With the recent signing of Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews to massive contract extensions, a feeling of déjà vu has arisen. Strictly speculatively speaking, one has to wonder how a combined cap hit of twenty-one million dollars over eight years will impact the future finances of the Chicago Blackhawks. As it stands, the Blackhawks are over the salary cap by approximately 2.2 million, a figure exacerbated by the one-year deal doled out to Brad Richards (they were already slightly over the ceiling, but two million dollars of their current roster composition belongs to him).

In 2010, the Blackhawks had an embarrassment of riches accommodating their championship team. Kane and Toews were on expiring entry-level contracts at the time, but each with performance bonuses counting against the cap ($3.725m total cap hit for Kane and $2.8m for Toews — a bargain in retrospect). Duncan Keith was also on the end of a deal worth 1.4 million. The extensions the three core players signed in the December before their championship run (Toews and Kane each for $6.3 million over 5 years and Keith at $5.5m for 13 years), were at the time viewed as both adequate for the quality of players, and crippling to the makeup of their roster depth. After the season, Niklas Hjalmarsson was signed to an offer sheet deal by San Jose for 3.5 million, which forced Stan Bownman’s hand in compliance as Hjalmarsson was deemed too valuable.

The financial pressure induced a bevy of changes in the off-season – Andrew Ladd, Dustin Byfuglien, Brent Sopel, and Kris Versteeg were all jettisoned for minimal compensation, providing some of the most definitive examples of the term “salary dump” in recent history. Antti Niemi would end up taking Chicago to salary arbitration, where he was awarded more than they were capable of affording. He would take a one-year deal in San Jose worth 2 million, despite his worth having been adjudicated to be $2.75m.

Chicago would bow out in the first playoff round in each of the next two years. Like previous years, they banged heads with Vancouver, but in 2011 they came out on the wrong end of Game 7 overtime. The next year, Phoenix took them by surprise and eliminated them in 6 games, 3 victories of which came in sudden death extra time. Chicago’s only two wins themselves were in overtime as well. In those two series, 13 games total, Kane and Toews would combine for 4 goals (for comparison, Daniel Sedin scored 5 goals in the 2011 series alone). With great clarity, there was no mistaking the fact that as those two go, so would go the fate of the team.

However, proving the truth of this knowledge even further was their dominance in 2013’s lockout-shortened year. Jonathan Toews breached a point-per-game clip for the first time in his career, and Patrick Kane would rocket from 66 points in 82 games to 55 points in just 47 games — scoring the exact same amount of goals in thirty-five fewer contests. The team would lose just seven of its 48 games in regulation — the first 24 games of their schedule featured precisely zero regulation losses. Their big money stars were paying dividends, as only Patrick Sharp would miss significant time to injury. With the President’s Trophy well in hand, they would have home ice advantage in every playoff series.

The first round of the 2013 playoffs featured a blitzing of the Minnesota Wild in 5 games. And, against Detroit, they would finally come out on the right end of overtime; coming back from a 1-3 games deficit and stealing game 7, in OT, off of the deflective leg of Niklas Kronwall. They charged through a physically battered Los Angeles team, whose center depth was replete with strife. And in the Finals, Boston proved to be a worthy opponent, with 3 contests decided by overtime goals. Game 6 would have gone to extra periods as well, had it not been for Dave Bolland’s goal with just under 1 minute remaining.

The Blackhawks had captured the Cup again, and although Jonathan Toews put up distressingly underwhelming offensive numbers (3 goals, 11 assists in 24 games), it was Patrick Kane who earned playoff MVP honors with 19 points in 23 games.

Bryan Bickell would also put up staggering numbers playing in their top 6 to the surprise of just about everyone, finishing the playoffs with the second highest points on the team. He would be awarded a 4-year, 4 million dollar contract for his efforts, a deal viewed as an over-payment and perhaps even an omen.

Although they weren’t as dominant in their 2013 run as their 2010 one, they were winners all the same. 2014’s playoffs saw them inches from advancing to the Finals once again, but this time around it was Los Angeles that was the benefactor of a fortuitous pinball bounce in Game 7 overtime. Both Toews and Kane were front and center, both of them leading team scoring in another deep playoff run.

With no intentions of having their bread and butter taking calls from the open market, the Blackhawks brass saw fit to extend their dynamos a year before their twin $6.3m deals would cease. And so we find them today, signing eight-year extensions at ten and a half million dollars-per-year each.

This year, they have work to do yet. Someone (or two) will be the odd man out in their quest to squeeze team salaries underneath league strictures with no compliance buyouts in hand. However, they have a full roster under contract and needn’t shed nearly as much salary as 2010 necessitated. The real trouble for Chicago begins in 2015. With Rogers Sportsnet’s recent television deal projected to augment the future cap alongside the inevitability of economic inflation, teams are working under the presumption of increasing flexibility. No single team needs that flexibility more than Chicago. With their current incarnation, and assuming no roster changes and no cap changes, they have around 3 million dollars to use on 8 empty lineup spaces — albeit, those numbers are going to look different as Stan Bowman navigates yet another blustery and uncertain landscape. This is just in reference to two seasons in the future; the two mammoth extensions are stapled to Chicago’s chequebooks until 2023.

Once again, the threat of having their depth plundered is looming on the heels of contract extensions to their two big guns. Although you could debate the merits of such large dollar amounts, you can’t argue how badly the Blackhawks need those two. In 2010, the question was posited – could they remain a competitive team with such tumultuous transformations, including a new goalie? With equanimity, their captain center and superstar winger gave a championship-colored “yes” within three year’s time. However, today, the money is bigger. The cap situation is once again rife with doubt. The query resounds anew in the heads of fans and management alike: can they do it again?