As it stands on this eleventh day of July, the Chicago Blackhawks have $63,959,296 in salary cap money spent for next season. What should concern fans is that three players - Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, and Seth Jones - account for 47.7% of that cap hit. Add in Tyler Johnson's cap hit of $5 million and recently-acquired Petr Mrazek's contract of $3.8 million, and the Blackhawks are paying five players 61.4% of that nearly $64 million. With $18.5 million to spend, it's pretty clear that the Blackhawks are going to struggle to score goals, defend their own zone, and stop pucks from ending up in their net.
Teams in the past have been accused of tanking to try and obtain the first-overall pick in the NHL Entry Draft, but the NHL Draft Lottery was supposed to prevent that from happening. With Connor Bedard as the likely first-overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, it would seem that Chicago is making a concerted effort to maximize their chances at obtaining that first-overall pick. No one can accuse them of tanking for that opportunity as everything is being done within the rules set out by the NHL, but it would appear that the Blackhawks are going to give that tanking idea the old "college try".
Trading Alex DeBrincat at the NHL Entry Draft to the Ottawa Senators was the first move in dismantling any chance the Blackhawks had at winning hockey games this season. The return they received - three draft picks - won't help them in the next few years, and seventh-overall pick Kevin Korchinski will need a few seasons of NHL experience before the Blackhawks can claim to have another stud defenceman.
Chicago went ahead and traded another good, young scorer in Kirby Dach that day as well, acquiring the 13th-overall pick from the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for Dach. Dach showed flashes of brilliance last season, scoring nine goals and 26 points in 70 games, but he's still looking to round out his game defensively. That trade added forward Frank Nazar with the 13th-overall pick, but he too is several years off from being able to carry a line for Chicago.
With the 25th-overall pick Chicago selected Sam Rinzel who, like Korchinski, is years away from being an NHL-calibre defenceman. The pick to get Rinzel also came with a price, though, as the Blackhawks agreed to take Petr Mrazek from the Maple Leafs in exchange for a second-round pick, and it appears that Mrzaek will start in Chicago unless something changes.
The issue is Mrazek's 3.34 GAA and .888 save percentage in 20 games last season, and his play likely won't have Blackhawks fans talking about the Vezina Trophy due to the lack of defensive help in Chicago which may only make Mrazek's stats worse. For a team that may be trying to lose, adding in a goaltender that's susceptible to bad goals and a lack of saves only helps their cause if they're pursuing the best odds at picking first in the draft.
The Blackhawks also decided not to qualify scorers Dylan Strome and Dominik Kubalik today, making both unrestricted free agents. The 25 year-old Strome found his groove once he was playing between the aforementioned DeBrincat and Patrick Kane where he scored 22 goals and 48 points, but he was made expendable, it seems, with the DeBrincat trade. Strome likely would have centered Chicago's top line again this season, but the Blackhawks opted to save $3.6 million.
The Blackhawks also took the money when it came to Dominik Kubalik as the 26 year-old will hit the open market on Wednesday. Kubalik, a former Calder Trophy finalist and 31-goal scorer, only recorded 15 goals and 32 points last season, but it was fairly clear that his line was missing a playmaking centerman to help the talented winger. The Blackhawks will hold onto $4 million rather than having Kubalik scoring goals for them this season.
The final moves in Chicago's purge today included waiving Brett Connolly and Henrik Borgstrom for the purpose of buying out their deals. Borgstrom played 52 games, scoring four goals and three assists, while Connolly appeared in just nine games, posting one assist. In theory, Chicago can replace that offence from these two players, but opening up the cap room will allow Chicago to absorb more bad contracts from teams tight against the cap while collecting high-round draft picks like they're the latest fad.
Adding up the score from the last week of moves, the Blackhawks have a ton of cap space eaten up by very few players, have traded up-and-coming talent for future returns, allowed young scoring threats to walk without return, added a goaltender who would be a backup netminder on most teams, and bought themselves some additional cap space by clearing a couple of bad contracts of their own. If the rumours of the Blackhawks shopping Patrick Kane are true, the Blackhawks will resemble an AHL team next season when October rolls around, and that's not good for the next five years if you're a season ticket holder in Chicago.
If there's one cautionary tale, the tank-for-McDavid efforts shown by the Buffalo Sabres reached a new low when Sabres fans cheered for the Arizona Coyotes after they defeated Buffalo in overtime on March 26, 2015 to guarantee they'd have the best chance of drafting Connor McDavid at the NHL Entry Draft. As we know, Buffalo didn't end up with the top pick in the draft, and were forced to select Jack Eichel with the second-overall pick after Edmonton selected McDavid. While the odds may have been in Buffalo's favour, the myths that will be told is that the "Hockey Gods" punished the Sabres for their disgraceful showing in an effort to manipulate the odds.
Rome certainly wasn't built in a day, and the Chicago Blackhawks will need several seasons to begin to rebuild their dominance in the NHL. The dismantling of the team this summer, though, seems an awful lot like tanking on purpose, so we'll see how the "Hockey Gods" respond when the ping pong balls stop during the NHL Draft Lottery next season.
Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!
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