The Blackhawks’ bleak salary cap situation improved significantly Sunday.
The Hawks traded serviceable but overpaid defenseman Olli Maatta to the Kings, acquiring minor-league forward Brad Morrison in exchange.
Although the Hawks will retain $750,108 of Maatta’s $4,083,333 cap hit for each of the remaining two years on his contract, the move still saves more than $3.3 million.
That gives them about $11.1 million in total cap space, per Capfriendly, to try to re-sign their multitude of free agents: Corey Crawford, Dylan Strome, Dominik Kubalik, Drake Caggiula, Slater Koekkoek and others. With Maatta’s contract mostly gone, that unenviable task for general manager Stan Bowman looks a lot more practical.
Maatta and fellow veteran defenseman Calvin de Haan were brought in last summer from the Penguins and Hurricanes, respectively, to try to fix the Hawks’ leaky defense.
But while Maatta improved as the season went on — especially after Koekkoek became his third-pairing partner midway through — and enjoyed a strangely fantastic playoffs, he never made as much of an impact as Bowman initially hoped.
The now-26-year-old defenseman finished his one and only Hawks season with 17 points in 65 games, averaging 18:25 of ice time. His 47.5% on-ice scoring chance ratio ranked 19th on the team.
He was considered a potential buyout candidate entering the fall, but doing so would’ve kept his contract on the books — albeit in reduced fashion — for four more years instead of two. A trade works out better for all parties.
In Los Angeles, Maatta should take on a larger role with lower expectations. And the Kings were able to acquire him for a much cheaper price than the Hawks paid last year, when they dealt solid third-line center Dominik Kahun and a fifth-round pick to the Pens.
Morrison, the man coming back to the Hawks organization in the deal, was a 2015 fourth-round pick of the Rangers but has not following a promising career track since.
He scored 20 points in 50 AHL games in 2018-19 but fell to the ECHL last season. He tallied 19 points in 17 games with the Fort Wayne Komets before suffering an injury Dec. 1 and missing the rest of the season. He was likely included in the swap only to make it one-for-one, not because the Hawks had interest in him specifically.
Sunday’s trade comes less than a week after Bowman talked uncharacteristically openly about the Hawks potentially trading veteran defensemen to make room for prospect defensemen coming up the pipeline.
“It’s always better when you’re trying to push one of those younger players into the lineup; that means you can move an established player,” he said last week. “Because around the league, there are always teams looking for established NHL defensemen. If we get to that point, we’re dealing from a good position.”
It seems the Hawks did indeed get to that point, opening the door even further for the likes of Ian Mitchell, Nicolas Beaudin, Dennis Gilbert and recently signed Wyatt Kalynuk to compete for NHL jobs next season.
More immediately, though, Maatta’s departure somewhat clears up the financial situation — a situation which desperately needed clearing up.
Qualifying offers for restricted free agents are due by Wednesday, and unrestricted free agency opens Friday at 11 a.m. CT. Crawford would hit the open market if not re-signed before then.
It now looks much more plausible than it previously did that Bowman will be able to successfully fit in Crawford, Strome and Kubalik, all of whom will command at least $3-4 million in annual salary.
