"I Want To Be A Blackhawk Forever"--Dylan Strome, What Will It Cost To Keep Strome and Debrincat Forever

“I want to be a Blackhawk forever. This place is unbelievable. The rink’s crazy, it’s wild every night and a lot of fun to be around these guys, so I’m definitely looking forward to a lot more years in the future. Hopefully this is just the beginning of something that can be special here.”–Dylan Strome to the Chicago Tribune

That right there is the type of quote that warms my heart. Oh you love Chicago, their fans, the rink, the city, and their blogger? ME TOO. You wanna be here forever? I want that too. Let’s be friends and you can invite me to the Cup party.

All of that can happen as soon as this summer. Both Debrincat and Strome are eligible to sign extensions starting July 1st as they both have one year left on their deals. I want everything set up for the future THIS summer. I want those two beautiful boys signed. I want to add another top 6 piece and I want Ian Mitchell in the fold along with Jokiharju. I want it all. Sounds like maybe Strome does too. And maybe his best friend, Alex Debrincat does too. And look it…that’s what should happen. I definitely believe in hockey soulmates. Certain guys are just meant to play together. Gretzky-Kurri, Kane-Panarin, Oates-Hull, Kariya-Selanne…Strome-Debrincat. They should be here. They should both be Blackhawks forever. It’s just a matter of when they want forever to start.

If Stan Bowman is smart he should be calling their agents already. The longer the Blackhawks wait the more likely the price will go up. Debrincat’s agent could very well point to the 2016 NHL Draft and say well Auston Matthews just got $11.6 over 5 years and Debrincat has more goals than him in both 2018-19 and 2019-20….pay the fuck up. And then Stan would make Stan face

Admittedly, Auston Matthews isn’t the best comp for Debrincat. He’s a different type of player, but that is what an agent is likely to lead with. And between now and when Debrincat signs there should be other RFA deals to point to. Laine, Marner, Rantanaen, Matthew Tkachuk, Clayton Keller, Barzal, etc. Those guys are all going to get MASSIVE paydays and there’s a good chance that Debrincat’s second and third pro years will be more productive than most of them. Scary proposition. Which is why it’d be smart to convince Debrincat that this is where he wants to be. This is where he is loved. This is where he can win and play with his best friend and be on a power play with Patrick Kane. Maybe the guaranteed money and security along with all of those things would be enough to get him to sign a Nylander type deal. $6.9M is very nice money.

And if Debrincat is here then Strome should be too because you can’t really put a price on happiness, can you? If I were Strome’s agent and he said he wanted to sign an extension this summer I would strangle him. Strome’s career numbers are very meh when compared to the other guys in his draft class/RFA class, but he’s lighting it up right now. One more year of being about a point per game guy and he could probably command $7-8M per year as well. That is NOT good for the Blackhawks, obviously. But again, if that quote is for real maybe Strome won’t seek top dollar. I don’t know, but I think Stan should be trying to secure the future so he can plan and build out the rest of the roster accordingly.

If things go right I think the Blackhawks would be thrilled to have these two get a combined $13M. It might take moving Anisimov and perhaps Saad to get everyone to fit under the cap, but these two are legitimate building blocks. They’re players and people you can just find every off-season. Promise them a future together and hopefully they can make a deal. I don’t want to see a second set of soulmates split up.