Around the Div: Bowman to “Make It Rain?”

Duncan Keith earning his payday in the “tagging room”.

OK, OK so maybe Hawks GM Stan Bowman isn’t going to literally “make it rain” but it does sound like he is about to start spending some serious cash on three of his players. As of this afternoon, it sounds like the deals are still in the works, but the murkiness is starting to clear up just a bit.

LeBrun at ESPN:

Sources told ESPN.com Wednesday that there are still issues to be ironed out fronts but that both deals should be for five years and between $5.5 million to $6.5 million in average salary.

Star defenseman Duncan Keith, also slated to be a restricted free agent July 1, is also close to agreeing to an extension that could be as long as 13 years. But a source told ESPN.com Wednesday that the deal is not done and there are still possible stumbling blocks to overcome.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the Hawks might have some serious cap issues once these deals are inked, and LeBrun also notes that a few league eyebrows have already been raised:

The NHL’s head office would also want to carefully take a look at any deal in double-digit length after deputy commissioner Bill Daly warned teams at last week’s GMs meeting in Toronto about these types of deals.

A GM from another NHL team told ESPN.com Tuesday that he believed Bowman would need to move a player or two before finalizing these three extensions because he may not have enough “tagging room” on next year’s salary cap. As per the collective bargaining agreement, tagging room essentially means a team can’t have more money committed on next year’s payroll than the limit on this season’s salary cap.

Something else to keep in mind: Even if Bowman can get under the “tagging room” number, that doesn’t guarantee that he gets under the cap next season, especially if it goes down, which seems to be a pretty solid bet.

No matter how you slice this, it’s deliciously interesting. With all three locked down, someone (plural) is going to have to head out of town it looks like and, currently, the names we are hearing as the most likely to not be in a ‘Hawks uniform next season are Patrick Sharp, Kris Versteeg, Brent Sopel and Dustin Byfuglien. However, Second City Hockey sees it a bit differently, with no loss of intrigue:

So, let’s say Keith comes in at 5.  That means the cap hit increase for Kane is 2.3 (at least), 3.3 for Toews, and 3.4 for Keith.  That’s a total rise of 9.  So no resigning of Madden, find a taker for Sopel, and Buff and Barker moved along would give you 10 million worth of relief, but there’s still Ladd and Hammer to be resigned, and others.  This is going to be a headache, but I guess I’ll wait until an official announcement before I get angry.

Hey Chicago, how’s that 7 million dollar ball-and-chain Brian Campbell working out for you?

Tags: Chicago Blackhawks, Duncan Keith, Jonathan Toews, Patirck Kane