Who says baseball playoffs are the most unpredictable of all professional sports?
After the 2009-10 NHL playoffs wrapped up on June 9, I think I can speak for the majority of fans in saying: didn’t see that one comin’. From Montreal’s David vs Goliath heroics, to Philadelphia’s historic comeback against Boston, there was no shortage of surprises and excitement.
The end, however, wasn’t much of a surprise. The best team won. Even after the Flyers battled back to tie the series at 2-2, it never really seemed in doubt.
The Chicago Blackhawks were just too fast, too skilled and too solid defensively. And because they were so good, but also so young, the only question seemed to be: how many more can these guys win? Well, it might be less than you think.
The Blackhawks go into the off-season with $56.7 million in salary commitments, with the cap expected to be set at around $59.4 million next season. The only problem – well, actually, far from the only problem – is that the $56.7 million they have committed for next season is to only 14 players. Think that’s a problem? It gets worse. The Blackhawks’ salary cap next year will actually be lower than every other team.
Like any good rule, a salary “cap” is meant to be broken. And that’s exactly what the Blackhawks did last year (numerous reports claim it is about $4 million over). How, you ask? Well, in essence, their players were TOO good. Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane achieved every last one of their performance bonuses – for things like goals scored, points and personal awards – and were therefore owed an extra $5 million. When teams are paying out bonuses, they are allowed to exceed the cap by 7.5 per cent. But there’s one catch: the amount you exceed the cap by one year is deducted from your cap next year. That’s a long way of saying that the Blackhawks have $57.6 million committed to only 14 players with a cap of about $54.4 million. That’s a long way of saying: uh oh.
Needless to say, the Blackhawks need to shed salary. What they’re most likely going to do is demote backup netminder Cristobal Huet to the minors so that his $5.6 million salary doesn’t count against the cap. General manager Stan Bowman will likely also try to trade a player like Dustin Byfuglien or Kris Versteeg, which, combined with a Huet demotion, would clear up about $8 million in cap space assuming Bowman only takes draft picks or minor leaguers in return. However, since Andrew Ladd, Niklas Hjalmarsson and Antti Niemi are all restricted free agents, their salaries will probably eat up most of that $8 million, leaving Bowman in another tight spot.
It’s unclear exactly how Bowman will dissect his roster, but the only thing that’s for sure is that it’s going to be a long and busy off-season. He needs to reshape a large part of his roster while trying to navigate his way up, over, under and around the salary cap.
Long story short, you can put a cap on all the dynasty talk.