Olli Maatta’s offensive surge in playoffs could complicate Blackhawks’ buyout situation

Defenseman Olli Maatta has surprisingly racked up six points in eight playoff games with the Blackhawks. | Jeff Vinnick/Getty Images

Olli Maatta insists he hasn’t approached the Blackhawks’ playoff games any differently than he approached their regular-season games.

But clearly something has changed.

In a strange twist made only believable because of all the other strangeness of this postseason, Maatta entered Tuesday’s Game 5 as the Hawks’ fourth-leading scorer in the playoffs — trailing only Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Dominik Kubalik, the team’s three biggest offensive weapons.

The Finnish defenseman had recorded six points — three goals, three assists — in eight games.

He scored the Hawks’ lone goal in Game 3 against the Golden Knights, then singlehandedly created the Hawks’ opening goal in Game 4 with a beautiful no-look centering pass to Drake Caggiula.

He also led the Hawks in on-ice scoring chance and shots on goal ratios.

“I think I play the game the same way,” Maatta said Tuesday afternoon before the game. “I’m obviously all the time just looking for spots to jump in there, help the forwards going into the offense. That’s got to be part of today’s ‘D’-man’s game. You’ve got to look for those chances when you get them.”

He then credited the rest of his teammates for also making good plays, as all hockey players seem programmed to do.

The Hawks’ heavy involvement of their defensemen in the offensive zone has indeed been a noticeable and encouraging development this postseason, but Maatta has undoubtedly been the most involved in that of all the team’s defenseman — and on a roster with the likes of Duncan Keith and Adam Boqvist, even that is weird.

Olli Maatta has been in possession of the puck — and scoring — much more than expected.

Watching Maatta’s out-of-the-blue emergence as a critical offensive playmaker this August has been particularly confusing because of how little he did offensively the whole season prior.

Maatta scored just 17 points (with only four goals) in 65 regular-season games with the Hawks. He’d also scored just 21 points (with only two goals) in 69 postseason games for the Penguins earlier in his career.

But he did take on a bigger role later in the regular season once he and Slater Koekkoek developed some chemistry and became an unexpectedly solid third pairing for the Hawks’ generally porous defensive corps. Coach Jeremy Colliton has praised that pairing constantly and did so again Tuesday.

“They do so many little things that help them have success: communication and holding up and boxing out defensively, gap [control],” Colliton said. “That allows them and the guys they’re on the ice with to play with the puck, be in the offensive zone. And when you do that, there’s a chance to chip in offensively.”

Koekkoek will be a restricted free agent this offseason, so his improvement could help him earn another low-cost, one-year extension like he did last year.

Maatta’s contract situation is even more complex, though.

He technically has two years left at a $4.1 million cap hit, but he has looked like a prime offseason buyout candidate for three reasons: the Hawks will be crunched by the cap staying flat for next season, the likes of Ian Mitchell, Wyatt Kalynuk and Lucas Carlsson (all of whom are on cheap entry-level contracts) will be pushing for jobs on defense, and Maatta’s contract is very buyout-friendly.

Buying out Maatta would incur a penalty of only $680,000 each of the next four seasons, saving the Hawks a sizable $3.4 million chunk of cap space each of the next two seasons.

Looking ahead to the delayed autumn offseason earlier this summer, that decision seemed close to a no-brainer for general manager Stan Bowman.

Now, though, Maatta’s playoff heroics and sudden emergence as a relied-upon veteran on this Hawks team could complicate matters.