Unfortunately for Chicago Blackhawks fans, forward Patrick Sharp won’t be sporting the Indian head sweater next season. The news broke earlier this morning, however we don’t know where the three-time Stanley Cup Champion and 2014 Olympic Gold Medalist will be playing next season, the Blackhawks will be trading him next week. So what does this mean for Rocky Wirtz, John McDonough and Stan Bowman? The answer: opportunity.
Sharp made a total of $5.5 million this past season, however his performance was subpar to say the least. Next season if Sharp was returning with the Blackahwks he would have made the same amount of money as he did this past season, and would become a restricted free agent after the season.
Sharp has a $5.9 million cap hit through the 2016-2017 season and the Chicago Blackhawks are going to have to deal with their top three players having a combined cap hit of over $25 million. Sharp can be replaced by Brandon Saad (who is a restricted free agent) and/or Teuvo Teravainen. But best thing to do is to trade Sharp for either potential draft picks or yet another prospect. This will happen but the question is...when? The only one who knows the answer is Stan Bowman the team’s vice president and general manager.
The thing is though most teams experience a championship fall out, especially one as iconic as the Stanley Cup. Everyone wants to get a larger payout and that’s were teams tend to lose some players. We saw it happen with the Blackhawks after their 2010 Stanley Cup Championship, they had to let go of some core players at the time such as Andrew Ladd, Troy Brouwer, Dustin Byfuglien to name a few. Then in 2013 the Hawks had to let go of some players because of salary cap issues, they basically gave Dave Bolland’s four-year $16 million contract to Bryan Bickell. Then they sent Bolland to the Maple Leafs because Bowman knew that was the best thing possible for the organization because Bickell played like an absolute freak that postseason scoring nine goals, including a pivotal one in Game 6 of the Finals, and tallying up seven assists.
And now flash forward to 2015 and the situation is here again, who do we get rid of? And this time we know for sure that fan favorite Patrick Sharp will be gone.
So what does this mean for Patrick Sharp? Well there are several teams out there looking for a skilled and experienced veteran and if they shop right, Sharps their best bet at least for now. The team that has had their eyes on Sharp for the longest would have to be the Washington Capitals. The Caps, tried to acquire Sharp from Chicago right before the trade deadline back in February of this past season, but GM Stan Bowman quickly shot down the request by saying, “We don’t ever want to trade Sharp.”
Well that was then and now the veteran looks to be on his way out and headed to Washington for the moment, however we all have to wait and see because the Blackhawks will make the move next week and we don’t know where exactly that place may be.