Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Report: Blackhawks shopping Bolland

bollandembracegetty

Dave Bolland is a solid third-line center who can step up as a second liner when the need arises. He’s also the guy who scored the Stanley Cup winning goal this week.

And it sounds like Chicago is looking to trade him, according to TSN and ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun.

Bolland comes with a $3,375,000 cap hit in 2013-14 and he’s scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent after that. It’s possible that the Blackhawks don’t feel confident in their chances of re-signing him and consequently want to move him now while his value is high, but they might also be doing this with an eye to the future.

Before the start of the 2015-16 campaign, they will need to re-sign Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Andrew Shaw, Brandon Saad, and Corey Crawford, among others. Most, if not all of those players will be looking for meaningful raises, so GM Stan Bowman might be thinking proactively about the team’s cap needs.

Not to mention the obvious fact that it would give them a short-term cap boost as they attempt to re-sign Bryan Bickell.

Related:

Hossa stays: Blackhawks to buy out Montador and Olesz