Top Shelf: Stan's plan the key for Blackhawks

Jun 16, 2015 - 5:08 AM Philadelphia, PA (SportsNetwork.com) - The Chicago Blackhawks are not a dynasty. At least not yet.

But, thanks to general manager Stan Bowman the Blackhawks have a real chance to make a dynasty happen in this era of salary caps and tight budgets.

Chicago wrapped up its third Stanley Cup title in six seasons on Monday, beating the Tampa Bay Lightning, 2-0, in Game 6 to clinch a championship on home ice for the first time since 1938.

It's been an amazing run for a franchise which was plagued by disappointment and fan apathy for many years. Obviously, those days are thing of the past.

Denying the Blackhawks the title of dynasty is by no means a knock on the club, but to toss the word around in their case would do a disservice to the true dynastic reigns in NHL history. The Montreal Canadiens had a few of those runs. The Edmonton Oilers and New York Islanders each experienced periods of sustained dominance in the 1980s.

Now, if Chicago were to come back next spring and repeat as champions, that would be three Cups in four seasons. Then it would be hard to say they hadn't earned the right to be called a dynasty. Until then, come up with another word to describe the Blackhawks.

Commissioner Gary Bettman did declare the Blackhawks a dynasty seconds before handing the Cup to captain Jonathan Toews for a third time. Of course, that's exactly the type of thing somebody who is getting booed by thousands of people would say to make it stop.

In the end, all of this dynasty talk is just semantics. Winning Stanley Cups in 2010, 2013 and 2015 may be too spread out to qualify as a dynasty, but in many ways what the Blackhawks have done over the last six seasons could be a more impressive feat than the Habs and Isles winning four straight in the '70s and '80s.

There's a reason we haven't seen any club claim consecutive Cups since the Detroit Red Wings in 1997 and '98 and it has everything to do with the salary cap. Since the cap was introduced following the lockout which wiped out the 2004-05 season, it's become nigh impossible for NHL GMs to keep championship clubs intact.

What Bowman has pulled off in this era is much different than what someone like Bill Torrey had to contend with to keep his Isles teams together, Or what Glen Sather faced in making sure Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier and Co. had enough time in Edmonton to do the amazing things they did with the Oilers.

Interestingly, Bowman does not get credit for building this Blackhawks juggernaut. That goes to Dale Tallon, who put the most important parts of this Chicago club in place and was still GM as recently as 2009, when the franchise made it to the Western Conference finals. But, while Tallon excelled at identifying talent he was not doing what was necessary to keep the salary cap situation in check. Primarily due to his mishandling of the cap, Tallon was fired in the summer of 2009 and replaced by Bowman.

Clearly, it was a wise decision.

Had Tallon been allowed to stay, it's still very likely Chicago would have won the Cup in 2010. But, sustaining a period of excellence like the Blackhawks have enjoyed in the years since 2010 would have proved difficult without Bowman's vision and penchant for cap restraint.

Bowman made tough decisions in the summer of 2010, letting go of players like Antti Niemi, Dustin Byfuglien, Andrew Ladd and Kris Versteeg. Of that group, only Versteeg was brought back, returning to the fold in a trade with Florida during the 2013-14 campaign and he was able to celebrate a second Cup with Chicago this spring. Versteeg aside, the Blackhawks have skated by without the others because by making those tough calls Bowman ensured the core group of Toews, Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith --- Conn Smythe winners in '10. '13 and '15, respectively -- would remain in the Windy City.

It couldn't have been easy for Bowman to let Niemi leave the nest after the then 27-year-old goaltender anchored the 2010 title run, but he knew Corey Crawford was coming down the pipe and had faith Chicago could win with him as well. Also, letting Niemi go allowed Bowman to match San Jose's offer sheet for defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson, an incredibly valuable part of the Blackhawks winning ways even if he often gets lost in the shuffle behind Chicago's better-known blueliners, Keith and Brent Seabrook.

Although those types of moves have paid off in the end, it wasn't always easy to believe Bowman knew what he was doing. Chicago lost in the first round of the playoffs in consecutive seasons after the 2010 title before reclaiming the Cup in 2013.

Now it's clear how important the roster purge of 2010 was for the big picture and Bowman deserves all the credit for having the foresight to know what needed to be done.

But for Bowman and the Blackhawks, the difficult decisions will keep on coming. Such is life in the salary-cap era.

Going forward, it will get even more difficult for Bowman to work cap miracles, especially after locking up Kane and Toews for big money through the 2022-23 season. Both players will carry a cap hit of $10.5 million when the extensions kick in at the start of 2015-16, giving Bowman less wiggle room to work his magic.

With Seabrook scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent after next season and Patrick Sharp slated to become a UFA the year after that, Bowman's Blackhawks may have to get by without some key pieces to the puzzle in the very near future.

Still, it seems unwise to think Bowman isn't up to the task of reloading for another Cup run.

He does have one believer, at least, in his father, Scotty, the Hockey Hall of Famer who serves as a senior advisor for this Blackhawks team and will get a 14th Stanley Cup ring for his role with the 2015 champions.

"Stan's got three," the elder Bowman said of Stan's championship haul. "He's gonna catch up."