from Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun-Times,

When the Stanley Cup playoffs begin in the spring of 2023, Jonathan Toews will be 35 years old. Patrick Kane will be 34. Brent Seabrook will be 38. And Duncan Keith will be just shy of his 40th birthday.

And, barring any blockbuster trades in the next eight years, they’ll still all be Blackhawks. The question is, will they still be elite players spearheading yet another deep postseason run? Or will they be past-their-prime veterans, clogging the roster and taking up more than $32 million worth of salary?

Jonathan Toews chuckled at the question.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” he said.

Fair enough. The guy’s just entering his prime years, after all. But while it seems like a silly concern, a far-flung hypothetical, it’s one that Hawks general manager Stan Bowman thought long and hard about before handing out lengthy contracts to his biggest stars, including the most recent one, an eight-year, $55-million deal for the 30-year-old Seabrook. Bowman always has one eye on the present, and one eye on the future.

And he’s betting that his big stars will still be big-time players deep into their 30s.

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