[Signing] Hjalmarsson extended 5 yrs, $4.1 AAV

[TurnedTheCorner]

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=431151

[kyuss275]

Interesting. The talk out of Chicago was with the Crawford signing that Hjalmarsson would be the odd man out. He is a great d-man, so its a no brainer to get this guy re-signed.

[GreenLantern]

Good value, solid D man who still has room to grow.

This is the kind of contract I expected Crawford to get.

[Hatter]

It'll be interesting to see the casualties of the cap in Chicago next season. Aren't Toews and Kane due for extensions soon?

[GreenLantern]

Kane and Toews aren't due till the 2015 off season.

The Hawks are actually in pretty good shape for the next few seasons, but that 2015 year could be interesting for them as guys like Kruger, Saad and Leddy will be due for raises.

[thefoss1957]

Shaw and a Backup goalie will be the expiring contracts after this season....

[Enoch Root]

Sounds about right for Hjalmarsson - much better than the Crawford contract.

[keenan87]

Wow, how long do the Hawks have their core signed for?

[Five-hole]

Good contract. Lou was guessing high 4 or even 5 on the morning show.

As opposed to the "home town" discount, this is the "good team" discount, yeah?

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Great deal. Hjalmarsson is very underrated because of Keith and Seabrook. I'd take him at $4 mill any day.

[Macho0978]

It depends on how quickly the cap increases and how greedy Toews and Kane get the Hawks could be unstoppable for years

If they can keep Toews and Kane under 19 million cap hit and keep guys like Saad and Leddy under 8 they should be set for awhile. My guess would be the cap will be in the 70-73 million range when they need to resign these guys.

If the cap doesn't get that high that quickly or Toews and Kane stick it to the Hawks or Leddy and Saad resign for 4+ each then I would guess Sharp could be the guy they move. By then he will be getting close to his mid 30's and on the decline

[Parallex]

Originally Posted by Macho0978

If they can keep Toews and Kane under 19 million cap hit and keep guys like Saad and Leddy under 8 they should be set for awhile. My guess would be the cap will be in the 70-73 million range when they need to resign these guys.

72M seems like a good estimate...

So the 'Hawks already have $36,613,462 committed (Sharp, Hossa, Bickell, Hjalmarsson, Keith, Seabrook, Crawford) so with 35M cap dollars they'll need to resign Toews & Kane, the bottom half of their forward ranks (including 2nd contract for Saad and third contract for Kruger. I'm assuming that Teravainen will fill the vacant top 6 spot) their 3-7 defensemen (including 3rd contract for Leddy) and a back-up goalie (While leaving enough money to re-up Seabrook the next year). That's going to be a tight fit.

[playmaker]

Hawks are doing a great job in keeping their core together.

[Parallex]

Originally Posted by playmaker

Hawks are doing a great job in keeping their core together.

I guess... if you consider these guys to be part of their core. I consider the 'Hawks core to be Kane, Toews, Keith, Seabrook, and Hossa. These guys that they're giving bigish money deals to now are just the supporting cast in my mind.

[$ven27]

Nice deal, and with a rising cap for the foreseeable future I don't see any of their core moving except maybe Crawford.

[SuperMatt18]

Thing that the Hawks have going for them is a good pipeline to supply more young talent.

Saad, Morin, Hartman, Teravainen, Pirri, Leblanc, McNeil, etc give them a really good group of young players coming up over the next 2-3 years. Something that is rare for teams that are already elite

Could actually see them using a compliance buyout on Hossa. Will be 35 soon and that contract could be a killer depending on when he decides to retire due to the cap recapture penalties. If he retires in 2017 (His contract drops to $1 million the next season) it would cost the Hawks $4 million per year for 4 years.