Thanks to the NHL salary cap the Chicago Blackhawks roster has been a revolving door of players in a lot of areas over the past few years as they are forced to make difficult trades to keep their core together.
Even with all of that player movement, they always seem to find a way to keep the players they want, and it is pretty clear that they place a pretty high value on what forward Marcus Kruger provides.
The team announced on Tuesday that it has signed Kruger to a three-year contract extension that runs through the end of the 2018-19 season. The team did not release the financial terms of the contract, but according to TSN's Darren Dreger it will pay him a total of $9.25 million, which comes out to an annual salary cap hit of $3.083 million per season.
He would have been eligible for free agency after this season without a new deal in place.
Given that Kruger has only appeared in 33 games this season (due to injury) and recorded just one point (an assist) it probably seems like a massive number for a team that is already (and will continue to be) pressed right up against the cap. And let's be honest, it is.
The Blackhawks don't typically overpay their depth players (and considering what they are paying their superstars, they can not afford to) and that is usually where teams get in trouble when it comes to managing the cap. But the Blackhawks obviously love Kruger's defensive play and what he brings to the bottom of their lineup. He not only plays a lot of tough minutes during 5-on-5 play, but is also one of their top penalty killers.
That said, it will probably further complicate the Blackhawks' cap situation this summer.
With Kruger now in the mix the Blackhawks already have more than $60 million committed to just 15 players for next season. With the salary cap numbers for the 2016-17 season still unknown at this point (and concern that it might actually go down from the current $71.4 million it is at this season) the Blackhawks are probably going to have some more tough decisions to make over the summer.
