The Blackhawks obtained a valuable bit of cost certainty in a very uncertain NHL salary-cap environment Thursday.
Second-year forward Oliver Moore signed a five-year contract extension carrying a $4.25 million cap hit, which kicks in next summer after the final year of his current entry-level contract.
“What we have here is so special,” Moore said. “I wish I could sign for 15 years.”
From the Hawks’ perspective, this represents a significant long-term commitment to a 21-year-old player with only 60 career games played, during which he has averaged less than 13 minutes of ice time per game and tallied a modest 23 points.
But those types of long-term commitments are becoming increasingly common around the league.
The Penguins signed 23-year-old forward Ville Koivunen, who has 14 points in 47 career games, to an eight-year contract with a $4 million cap hit earlier this summer, for example. And the Golden Knights signed 23-year-old forward Braeden Bowman, who has 26 points in 54 games, to a six-year contract with a $3.4 million cap hit earlier this month.
Moore’s cap hit comes in slightly above Koivunen’s and Bowman’s cap hits, but as a former first-round pick who’s two years younger than those two, there’s good reason to believe his upside is higher.
“He’s a puck hunter…[and] he’s got that kind of intensity away from the puck,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “I think he’s learning to have the calmness with the puck.”
Moore’s contract is arguably more comparable to the contract fellow Hawks forward Frank Nazar signed last summer, for six years with a roughly $6.6 million cap hit. Moore’s cap hit comes in $2.35 million below that.
Even if Moore plateaus as a third-line specialist — a speedster who makes a difference in the defensive and neutral zones but lacks a strong finishing touch — the contract should still turn out to be reasonable.
The standard prices for different types of role players, after all, have been completely re-framed by the skyrocketing cap.
“When you have a guy like him who competes so hard and works so hard and is obviously as fast as he is, that can be an extremely dangerous weapon,” Nazar said.
Nazar later interrupted Moore’s interview scrum by tossing some $100 bills on his head, prompting a round of laughter. The two of them do tend to be the epicenter of silliness and fun inside the locker room.
“We believe in what [Oliver is] going to continue to build as a player,” Blashill said, “but we also know he’s a huge part of our locker room. He probably gives [Connor Bedard] the most [crap], so that’s an important piece. He’s just got that in him.”
Somehow, Moore managed to keep his negotiations secret from the rest of the team until Thursday morning, which is impressive considering how much of a talker he usually is. Nazar described that as a testament to Moore’s humility.
“You just keep that stuff private,” Moore said.
Frank Nazar threw a bunch of $100 bills at Oliver Moore after his contract extension with Chicago 😂 #Blackhawks pic.twitter.com/P8btr1S8Cs
— Charlie Roumeliotis (@CRoumeliotis) September 24, 2026
Moore added he would like to get involved in community service around Chicago now that he can consider himself a permanent resident. He could pick up longtime defenseman Connor Murphy’s torch on that front.
“Going to the firefighter station, the police department, the hospitals here are unbelievable,” Moore said. “There are so many people around here that make this a safe and special city. I want to try to do stuff that way, for sure.”
Hawks general manager Kyle Davidson could explore long-term extensions for other pending 2027 restricted free agents, too, now that a trend has been established.
Forwards Ryan Greene and Landon Slaggert and defensemen Artyom Levshunov, Sam Rinzel and Wyatt Kaiser all fall in that bucket.