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Entries with the tag: Salary+Cap

Showing Salary Cap Smarts

by Patrick Hoffman on 11/20/09 at 12:26 PM ET
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From Reid Jackson at PeteProse.com:

Burning up the hockey news wire the last few days have been reports that the Chicago Blackhawks are close to inking their “Big 3″ – forwards Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, and defenseman Duncan Keith, to long-term contracts that will keep them in Chicago for the foreseeable future.

Similarly, a Boston Globe report says the Boston Bruins are close to signing their star forward (and impending unrestricted free agent) Marc Savard to a 7 year deal that will keep the Ontario native in Boston through the end of his career.

For hockey fans in Beantown and the Windy City, this is good news. Chicago has seen a resurgence in the last two seasons, and Kane, Toews and Keith have been the single biggest reasons behind the Blackhawks return to prominence. The former duo are two of the NHL’s brightest young stars, and Keith has developed into one of the NHL’s premier blueliners. Locking these three tremendous talents up long-term is an excellent move by Chicago GM Stan Bowman; he’s identified his core, and intends to build around that core for the future, cap ramifications be damned.

The same story rings true in Boston, where Savard has emerged as a perennial NHL All-Star, finishing near the top of the scoring race every season he’s donned the Black and Gold, and playing a key role in the Bruins’ rise to the top of the Eastern Conference (this season notwithstanding, as Savard has played in just 7 games due to a broken foot).

Of course, these impending signings haven’t been met with universal applause, as there are some who feel both franchises are hedging their bets on a small number of players, something to avoid in a cap world, or so they say.

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