The Chicago Blackhawks are spending a ridiculous amount of money on players not currently on their roster this season. The team has gotten to this point from all different pathways.
It is a good thing the Blackhawks are a wealthy organization, because that is a lot of AAV for players not contributing right now. This number should drop before the end of the season because Jason Dickinson ($4.25 million AAV) will return from injury. It could also get small again if Andreas Athanasiou ($4.25 million AAV) once again gets the call up to the NHL.
The big spending on non-roster players comes from acquiring Shea Weber at the conclusion of the trade deadline this year. His cap hit is still $7.857 million AAV for this season and next, but he isn’t going to play another game in the NHL. The Blackhawks are also paying Laurent Brossoit $3.3 million AAV to recover from his long lasting injury suffered at the start of the season.
As a rebuilding team, the Blackhawks did a good job of retaining cap to be able to acquire better assets in trades or being able to move players in general. Chicago is retaining $4.625 million of Mikko Rantanen’s cap hit for the remainder of the season, $2 million of Jake McCabe’s cap hit until the end of this season, and $2.5 million AAV of Seth Jones’ cap until 2029-30.
To also get an asset a while back, the Blackhawks took on Josh Bailey’s contract and then bought him out. His cap hit of $1.167 million comes off the books this summer as well.
While this covers all of the $30 million being spent by the Blackhawks right now on players not on the roster, T.J. Brodie, one of the team’s defensemen, hasn’t played since March 1 and I don’t think will get very many more games with the team. A buyout might be coming as the youth is taking over the team and he hasn’t been very effective in his first season. His cap hit is $3.75 million AAV through next season.
The Blackhawks will see a significant drop from the money they are spending on non rostered players this season to next. Dickinson and Brossoit are expected to be healthy, Athanasiou’s contract ends, two cap retention spots are freed up, and the only buyout hit to the cap comes off the books. This should take the Blackhawks to spending $10.357 million barring no other changes.
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