BlackhawksBuzz

The Chicago Blackhawks held a press conference to announce the contract extension of Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith. Toews and Kane, both 21, agreed to identical five-year extensions worth a reported $31.5 million each while Keith inked the largest contract in franchise history at $72 million for 13 years.

Details on the salaries are as follows:
- Keith, who will make $8 million per season the first three years of a contract that tapers to $1.5 million per season when it expires in 2023. This will be an averaged cap hit of $5.53M for 13 years.
- Toews and Kane, who began their Hawks career together in 2007, each will receive $6.5 million next season and in the final two years of the deal. They will earn $6 million in 2011-12 and 2012-13. For these two contracts, they will each be a salary cap hit of $6.3M a season.

Before the game on Thursday, in Detroit, the Hawks were busy working their roster. In the Last few days, we have seen:

Trade Aaron Johnson (D) to the Calgary Flames for Kyle Greentree (LW). Barring any injuries, Johnson was buried in the depth chart and wasn’t expected to see much ice time this season. Kyle Greentreehas been labeled as a minor league scorer that can’t make the leap to the majors.

Recall of Bryan Bickell from Rockford.

Ben Eager is place on IR for an “upper body” injury. Add Eager to the list of Bolland, Brouwer and long term IR for Hossa and Burish. The Hawks can’t afford too many more early injuries, putting them in a bad place to start out the season.