The Blackhawks have a critical offseason looming on the horizon. With the draft lottery only two days away, the course of this rebuild will be determined by the order that the ping pong balls fall. While there are high hopes of landing the first or second pick in the draft, the Blackhawks are projected to have the 3rd overall pick, which means that the prospect chosen will likely be a few years away from reaching Chicago.
This offseason, the Blackhawks are projected to only have a salary cap hit of $47 million dollars, which leaves them well short of the $61.7 million salary cap floor requirement. The departures of Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane are leaving the Blackhawks with around $20 million needing to spend to be cap compliant. With the financial flexibility available, Kyle Davidson has many different avenues he could explore.
Another avenue Davidson could explore is taking on bad contracts from teams who will be up tight against the cap ceiling in exchange for draft capital, prospects, or a mix of both. This would allow for the Blackhawks to meet the cap floor, the ability to add more draft capital to their already impressive stash, and keep financial flexibility for bigger name free agents when the team is ready to compete again.
Kyle Davidson has a critical offseason ahead of him. He is going to have to decide if there are any players in this free agent class that are worth a long term look while not compromising roster spots for prospects that are NHL ready. It's going to be an interesting offseason in Chicago and maybe one of the most important in franchise history given the draft consequences.
