Because of the rebuild, I'm pushing out my contention timeline 2-3 years. If you told me that the Hawks would contend next year, I'm okay with keeping the most of the core.
However, my premise is that it will at least take until 2020 for the Hawks to contend. Maybe even 2021. Who will be viable at that time? It will be Toews, Saad, Cat, Strome. Perlini, Kahun, Kane, Kampf, Joker, Forsling, Hayden, Fortin, and Sikura.
Unfortunately, in 2-3 years, I'm pretty sure Seabrook, Keith, Crow, and Anisimov will not be worth their cap hit ... if not sooner. I guess Crow can be up for debate. That's what makes them expendable.
As for Murphy, Gus, Saad, Sikura, Hayden, Perlini, Fortin ... the jury is still out.
I'm trying to match our contention timeline to our contracts / performance / age.