Blackhawks veterans 'have had enough' after latest moves

The Chicago Blackhawks haven't found much success since winning the Stanley Cup in 2015, and it appears the team's veteran core of Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook is getting fed up.

According to The Athletic's Mark Lazerus, Chicago's veteran core is "p--sed" with their early offseason transactions and they've "had enough." Toews also told Lazerus that the club's offseason moves don't align with his desire to win:

"Bottom line is, I want to win. The expectation for the other leaders on this team and myself is to come ready to training camp every year to be a playoff team. We prepare ourselves to win a Cup for our fans.

"I've never been told that we were going through a rebuild. That has never been communicated to me, for that matter. A lot of this comes as a shock because it's a completely different direction than we expected."

The comments come after the Blackhawks let longtime goaltender Corey Crawford walk in free agency. Chicago also traded Brandon Saad to the Colorado Avalanche and failed to extend qualifying offers to Drake Caggiula and Slater Koekkoek.

Each of the decisions made by Blackhawks management made the team weaker on paper. While they made the playoffs for the first time since 2017 this past season, they were ousted from the first round by the Vegas Golden Knights in five games. 

If the Blackhawks wants any shot at making the playoffs this coming season, they'll have to make some more additions to please the veteran core. However, it'll be difficult to do that with just $8.4 million in cap space.