What next for the Hawks?
The Hawks may have just won the 2015 Stanley Cup but they won't be able to rest on their laurels for long as they will have to work on restructuring their team. The Hawks are going to be tight up against the cap next season and will need to make some room to be able to field a full team without facing too many casualties. The draft has become a big part of how Chicago operates and they will obviously focus on that first with it coming on the 26th and 27th June in Florida.
The biggest moves will have to be to some of their higher paid players, Bickell and Sharp specifically. With only three defenceman signed up and less than $5m in cap space they will need to let one of them go. Even more so when you consider that Brandon Saad will need a raise.
Like in the past when the Chicago hierarchy have had to make some fairly drastic or noticeable changes, they have made plans in advance. Chicago have two forwards already signed up in Kyle Baun and Artemi Panarin for less than $1.7m. Combined with Trevor van Riemsdyk at $925k, Chicago potentially have three spaces sown up for less then $2.6m.
With the above it would leave them needing to sign 3 forwards and 2 defencemen, without taking into account the extra players. They would also have $2.3m in cap space meaning that they would then have to trade one of the aforementioned. I wouldn't put it past the Hawks due to the wizardry of Scotty Bowman. But if they play their cards right and are able to work things out they could keep Sharp and end up just trading Bickell.
The Hawks will be enjoying the win right now and you can't blame them. I would be too. But the hard work on building another team to go for the cup again will work soon in earnest and with people like Scotty Bowman behind the scenes they will be in good hands.
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