They'll be in a bit of a cap bind the first year or two of their new contract, but that's where you trust in your drafting. By then Oduya and Rozisval will be gone, Versteeg should be gone (hopefully this offseason), one of Sharp or Seabrook or Bickell may be gone. And by then hopefully guys like Stephen Johns are ready to step in, or Clendening or Dahlbeck. Forwards like McNeil taking someone like Bickell's spot, Saad continuing to improve, Teuvo coming in hopefully starting this season, Hartman, Danault,etc. They have players who, by that time, should be ready for the NHL, some may be now.</p>
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Now if Toews/Kane REALLY wanted to twist the knife, they could've opted for shorter deals (like 4 years) and then be looking at an even bigger pay day when those are up. Because by then the cap will probably be around 80 million or more, along with the contracts/cap hits increasing for new deals signed during that time. That's why you can't compare contracts signed under old CBAs to contracts being signed now. There are no real loopholes anymore to circumvent the cap. Crosby got paid 12 million last year, but with a cap hit of 8.7. If those rules weren't in place, you better believe the same thing would've happened with Toews/Kane's deals, bringing their AAV down a couple million. But you can't do that anymore. We're going to start seeing a more realistic representation of cap hits for the bigger name/star players in the league that sign new deals. And it may be hard to believe right now, but what Toews and Kane signed for, currently the highest paid players in the league, might look like a bargain two or three years from now.</p>