NUMBERS GAME

Salary-cap skills the real reason Hawks keep winning.

Before this edition of the Stanley Cup Final had even started, Stan Bowman was being asked about roster turnover. It’s what he does. The Chicago Blackhawks, in the tremendously successful era presided over by Bowman, are known for two things: the pillars at the top of the roster like Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith, and the constant churn going on at the other end. It’s why Bowman — who was named for the Stanley Cup, won for the first time by his father, Scotty, just a month before he was born — was the first general manager to win two championships in the salary-cap era, and why he’s the only one in that era to have his team make it to three finals.

And so, the questions about turnover. With Toews and Kane each signed to contracts that carry US$10 million annual cap hits beginning next season, the Blackhawks will again face a serious crunch trying to keep the band together. Bowman will still have those pillars on the roster, but will he have enough top-end talent to keep Chicago a title threat? Or for this group, with five conference final appearances in seven years, are we witnessing One Last Ride?

“You’re right, there’s a lot of talk about that all the time. But we’ve been through this before,” Bowman said. “It’s a challenge. The salary cap, it’s a system we all play under. We’ve been through it before. There’s changes to be made to every team, and we’re no different.”

They are, maybe, a little different. Since their first Cup in this run, in 2010, the Blackhawks have been forced to jettison players who were still good — and young — enough to become key cogs on other teams. The Winnipeg Jets alone have three ex-Hawks in Andrew Ladd, Dustin Byfuglien and Michael Frolik who are among their best players. Troy Brouwer in Washington, Nick Leddy with the Islanders, Viktor Stalberg in Nashville: moved, moved, moved, all at least in part because salaries became too rich to fit under the Chicago cap.

Rocky Wirtz, the owner and chairman of the Blackhawks, said this about Bowman’s efforts since 2010: “Essentially we had to trade half the team when everyone else — the other 29 teams — knew you had to trade half the team.”

That’s laying it on a little thick, but Wirtz’s larger point — that Bowman was able to retool a roster instead of having it picked over like the tables at a store-closing, everything-must-go blowout — is accurate.

Still, this off-season could bring the GM’s greatest challenge yet. The monster contracts for Toews and Kane, along with long-term, big-dollar deals signed by Keith and Marian Hossa, will push the Blackhawks close to the salary-cap limit, especially with key players like Brandon Saad becoming a restricted free agent and Brent Seabrook and Andrew Shaw entering the last years of their contracts. Speculation has landed squarely on Patrick Sharp and his $5.9 million-a-year salary as someone that Bowman could parcel off in exchange for a draft pick to replace those that Chicago dealt at the trade deadline. Even more aggressive would be the trading of goaltender Corey Crawford, who makes $6 million annually and who has not exactly been rock steady in these playoffs. Dealing a Cup-winning goalie might seem like madness, but Bowman walked away from both his goalies — Antti Niemi and Cristobal Huet — after winning that first championship in 2010. Losing Sharp might even be the bigger blow.

Sharp doesn’t garner the attention of the Blackhawks’ core players around the rest of the league, but he’s unquestionably beloved in Chicago and a team leader who has been around since the start of the dynasty, or whatever your preferred term is for this run of success. A cap dynasty? Bowman’s strategy to overcome such deletions to the roster, though, attacks two fronts: developing young talent that can step in as players depart, and finding shortterm help to plug gaps when needed.

So, Brian Campbell leaves and Niklas Hjalmarsson takes up a larger role on the blue line.

Andrew Ladd leaves and Bryan Bickell, already here, becomes a leading scorer on the next Cup-winning team.

When the talent pipeline in the organization doesn’t quite have someone ready, Bow- man goes out and gets, for example, Brad Richards to sign a one-year deal on the cheap ($2 million) to centre Chicago’s second line.

Kris Versteeg leaves, Kris Versteeg comes back when he is older and cheaper.

“I think Stan’s been working on it,” says Wirtz of the looming roster squeeze. “It’s not like he’s gonna wake up in the middle of June and say, ‘Oh my gosh. What the heck are we gonna do?’ “

Bowman, not surprisingly, agrees.

“The main players are going to be back,” he says. “You have to rely on some young guys to step into bigger roles. We’re seeing that play itself out here over the season, players like Saad and (Teuvo) Teravainen, young guys that are going to play bigger roles going forward.”

Then he says that none of that really matters right now. He wants to watch his team try for a third Stanley Cup.

“We’ll take care of the other stuff over the summer.”