The Third Man In - An Independent Chicago Blackhawks Web Site

TTMI has learned the Blackhawks have planned a news conference for 2pm on Thursday to formerly announce contract extensions for upcoming restricted free agents Duncan Keith, Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane.

Since leaking the information to select news media back on November 17th, new contracts for Toews and Kane are expected to extend 5 years in length, while Keith's is rumored to be 13 years, which would theoretically make Keith a Blackhawk for the remainder of his career.

Keeping with team policy, the Blackhawks will not announce figures for the new contracts, but we should have those soon after the league processes the requisite documents.

UPDATE:  TSN's Darren Dreger is reporting Toews and Kane's new contracts will be worth a total of $31.5M each.  Keith's new 13-year deal comes in at $71.5M.  So, under terms of the current collective bargaining agreement, Toews and Kane will bring a salary cap hit of $6.3M a piece beginning next season while Keith's hit will be $5.5M.  Under the current CBA.

Keith's deal is obviously the largest in team history, both in length and dollars.  He'll also become the team's single-season highest paid player very shortly.  Stan Mikita - Bobby Hull - Duncan Keith.

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