Marcus Kruger and Johnny Oduya update

While the Chicago Blackhawks fight through their final team structure against a low-hanging cap, Marcus Kruger and Johnny Oduya are still working through their futures.

According to Chris Kuc with the Chicago Tribune, Kruger has elected not to file for arbitration:

Restricted free agent Marcus Kruger decided not to file for salary arbitration and instead has kept negotiating on a longer-term contract with the Hawks. Had the center filed for arbitration, the maximum length of a deal would have been two years. According to Kruger’s agent, J.P. Barry, Kruger “may have to remain patient” until the Hawks have enough room under the cap.

Right now, the Blackhawks are above the salary cap.  They are allowed to remain there while working through contracts, but must be below the cap by opening day.

This has also affected fan-favorite Johnny Oduya.  The unrestricted free agent is playing the waiting game.

ProHockeyTalk shares this update:

This might be frustrating for Blackhawks fans, especially in the case of Oduya, who obviously served a big purpose in Chicago’s Stanley Cup run (which required grinding work by its top-four defense). At the same time, it’s clear that the Blackhawks are already in a significant cap crunch thanks in part to raises for Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, so challenges are ahead.

One can imagine Oduya’s agent merely filling his “resume” with photos of the defenseman raising the Stanley Cup, but his value extends beyond that.

Oduya didn’t generate a ton of points (10 during the regular season), yet his time on ice numbers will be a significant selling point, as he saw his ice time jump to 24:45 minutes per postseason contest. You can read more about his situation here, but simply enough, there aren’t many experienced (and still fairly young) blueliners on the market who are on par with him.

Photo courtesy of Lisa Gansky.