Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane have five more years together... at least.
An organization that is coming to be known for doing things right continues to one-up their own benchmarks. Thursday’s press conference, and the reason for it, are just one more notch in the right direction.
At the United Center, the Blackhawks announced the new contracts for Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith and Patrick Kane on Thursday in a press conference that serves as a wonderful example of how much the organization “gets it.”
The press conference began with a video tribute to the three players. Appropriately, as the video began playing, the voice of Chicago’s own Billy Corrigan came through singing “Today’s the greatest day I’ve ever known,” from the Smashing Pumpkins’ classic. GM Stan Bowman correctly stated that today was a historic day in the history of the Blackhawks organization.
Bowman stated that that ” the plan was to keep our core together for a long time and Jonathan [Toews], Duncan [Keith] and Patrick [Kane] are a major part of that.” Bowman’s effort to keep that core together came in the form of matching five-year, $31.5 million contracts for Toews and Kane, and a 13-year, $72 million deal for Keith.
All three players noted during the press conference that they were drafted by the Blackhawks as 18-year olds, and sharing the day together was fitting to all three. As much as Bowman considers these three players the core of the organization, it was obvious at the press conference that the organization, and city of Chicago, have become the core of the three players.
Duncan Keith should be in Chicago for the rest of his career.
One reporter asked the three if they realized how good they have it, playing in front of roaring packed buildings every home game, and now becoming the best team in Chicago across all professional sports. Toews responded that it’s fun to meet and spend time with guys in other sports, but it was Keith that drove home the evolution of the organization.
Keith made his Blackhawks debut in 2005-06, when the Hawks were regularly filling between 7-9,000 seats. Kane and Toews have been the poster boys for the evolution of the Hawks organization, but Keith said it’s “amazing to see the turnaround… how much fun it is to play here.” Keith also said he’s happy to have signed such a long term deal with the team, and he is confident that the team will win a championship during his tenure. Keith said he always envisioned playing his entire career for the Blackhawks, and now he’ll get that chance.
When asked why it was important to announce all three deals together, Keith said it was because no single player is bigger than the team. It was overwhelmingly apparent that all three of these players are committed to the Indian and their teammates. Both Toews and Kane said in their remarks that they’re new contract is for five more years, but that shouldn’t be the end of their Chicago careers. And Keith made special mention of his partner on the blue line, Brent Seabrook.
The Blackhawks did not, however, address the salary cap issue. One question was presented to the players, but Kane simply said they don’t think too much about the business end of things and just focus on the ice. There has been little done publically to clarify how the tagging situation for the Hawks would play a role in these three contracts, and whether or not a move needed to be made to formally make these deals a reality.
It is clear, though, that money will have to be moved off next year’s payroll to put a complete roster on the ice under the projected salary cap. The speculation will be in high gear as the coming days and months move along toward the trade deadline, but for now Hawks fans can sit back, put their feet up and enjoy a cold one in honor of a great day in Chicago hockey history. All three players stressed that today was about the team, and winning the Stanley Cup. Now that they’ll be part of the team for the better part of the coming decade, the Cup dream might be closer to becoming reality than at any time since 1961.
Is someone in this picture leaving soon?
The Blackhawks are continuing to work with the agents for young stars Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith on new contracts to keep the three in Chicago for the better part of the next decade. Many sites, including CommittedIndians, have reported that the general framework for each deal appears to be certain, but now the Hawks have to take care of some business on their end.
One of the issues the Hawks will have to work through is making sure every “i” is dotted and each “t” is crossed, because the NHL is taking a very close look at any deal that extends beyond 10 years in the wake of suspicious contracts like those of Philadelphia’s Chris Pronger and Chicago’s Marian Hossa this past summer. It is believed that Duncan Keith’s deal could be for 13 years, which qualifies for the extra scrutiny.
The other, and perhaps bigger, issue the Blackhawks will face has to do with a specific rule in the Collective Bargaining Agreement called “tagging.” ESPN’s Jesse Rogers wrote on Wednesday afternoon that he was clued into this provision by a rival GM.
“Tagging” is a rule in the CBA that prohibits a team from having more money committed to the following season than the current year’s salary cap. Essentially, if this year’s salary cap is roughly $56 million, the Hawks wouldn’t be allowed to have the projected $61 million committed to next year’s payroll after these three deals were completed.
Which means the Blackhawks might have to move one (or two) players before they officially put the pen to paper with the three young studs.
As the contract situation(s) and player movement continues to evolve for the Blackhawks, we’ll keep you updated.
Some details about the proposed contract extensions for three young Chicago Blackhawks are coming into view.
A number of web sites are reporting that Duncan Keith will sign a deal that, as ESPN’s Jesse Rogers said, “will keep [Keith] in Chicago for the rest of his career.” A number of sources, including TSN’s Bob McKenzie, have rumored that Keith’s offer from the Blackhawks is a 13-year deal with a cap number between $5.5 and $5.75M per season.
McKenzie, again one of a number of sources, are also reporting that Toews and Kane, who share an agent, will sign similar deals. The rumor there is that the two young stars will receive five-year extensions with cap numbers between $6 and $6.5M per season,
As McKenzie writes, these numbers would put the Hawks’ signed roster for 2010-11 at $61M, which is nearly $5M over this season salary cap. Rumors are that the NHL will lower it’s salary cap in 2010-11, meaning the Hawks will need to shed salary off their existing roster to make it under next year’s cap.
Players the Hawks have under contract for next year would be Keith, Toews, Kane, Patrick Sharp, Kris Versteeg, Troy Brouwer, Tomas Kopecky, Marian Hossa, Dave Bolland, Dustin Byfuglien, Cristobal Huet, Brent Seabrook, Brent Sopel, Brian Campbell and Cam Barker.
Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews might get paid soon. What about Duncan Keith?
A number of media sources, led by ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun, are reporting that the Blackhawks are close to contract extensions with their two young superstar forwards, Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane.
LeBrun speculated over the weekend that an announcement of the extensions for the two could come during the team’s two-week Circus Trip, which begins this week.
The downside of the speculation that Toews and Kane will get their substantial pay days soon comes with the reality that, if both of the kids get fair market value for 21-year old stars, Duncan Keith might be on borrowed time.
Keith, who has been absolutely spectacular next to Brent Seabrook for the past couple seasons, is one of the fastest skating defensemen in the league and has played at an All Star level for three years. He is off to a great start in 2009-10, scoring 15 points already and continuing his leadership on the blue line for the best defense in the league.
Unfortunately for the Blackhawks, though, Keith is a restricted free agent this coming summer. He will turn 27 in July, and stands to get a substantial raise, just like Toews and Kane. That means other teams can, and probably will, submit offer sheets to Keith that would force the Hawks to either match their terms or lose Keith with only draft picks coming back as compensation.
The reality of the Hawks’ salary cap situation is starting to become a reality.
There have been rumors that the Hawks are active in the trade market, trying add a center to fill the hole left by Dave Bolland. There is potential that the Hawks could move salary off the books by moving a player like Cam Barker in an eventual trade, but money would need to come off the books from somewhere to afford Keith.
The other, highly unlikely, option to keep all three in-house would be Toews and Kane giving the Hawks a “home-town discount,” effectively signing for under market value to give the Hawks the flexibility to give Keith an extension as well.
