Ongoing restricted free agent holdouts in Central Division will benefit the Blackhawks, for now

The Avalanche are a popular pick to win the Central Division in 2019-20, but star Mikko Rantanen’s contract holdout would significantly hurt their chances. | AP Photos

As training camps begin around the NHL this weekend, two of the Blackhawks’ most intimidating division rivals are missing star players.

Mikko Rantanen of the Avalanche and Kyle Connor and Patrik Laine of the Jets are among a sizable bunch of restricted free agents continuing their contract holdouts.

Their absences, especially if they last into October and past opening day, will benefit the Hawks, who have a rocky climb up into a playoff spot in the ultra-competitive Central Division.

Rantanen — who is one-third of the Avs’ killer top line (along with Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog) — is coming off back-to-back 80-point seasons. The 22-year-old Finnish forward is projected to receive $10 million per year when he does sign, per Evolving Wild, but Rantanen recently said he can’t “say an exact timetable” for when that might be.

Winnipeg finds itself even more shorthanded, with both Connor (66 points in 2018-19) and Laine (50 points) holding out, adding another headache into a disastrous offseason in which the franchise also lost Jacob Trouba, Tyler Myers, Kevin Hayes, Brandon Tanev and Ben Chiarot. Evolving Wild projects both Connor and Laine to earn around $7 million on their eventual deals.

Other franchises are also in trouble, including Western Conference opponents Calgary (Matthew Tkachuk, coming off a 77-point year, and Andrew Mangiapane are both holdouts) and Vancouver (Brock Boeser has yet to re-sign after a 56-point campaign), as well as Toronto (Mitch Marner) and Tampa Bay (Brayden Point).

Now that Brendan Perlini has re-signed, the Hawks no longer have any boats caught in the storm, so they’ll root for the RFA gang to hold strong as long as possible.

Besides disrupting those teams’ training camps and roster chemistries, there might be some direct benefits. The Jets, for example, visit the United Center on Oct. 12, the third game of the season.

Patrik Laine and teammate Kyle Connor are both voluntarily missing as the Jets begin training camp.

But the cyclone could arrive in equal, if not stronger, force in Chicago next summer.

As Alex DeBrincat and Dylan Strome hit the Fifth Third Arena ice for the start of camp Friday, they enter the crucial final year of their entry-level deals. Making less than $1 million each right now, both will be due for mega-million-dollar contracts in a year’s time.

Furthermore, the league-wide RFA class will be loaded once again: the likes of Matt Murray, Matthew Barzal, Nico Hischier and Max Domi will join DeBrincat and Strome.

So as 2019 marks a new era of free agent stubbornness, with young stars willing to trade practice time for extra cash more readily than ever before, 2020 could prove much the same.

This is obviously not news to Hawks general manager Stan Bowman, who has been anticipating it throughout the summer.

“For [this coming] season, we’re in a better place than most teams,” he said at the draft in June. “After that, it’s hard to say, because we don’t know what the cap will be a year from now, and we’ve got a couple players that are going graduate to new contracts.”

That awareness, however, doesn’t necessarily mean Bowman will be able to prevent the crisis. Marner and Laine’s next contracts were being discussed regularly in summer 2018, with the former already negotiating with Leafs GM Kyle Dubas at the time — yet today, things still are where they are.

Still, the Hawks are — for now — profiteers. Any slight edge in the Central this season will be much-needed and much-appreciated.

Just don’t laugh too loudly at the Avs’ and Jets’ plights.