June 22: Brodie has cleared unconditional waivers and will have the final season of his contract bought out, Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic confirms. There are no new pending buyouts today.
June 21: The Blackhawks have placed Brodie on unconditional waivers for buyout purposes, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. In doing so, they’ll be able to buy out the final year of his contract on Sunday, assuming he’s not claimed.
June 18: The Blackhawks will likely buy out defenseman T.J. Brodie when the first window opens later this week, reports Ben Pope of the Chicago Sun-Times. The vast majority of his $3.225MM total compensation for next season was via a $2.45MM signing bonus, which is unaffected by a buyout.
He’ll only see a reduction in his base salary from $775K to $517K, which will be paid out over two years, and he will become an unrestricted free agent. Brodie will still count $3.23MM against the cap for Chicago in 2025-26, savings of $517K on his original $3.75MM cap hit, but will only incur a $258K penalty in 2026-27 before coming off the Hawks’ books.
Brodie, 35, signed a two-year, $7.5MM contract with Chicago in free agency last summer. The $3.75MM cap hit was an understandable expense given his long track record of success as an excellent two-way option in the top four for the Flames and Maple Leafs, but a multi-year commitment raised some eyebrows. Brodie was aging, coming off an underwhelming performance in Toronto in 2023-24 that meant the team had no trouble letting him hit the market, and there were questions about how his declining speed would hold up on a much thinner Blackhawks blue line.
The fears of the deal were realized as Brodie’s 2024-25 season was his worst as an NHLer. He only posted a 2-8–10 scoring line in 54 games, and his defensive impacts declined further following a sharp dropoff with the Leafs the year prior.
While Chicago initially signed him as a support piece for their emerging young defensemen, he was entirely removed from the lineup in March. He didn’t log a single appearance for the club after the trade deadline, serving as a healthy scratch for the final 22 games of the season. That was even after the club traded top righty Seth Jones to the Panthers, and the left-shot Brodie had spent most of the year in a familiar spot on his offside, where he’s spent most of his career.
As it stands, the Blackhawks enter the offseason with established NHLers Alex Vlasic and Connor Murphy set to be joined by a complement of high-end prospects to round out their top six on defense, including Nolan Allan, Kevin Korchinski, Artyom Levshunov, and Sam Rinzel. Levshunov, Murphy, and Rinzel are all righties, giving the Hawks an even three/three split on handedness.
That also doesn’t include potential roster players Louis Crevier and Wyatt Kaiser, both of whom are pending RFAs needing new deals. There simply isn’t a spot for Brodie on next year’s roster, at least not one that involves significant playing time. Instead, they’ll allow him to pursue other opportunities on a new, cheaper deal instead of being saddled with the burden of an overpriced contract and likely ending up in the minors.
Another deal that won’t go down in Davidson’s scrapbook. I thought it was a God Awful move at the time and said so. It was a real head scratcher as he is obviously toast. I doubt he finds another sucker.
Thank goodness
I’m not exactly sure why the Hawks are turning a bad 2 year deal into a worse 3 year deal to save 500 grand but again here we are. Just bite the bullet and eat the 3.75 million and be done with it. Wow
Maybe they are more interested in filling the roster spot with a better player?????
Insert surprised pikachu face
But seriously hawks should just keep on tanking this year to get McKenna
So what does that have to do with anything? Cutting him and eating the salary and it being spread over 2 years to save 500 grand, Either way it opens up a roster spot so as usual what exactly is your point that doesn’t make any sense at all? Were you dropped on your head or something as a child?
relax mikey and put down the red bull
You can disagree with someone without insulting them. It isn’t that hard.
So his comment towards me wasn’t insulting? Gimme a break.
Maybe they are showing the vet some respect and giving him the chance to sign with a team that could use him (if any actually exist) instead of wasting his time by burying him in the minors or in the press box?
You’re insulted by a Pikachu face?
The reply was meant for the moon unit who commented on the roster spot if you can read. Somebody inserted a text in between.
You really are thin skinned, huh?
He really is uncle Mike be out here with the victim mentality as he attacks others
You are a victim Mikey! Just like the fat protester that burns down an Arby’s that “got him fat”!
It is called “displaced anger”.
anyone surprised by this? lol
The economics of this are mystifying at best. OK they’re letting Brodie go. Everybody gets that. He’s toast. He’s going to cost 3.2 million against the cap this year anyway so why bother with a buyout? Just cut him and pay him when nobody claims him( Because nobody will) And move on. Why drag it out? I must be missing something on this whole buyout thing because this makes no sense to me. Look the Hawks should only be in on a limited number of players and after this, Donato and Burakovsky They should still have over 20 million to spend or trade for. And they really shouldn’t be looking for a bunch of signings. They should just go for the big ticket guy, Draft smart and hope the kids make a step up. This is weird. Signing him was weird but this is taking it to a whole new level.