5 Blackhawks with looming cap questions heading into 2018-19 NHL season

4. Duncan Keith

America does run on Duncan. But how much longer can the Blackhawks? Keith’s cap hit is similar to Seabrook’s — one year shorter but a $5.5 million dollar cap hit until 2022-23, regardless.

The two-time Norris, one-time Conn Smythe winner didn’t receive the criticism Seabrook saw for most of the season, but should he have? Duncan Keith is great. He’s an awesome guy. I’m sure he’s not happy with the year he had. After a really good campaign in 2016, Keith posted his lowest point total since 2012 and his lowest plus-minus of his career at a whopping minus-29. Goaltending didn’t help, but neither did the rotation this team had. But, hey, he played all 82 games!

When you look at the cap defensively, Seabrook and Keith aren’t the only standouts, but their contracts at ages 33 and 34 don’t really lend themselves to getting back to at least a well-developed top four. Acquiring Connor Murphy was a way to help get there, but did it? In short, no; that added cap spot didn’t give any breadth for the defensive pairings. At least Murphy is 25 and could potentially pair with youngsters like Jan Rutta (27) and Blake Hillman (22). Hillman only saw four games, so we’ll see about that guy.

Back to Duncan. The oldest of the two, he seems most intent on being whatever the team needs moving forward. After moving Niklas Hjalmarsson, which I didn’t want to bring up, some shakeups should happen again come draft time, but who know?