Blackhawks Add Manning

The second hockey pool related signing for the Chicago Blackhawks was defenseman Brandon Manning, who signed a 2-year, $4.5 million deal to be added to an already star-studded blueline.

The 28-year old defender just snuck his way into the hockey pool conversation, ranking 100th among all defensemen in scoring with 7 goals and 19 points in 65 games with the Flyers in 2018.  Those kind of numbers would have looked a little bit better with a few more games under his belt, but he'll bring a good scoring rate to Chicago, where they could use another guy to lighten the load on guys like Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith.

The Blackhawks have been busy trying to round out their top-heavy roster, trying to find some good bargain players and they made a pretty good pickup with Manning, one would have to think.  Pool worthy defenders are not coming in cheaply, so a couple million here and there doesn't look too bad.

Forwards	Cap	Defense	Cap	Goalies	Cap
Patrick Kane	10.500	Brent Seabrook	6.850	Corey Crawford	6.000
Jonathan Toews	10.500	Duncan Keith	5.538	Cam Ward	3.000
Brandon Saad	6.000	Connor Murphy	3.850
Marian Hossa	5.275	Jan Rutta	2.300
Artem Anisimov	4.550	Brandon Manning	2.250
Vinnie Hinostroza	1.500	Erik Gustafsson	1.200
Chris Kunitz	1.000	Gustav Forsling	0.873
Nick Schmaltz	0.925
Blake Hillman	0.925
Victor Ejdsell	0.834
Alex DeBrincat	0.778
John Hayden	0.750
Alexandre Fortin	0.707
Jordan Schroeder	0.650
Andreas Martinsen	0.650

With Marian Hossa's contract still on the books, the Blackhawks are sitting with a shade over $2 million before they have to place him on the LTIR for cap relief.  The Blackhawks may not be the biggest player in the remainder of this off-season, but it sounds like they are trying to move Hossa's contract, just to clean up their books and make the math easier.  Adding Ward, Kunitz and Manning on Sunday were great moves and they look even better, since they're still under the ceiling.