NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Even after acquiring Taylor Hall on Monday, the Blackhawks still have the second-most available salary-cap space in the NHL.
Hall’s $6 million cap hit brought the Hawks’ 2023-24 commitments up to $51.9 million, per CapFriendly — still $9.8 million shy of the cap floor (set at $61.7 million) and $31.6 million shy of the cap ceiling (set at $82.5 million).
Only the Ducks — $39 million shy of the ceiling — have more space. By contrast, 16 teams are already within $10 million of the ceiling, including three — the Flames, Lightning and Canadiens — within $2 million.
CapFriendly’s Hawks calculation doesn’t include Lukas Reichel, Alex Vlasic, Wyatt Kaiser and Kevin Korchinski’s entry-level contracts at the moment, and new contracts for Philipp Kurashev and new acquisition Nick Foligno will eat up slightly larger chunks of money.
But nonetheless, Hawks general manager Kyle Davidson’s big splash Monday hardly takes him out of the running in other possible cap-dump trade discussions.
If the Canucks (with Tyler Myers, Conor Garland and Brock Boeser), Islanders (with Josh Bailey), Penguins (with Mikael Granlund) or any other team decides to give up assets to shed salary this week, the Hawks can easily oblige them. There will almost certainly be more trades — both involving the Hawks and not involving them — yet to come.
Stalock falls to Letang
Former Hawks goalie Alex Stalock finished as a runner-up for the Masterton Trophy — given to the NHL player who “best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication” — in this year’s NHL awards, which were announced Monday.
Penguins defenseman Kris Letang, who overcame a stroke, a broken foot and the death of his father to still make 64 appearances this season, won the award. Coyotes forward Clayton Keller was the other finalist.
Stalock battled through myocarditis caused by COVID-19 and several other health setbacks to produce a stellar season for the Hawks. He’ll move on as an unrestricted free agent come Saturday, but he should find plenty of interested suitors around the league — a stark contrast to last season.
Barlow a strong candidate
Canadian winger Colby Barlow is one of the more likely candidates for the Hawks’ 19th overall pick Wednesday, although likelihood is a relative thing that far down the draft board.
Barlow’s well-roundedness is what makes him particularly appealing. He brings respectable size at 6-1, 187 pounds. He skates well, he shoots well, he sees the ice well, he works hard and he’s equally competent in all three zones. His testing results were impressive at the combine earlier this month, too, even though he battled through an illness that week.
“I’m a two-way power forward with goal-scoring ability,” Barlow said then. “I crash the net pretty hard and have a little bit of a grit to my game, which is pretty unique for a strong winger.”
He scored plenty of goals this season, tallying 46 of them (plus 33 assists) in 59 games with the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack. He also talked regularly with Hawks regional scouts throughout the year, even though the illness cost him his combine-week interview with the Hawks. He plans to work more on his skating this summer, too.
Samuel Honzek, Daniil But, Brayden Yager and whoever else remains available at 19th are strong possibilities, too, but Barlow is a prospect worth watching.
