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Rozner: Chicago Blackhawks face brutal cap decisions again

The Chicago Blackhawks' off-season begins for GM Stan Bowman many months before the final game is played.

With every contract extension, trade, free-agent signing and demotion to Rockford, there are salary-cap implications.

And no one has it worse than the Hawks. Some have it as bad, but no one worse.

This is the price you pay for having several great players who demand big money and eat up an enormous portion of your cap.

"These guys have done incredible things and they have earned those contracts. I don't look at it as a negative that we have these guys," Bowman said Wednesday. "If you were to go talk to most other teams, they would love to have the players that we have who have accomplished what they have."

So this summer will be no different from the last six, when Bowman has had to find a way to field a team good enough to compete for a title, while always looking three, four and five years into the future.

As the team ran through exit interviews, and players and execs met the media for the last time together until September, Bowman admitted there is challenging work ahead.

"That's the system we play under," Bowman said. "The teams that have a lot of cap flexibility are the teams that haven't accomplished anything."

The Hawks' first priority will be figuring out what to do about Andrew Shaw, who had a $2 million cap hit this season and is due a big raise as a restricted free agent.

They will have a hard time keeping Shaw unless some other difficult choices are made, but Shaw is one of the few Hawks willing to hit and get to the front of the net, and his work as a pest is invaluable to a team that plays as one of the league's smallest.

"Every year you can talk about the situation we're in. Are certain guys irreplaceable? And there's some real tough decisions we have to make," said Joel Quenneville. "Every year, some cases are tougher than others.

"(Shaw's) argument is as tough as you're ever gonna get because he brings so much to the table that you appreciate. He's an irreplaceable guy in that regard."

Richard Panik is also restricted and Quenneville seems to like him, while Andrew Ladd, Dale Weise and Tomas Fleischmann are unrestricted.

Ladd, to his credit, said he's willing to talk about a discount to stay in Chicago.

"At this point in my career, it's not all about money," Ladd said. "It's great to be back here. It felt like I never left."

Another huge concern that will have to be addressed is the restricted status of Artemi Panarin and Teuvo Teravainen after next season, but at least by then the $4 million of Bryan Bickell will be off the books.

Panarin is going to look for big money and at the moment the Hawks have precious little space for such a deal.

Teravainen is only 21 but struggling to find his game - and a position - under Quenneville. He had a single point during the series against the Blues and looked uncomfortable the entire series.

The Hawks would be unwise to give up on such a talented young player, but he might also be a valuable trade chip, and with the deals they've made to try to win a Cup again, the Hawks are without a draft pick in the first two rounds this year.

Looking further down the road, Niklas Hjalmarsson has three years left at $4.1 million and he'll be 31 when signing his next contract. Nevertheless, he should not take a penny less than Brent Seabrook received ($6.87 million) at age 30.

At some point, however, the Hawks will be forced to move more players they don't want to trade, just as they were forced to deal Brandon Saad, Johnny Oduya and Patrick Sharp last summer.

It's a yearly exercise, and the Hawks have more pain in store along those lines. The rush to extend Artem Anisimov for five years and $4.55 million doesn't help matters.

In any case, there are some expensive players like Corey Crawford ($6 million) who have to wonder if they're next, though moving Crawford makes no sense. The Hawks need to improve their defense, not weaken it, and Crawford was the Hawks' best player this season.

Still, the cap is the cap and the Hawks will have to make stomach-churning decisions every summer as long as they have top-tier players who eat up so much salary.

But there are, after all, worse problems to have.

brozner@dailyherald.com

• Listen to Barry Rozner from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on the Score's "Hit and Run" show at WSCR 670-AM.

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