When Stan Bowman talked last week of the Blackhawks’ potential signings/moves this offseason, he said he’d have to wait to find out the cap number to truly know the team’s options.
We know that number now.
The 2016-17 salary cap is set at $73 million, the NHL and NHLPA announced on Tuesday night. It’s not a massive raise from the 2015-16 cap, which was $71.4 million. But for cash-strapped teams like the Blackhawks, every little bit helps.
The Blackhawks added more than $4 million of cap space last Tuesday when they traded Bryan Bickell and Teuvo Teravainen to the Carolina Hurricanes. But they owe bonuses, mostly to Artemi Panarin, and those are applied to this season’s cap. With that addition and subtraction, the Blackhawks should have approximately $7 million of cap space.
That may sound like a lot but it really isn’t. If the Blackhawks are going to re-sign Andrew Shaw, that’ll cost them a few million. Shaw is coming off a two-year deal that carried a $2 million cap hit. The Blackhawks will also have a few roster holes to fill.
The cap number is now known. Now the work really begins for Bowman.