): $508 333*

Goaltenders

38 Christobal Huet (33): $5 625 000
50 Corey Crawford (24): $750 000
31 Antti Niemi (25): $827 000*
?? Joseph Fallon (24): $775 000*

Coaching Staff/Front Office

General Manager: Dale Tallon
Head Coach: Joel Quennville
Assistant Coaches:
Team Captain: Jonathon Toews
Assistant Captains: Patrick Sharp, Duncan Keith, Brian Campbell

Bold means the player was on a NHL roster at the end of the 2009 playoffs, and had been on a NHL roster for more than 60 days in 2008-09.
Age as of June 30, 2009 provided in brackets.
* indicates a two way contract, with full NHL salary provided; no contract value indicates a signed player, on a two way contract, where his NHL salary is unknown
Salaries shown are the average salary of their total contract, not what they will be earning this season, as to reflect the total that counts towards the salary cap
Salary Cap Range for 2008-09: $40 400 000 to $56 800 000
Blackhawks' cap projection for 2009-10: $57 627 041

Sources:
http://www.nhlnumbers.com/
http://www.nhlscap.com/
http://www.hockeydb.com/
http://www.nhlpa.com/
http://www.capgeek.com/

_________________
Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

As you can all see, cap space is already a problem. The Blackhawks could use the $4.8m in bonus coushin available from the Toews and Kane rookie deals, but since next year's cap will also be a concern, that's not a good scenario.

Someone will have to go, especially since Crawford's $750k salary isn't counted on here and obviously someone will be playing backup. Given Byfuglien's ability to play D, they could keep only 6 regular D in their rotation.

Waiving or trading Sopel is the most logical route. Replacing Sopel with Hjalmarsson, plus adding Crawford as the backup gives the Hawks a cap hit of $56,687,041 for 14 forwards, 6 D, and 2 G. That gives the Hawks a small buffer of $112,959 in cap space... which was similar to last year, which the Hawks survived (barely). But any short term D or G injuries would be a problem. However, since Hjalmarsson can be freely sent to the minors at any point, and Byfuglien can play D, forward issues wouldn't be a problem... they'd simply call up a cheap 4th line forward from the minors, send Hjalmarsson down for the cap space, and put Buffy on D.

As for next year, Madden is only on a one year contract, so that'll be off the books. But yeah, they'll likely have to trade a bigger player than Brent Sopel to fit in new contracts for Toews, Kane, and Keith.

_________________
Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb