{"id":11435,"date":"2025-01-22T02:37:28","date_gmt":"2025-01-22T02:37:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=11435"},"modified":"2025-01-22T02:37:28","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T02:37:28","slug":"breaking-news-blackhawks-make-intriguing-front-office-hire-ahead-of-high-stakes-summer-window","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=11435","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING NEWS: Blackhawks Make Intriguing Front Office Hire Ahead Of High-Stakes Summer Window"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sportsmockery.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/USATSI_20964017-3-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Blackhawks Make Intriguing Front Office Hire Ahead Of High-Stakes Summer  Window\" \/><\/p>\n<p>As the Blackhawks continue to stumble through the last half of the 2024-25 season, the attention of Chicago is beginning to turn toward this summer. The summer window is always an important one for rebuilding teams, but could be even more for the Blackhawks. Chicago has decisions to make on nine pending free agents, and will have to resign some of them before then. The team could even extend some of their biggest names, with Connor Bedard being eligible for a second contract on July 1. There\u2019s no doubt the team will be looking to lock him up as soon as possible, and it wouldn\u2019t be a surprise if Bedard signed an extension on that date.<\/p>\n<p>With so much focus on upcoming contracts for the Blackhawks, the team is working to make those contracts as cheap and efficient as possible, and hired just the man for the job. Former Wild assistant GM Chris O\u2019Hearn is now Chicago\u2019s vice president of hockey operations.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/minutemedia-ressh.cloudinary.com\/image\/upload\/v1638133216\/shape\/cover\/sport\/https-3A-2F-2Fblackhawkup-com-2Ffiles-2F2016-2F06-2F9108474-3d9aeee4d664238dc3f800799b075379.jpg\" alt=\"Chicago Blackhawks' Front Office Rank Fair\" \/><\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Hearn isn\u2019t just another hire \u2013 as a former attorney, he specializes in contract negotiations and the CBA. He and Minnesota mutually agreed to part ways at the end of 2023, but in his time there, he was the \u201cchief contract negotiator\u201d under general manager Bill Guerin. The man is obviously pretty good at what he does.<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Hearn also comes at a perfect time for the Blackhawks because of the news already happening around the league. There\u2019s an increasingly large chance that the salary cap will go up significantly as early as next season, with the potential number approaching $95 million or even higher \u2013 a big jump from the current $88 million limit. We\u2019re also beginning to see a rise in creative contracts, with teams deferring payments to lower their cap hits.<\/p>\n<p>But there\u2019s also a reason the Blackhawks were the team to go get him. Bedard will likely be signing a big deal this summer, and it\u2019ll be tricky for Chicago to negotiate a number of other big raises. Arvid Soderblom, Wyatt Kaiser and Louis Crevier are among the young players who should be back on bigger deals. There\u2019s no question having a strong contract specialist will help make that task a bit easier, and if he can open up a bit of space under the cap, O\u2019Hearn will be one of the most popular hockey names in Chicago.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s unclear how the hierarchy will work \u2013 will O\u2019Hearn function more as an advisor or have more power? Either way, adding another strong mind, especially on the salary cap side, can\u2019t hurt.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With so much focus on upcoming contracts for the Blackhawks, the team is working to make those contracts as cheap and efficient as possible, and hired just the man for the job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,10,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chicago-blackhawks","category-nfl","category-san-francisco-49ers"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>BREAKING NEWS: Blackhawks Make Intriguing Front Office Hire Ahead Of High-Stakes Summer Window - Breaking News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=11435\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BREAKING NEWS: Blackhawks Make Intriguing Front Office Hire Ahead Of High-Stakes Summer Window - 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