from Jack Todd at the Montreal Gazette,

What happened to the Blackhawks? Did Stan Bowman suddenly forget how to run a franchise? Not entirely, although the firing of Joel Quenneville was unconscionable. But the simple truth is a very good Blackhawks team was dismantled by Gary Bettman’s hard salary cap.

That’s the fate of the modern NHL dynasty: a few good seasons, two or three Stanley Cups if you’re lucky, then you go to the bottom of the pack and start over.

Knowing that, I was wondering why boy genius Kyle Dubas would have signed forward William Nylander to a six-year, $41.4-million deal on the weekend, a signing that got more coverage than the first moon landing. After all, Nylander is no better than the fourth or fifth best forward on his team and the Maple Leafs need another skilled forward like they need another cheerleader in the press box.

But time is short and another lockout is looming. Dubas has his eyes on the prize now, not later, because no one knows if there will be a later or what it might look like if and when it comes. The surest bet is there will be another lockout, that it will take down all or part of the 2019-2020 season and the NHL CBA may have a very different look when the deal is done.

Hence, Dubas is loading up where he’s strongest, signing forward after forward and betting he can simply outscore the rest of the field en route to Toronto’s first Stanley Cup since 1967 — and he might not be wrong.

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