The Chicago Blackhawks announced this morning that they had re-signed Czech defenseman Jan Rutta to contract for the 2018-19 season at a reported annual cap hit of $2.25 million.
Rutta was signed last June, and has played 43 games with the Blackhawks this season. He also leads all Blackhawks defenseman with six goals, despite missing 24 games with injuries and Joel Quenneville healthy scratches.
After signing Erik Gustafsson earlier in the week, this announcement comes as a bit of a head scratcher. With Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Connor Murphy, Jordan Oesterle, Erik Gustafsson, Carl Dahlstrom, Gustav Forsling, and now Jan Rutta all coming back next season, the Blackhawks defensive corp is once again going to be dragging along, what looks to be, some dead weight.
The optics of recent moves would tell you that a rough cap hit next season of $3.5 million for Jan Rutta and Erik Gustafsson is a bit of an over payment. If either of these players do not work out, they will need to pass through waivers and the Blackhawks will only be able to bury $1.025 million of each player’s contract. The remainder of the balance would still count against the cap. Not only does this seem like and over payment, but this announcement also seems very premature.
It has been widely speculated that the Blackhawks would need to either need to upgrade through trade or sign a free agent defenseman in the off-season. Bringing back the entire defensive corp of a team that is currently last in their division and fourth worst in the western conference does not seem like a winning formula for next season.
The cap is expected to increase significantly next season, but that is not a free pass for Stan Bowman to be loose with Rocky’s wallet. The Blackhawks are already suffering the consequences of Brent Seabrook’s bloated contract, which has him counting for $6.875 million against the cap until, seemingly, the apocalypse.
Defenseman Jan Rutta has signed on for another season with Chicago!
The one-year contract extension runs through the 2018-19 season. #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/BayLOdjANw
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) March 8, 2018