Hawks Ink Franchise Player Tavares to Long Term Deal, Make first Major Trade of Off-Season.

The Hawks began what will likely be a very busy offseason by signing newly acquired franchise cornerstone John Tavares to a long term deal. The deal is reportedly a 4-year pact worth 9.25 million per season, making him the highest paid player on the team.

"John is among the very best players in our league, and we are very excited to have him on board long term. We are undergoing a transition with regard to our core, and he will be at the forefront of it along with Victor Hedman, Seth Jones, Brad Marchand, Brayden Point and many others. We believe we are close to developing the right mix to bring us back to championship glory" said GM Todd Semonick at a presser this afternoon.

In addition to the big news of the Tavares signing, the team also began the restructuring of the roster sending Chris Kreider to Detroit in exchange for a pair of high end prospects in Rasmus Asplund, and Joey Anderson. "We would have loved to keep Chris, and he was a very solid player for us during his tenure here, sadly in a cap era tough decisions need to be made and this was one of them, We wish him all the best in Detroit and believe we yielded a solid return in Asplund and Anderson." remarked the Hawks GM.

It is believed he will not be the last cap casualty, the Hawks have been fairly open in their desire to return defenceman Ryan Suter, which leads to speculation the team may be ready to move on from veteran Duncan Keith. Even Jeff Carter, another career hawk has seen his name in rumours. The team is also busy working to re sign other key RFA's Mark Stone, Seth Jones and Jayden Schwartz. As per usual management is also beginning preparation for the entry draft and are actively trying to acquire additional picks in the upcoming draft.