When the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup in 2010, part of their immediate hangover was in having to deal with salary cap problems for the following season. When players like Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith, and Patrick Kane had their bonuses figured into matters, the Blackhawks had over $4 million in bonus overages applied to last season’s cap.
With those overages, the Blackhawks were forced to make a lot of difficult roster decisions and ended up letting go of key Cup-winning players like Dustin Byfuglien, Andrew Ladd, Antti Niemi, and Brent Sopel while paying up big to retain Niklas Hjalmarsson. Without those guys in the lineup last year and having to fill holes with cheaper players from within and via free agency, the Blackhawks finished eighth in the Western Conference and snuck into the playoffs. While they nearly upset the Vancouver Canucks in the first round, they lost in seven games.
This summer, without major bonus overages the Blackhawks have rebuilt the team and made them tougher signing defensemen Sean O’Donnell and Steve Montador as well as tough forwards Dan Carcillo and Jamal Mayers. They also added some solid veteran scoring in Andrew Brunette and retained restricted free agents Michael Frolik and Viktor Stalberg. Suffice to say, things were a bit more enjoyable for GM Stan Bowman and Adam Jahns of The Chicago Sun-Times gets the word from Bowman about how much nicer this summer was than last year as far as team building goes.Last year, the Hawks had more than $4.1 million of performance bonus overages from their Stanley Cup-winning season counting against the salary cap. This year, it’s significantly less. Bowman said there were about $100,000 worth of bonuses from last season counting against this year’s cap, notably from wingers Michael Frolik and Viktor Stalberg.
‘‘It’s nice to not have that penalty and have the full use of the salary cap at your disposal,’’ Bowman told the Sun-Times on Friday. ‘‘We’re in such a different spot. We’re probably going to go into the year with probably close to $4 million in cap space as well. That’s with a lot of players. . . . We were nowhere near that last year.’’
Frolik was the biggest recipient, Bowman said. He was in the final year of his entry-level contract with the Florida Panthers, who drafted him 10th overall in 2006. Stalberg, a former sixth-round pick who was in the last year of his original two-year deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs, received a bonus for games played.
Dealing with bonuses and the salary cap aren’t the most fun things to do when you’re a NHL general manager and in Bowman’s case he essentially threw whatever he had at 2010 to make sure they won the Stanley Cup. That kind of executive effort will make sure he never has to pay for dinner again in the Windy City, but maintaining a winning team is what he’s there to do. The Blackhawks survived last season and while they didn’t win the Cup, the team’s effort was admirable after all the turnover they had with the roster.
In 2011-2012, they’ll have a lot of the same production players back and filling holes with role players like Montador, O’Donnell, Brunette, and Mayers will make them a tougher team to deal with. In the Western Conference, that sort of play can take you a long way and for Chicago, they’re hoping there’s not as long of a drought between Cup victories as there was the last time.