Blackhawks In Over Their Heads

It's almost needless to say that the Blackhawks organization is in turmoil at the moment, mostly on the management side. With management duffing on qualifying offers to RFAs this summer, the Hawks had to scramble to make sure that they signed on some of their most talented and coveted players, keeping them from unrestricted free agency. Fortunately, they were able to retain players like Kris Versteeg, signing him to a new deal before it was too late.

The Hawks are now a couple defensemen short of a full compliment of players for the coming season, but there is more trouble-a-brewin', as their cap situation is nothing short of dire and movement must be made to comply with the cap constraints. Saying that, the moves that have been made this summer are far from being done.

Forwards	Defense	Goaltenders
Marian Hossa	Duncan Keith	Cristobel Huet
Patrick Kane	Cam Barker	Antti Niemi
Jonathan Toews	Brent Seabrook
Kris Versteeg	Brian Campbell
Andrew Ladd	Brent Sopel
Dave Bolland
Patrick Sharp
Dustin Byfuglien
Troy Brouwer
John Madden
Tomas Kopecky
Colin Fraser
Ben Eager
Adam Burish

Currently, the 21-man team that is listed above is over the $56.8 million cap by over $1 millon, which leaves them with more questions than they have answers. There have been some names thrown around to help ease the cap situation, like Patrick Sharp and Brian Campbell, both should ease the struggles and open the door for some of the young talent to slip in and take their spot with less of a cap hit.

The Blackhawks don't have any major free agents left to sign, nor do they have the space to do so, but watch carefully, as they try to wade their way out of trouble.