The Athletic’s Mark Lazerus and Scott Powers spoke with Chicago Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman regarding the team’s decision to allow three unrestricted free agents (Vinnie Hinostroza, David Kampf and Pius Suter) test the UFA waters last week, and Bowman revealed that the Hawks did try to keep all three players, but Chicago was hampered in its pursuit by its proximity to the salary cap’s upper limit:
The Blackhawks did try to re-sign Vinnie Hinostroza, David Kampf and Pius Suter. All three players were made offers by the Blackhawks, and all three rejected those offers and tested free agency.
“Most of those decisions were primarily salary-cap related,” Bowman said. “We wanted to bring these players back. You negotiate with their agents and looking at where the numbers were as far as where we felt comfortable paying them and where they were looking in the market. There wasn’t really a match. When that happens, the players find roles elsewhere. That’s not that uncommon to have forwards move from team to team.
“We certainly made an attempt to keep them here but at the same time, I think some change is good for our forward group and I think looking forward, I like the look of our team right now and the players we have. We’ve got a fair amount of talent.”
Kampf signed a two-year contract with a $1.5 million cap hit with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Hinostroza joined the Buffalo Sabres on a one-year, $1.05 million contract. Suter signed the biggest deal as he agreed to a two-year contract with a $3.25 million cap hit with the Detroit Red Wings.
Continued (paywall) with mostly Hawks stuff; it’s nice to be the team with cap space to poach a young player from a historic rival once or twice…
Most Wings fans do not like the Hawks. Down the road the Wings will probably be in Cap Space Hell, I hope. That should mean this Rebuild is done. StevieY will have to manage the Cap and some very good players will end up being Traded or signed by other teams. Hopefully we will be in the playoffs and see how far the team can go.
Geez I nearly fainted when on saw the Moderator comment. CBC Canada is a pain in the you now where. Once you p1$$ them off everything gets rejected, time to create a new login or do not read CBC or not comment. Readers have learned how to trick the algorithms as it is partially based on unwanted words. They are getting hard to read with all the odd words. Just not worth it for me. Not saying I am going to jump off the Malik Ship.
Don’t worry about it. I just had to moderate the comment because you used a different user name. Easy peasy.
LMAO, I never even thought of that. Thx