Blackhawks Re-Sign Panik

The Chicago Blackhawks announced on Thursday that they have re-signed forward Richard Panik to a new 2-year contract extension, reportedly worth $5.6 million for the duration of the deal, a $2.8 million cap hit each season.

Panik broke out with the Blackhawks in the 2017 season, playing in all 82 games for the team, scoring 22 goals and 44 points, ranking him 121st among all forwards in scoring.  At less than $3 million per season against the cap, he does turn out to be a very good budget player, who has a 20-goal season under his belt.

The Blackhawks cap situation doesn't get any easier, as they are already projected to be over the $73 million cap ceiling that was set for the 2017 season and even if that does inflate this year, they will have already taken a chunk out of that new number to make any more moves with the status quo.  It's not unfair to think that they will be exposing some big contracts at the expansion draft and likely trying to move one or two more later on.

In the pool this past year, he was picked up by Ryan's team at the first Waiver Draft and Panik was a huge help, lifting him team up from 14th at the end of Week Eight, all the way up to a spot in the money race, but finishing 5th, 16 point short of 3rd place money.