As it is with all of the Original Six teams (Boston, Chicago, Detroit, NY Rangers, Toronto, Montreal), the Chicago Blackhawks have a very rich history. They have been in existence since 1926 and have had their share of Hall of Fame players (Bobby Hull, Tony Esposito, Glenn Hall, Denis Savard and Stan Mikita to name a few) and modern day stars in their primes (Jeremy Roenick, Chris Chelios, Ed Belfour, Steve Larmer and Tony Amonte). They have won three Stanley Cups, appeared in ten Cup Finals, and have won their division 14 times. But the past dozen years have not been as fruitful. The ?Hawks have only made the playoffs twice since 1997 (2002 and 2009) when their 28-year streak of consecutive playoff appearances ended, and have not won a division title since 1993. From 1997-98 to 2006-07 Chicago only had one season in which they had more wins than losses. Most teams that have a string of playoff-free seasons manage to rebuild themselves through the draft over the course of those losing years. That wasn?t the case in Chicago; they missed on all 10 of their first round picks from 1995 to 2002: 1995 ? Dmitri Nabokov, 19th overall: 55 career NHL games. 1997 ? Daniel Cleary, 13th overall: a perpetual underachiever in Chicago, he was never productive until finding a home in Detroit the past few seasons. 1997 ? Ty Jones, 16th overall: 14 career NHL games. 1998 ? Mark Bell, 8th overall: 445 career games, 182 points. 1999 ? Steve McCarthy, 23rd overall: 302 career games, 55 points/168 penalty minutes. 2000 ? Mikhail Yakubov, 10th overall: 53 career NHL games 2000 ? Pavel Vorobiev, 11th overall: 57 career NHL games 2001 ? Tuomo Ruutu, 9th overall: currently a solid role player in Carolina, but didn?t reach the 50-point mark until last season 2001 ? Adam Munro, 29th overall: 17 career NHL games 2002 ? Anton Babchuk, 21st overall: played only 22 games for Chicago until 2006. The obvious mistakes are netting zero value out of four 1st round picks in 2000 and 2001. Some players they missed out on in 2000: Anton Volchenkov, Alexander Frolov, Brad Boyes, Niklas Kronwall, Ilya Bryzgalov (2nd round), Paul Martin, Lubomir Visnovsky (4th round) and Henrik Lundqvist (7th round). There was also a healthy list of players they missed out on in 2001: Ales Hemsky, Derek Roy, Mike Cammalleri (mid-2nd), Craig Anderson (3rd round), Christian Ehrhoff (4th round), Ryan Clowe and Marek Zidlicky (both in the 6th round). Following the lockout in 2004-05, assistant general manager Dale Tallon was promoted and given the task of leading the franchise back to its winning ways. The previous regime finally hit home runs on a couple of picks, drafting Brent Seabrook (14th in 2003) and Cam Barker (3rd in 2004), leaving him with some building blocks on the back-end. He then used the 3rd pick in 2006 on now-captain Jonathan Toews and the 1st pick in 2007 on Patrick Kane to give Chicago two of the most talented young forwards in the league. Free agency became a big deal in Chicago as well, which was new for a franchise so accustomed to a cheap owner (affectionately referred to as the late-?Dollar Bill? Wirtz). Tallon signed Cup-winning goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin and Adrian Aucoin in 2005, but to no avail. He made up for it by acquiring Patrick Sharp from Philadelphia and then Martin Havlat and Kris Versteeg (who would become a Calder Trophy finalist last season) a year later. Prior to last year, Tallon also landed the most sought-after defenseman on the market in Brian Campbell, and goaltender Cristobal Huet in free agency. That same offseason, Tallon turned former 1st round pick Ruutu into Andrew Ladd. Thus, Tallon was directly responsible for all six of the team?s top forwards entering last season. The result: 104 points, second in their division, and a trip to the Western Conference Finals. Tallon was demoted following the season due to a free agency ordeal (including signing Marion Hossa to a 12-year/$63million contract) and Stan Bowman, son of legendary Scotty Bowman, was named general manager. With Versteeg already re-signed, Bowman wasted no time in signing the marquee duo of Toews and Kane to 5-year extensions, and defensive stalwart Duncan Keith to a 13-year deal. Now, the ?Hawks are one of the most feared teams in the league. They have all but clinched their division already, and are tied for first in the Western Conference. Six of their players played key roles on Olympic teams, including three on the gold medal Canadian squad (Toews, Keith and Seabrook), and one on silver medal USA (Kane). Their +57 goal differential is tops in the West, and they give up the fewest shots and fewest goals in the NHL while taking the most shots per game themselves. Their captain (Toews) and their top scorer (Kane) are each 21-years-old; their assistant captains are 28 (Sharp) and 26 (Keith) respectively; in fact, only six of their 23 roster players are 30 or older, and only two of those are signed to long term deals (Campbell is 30, Hossa is 31). Oh, and they just happened to chase gold medal goalie Roberto Luongo from the game in trouncing Vancouver Friday night. Needless to say, they?re pretty good. However, the question league-wide is whether or not this fantastic team can be kept together. In a salary cap world, it becomes increasingly difficult to continually field a high caliber team. Look at the Detroit Red Wings, who despite their impressive run of championship-caliber teams, are barely a playoff team this season because they don?t have the available cap room to add talent during free agency or at the trade deadline. Note: cap numbers and salary are usually different figures; a player?s cap number is the average of his contract per season. For example: when Jason Blake signed a 5-year/$20million contract, he was making roughly $4.6million per year for the first three years, and $3million per year for the final two. However his cap hit for all 5 years was $4million based on the average. The current NHL salary cap is $56.8 million, and Chicago?s current cap number is $61.5 million ? above the cap but within the 10% overage they are permitted. Next year?s salary cap is unannounced, but their cap number already sits at over $57million with nine open roster spots. They have two key players set to become free agents (Ladd, and defenseman Kim Johnsson who they acquired for Cam Barker) along with a surprisingly good backup goalie in Antti Niemi. They have already have over $46million in committed cap for the 2011-12 season, with Seabrook and Dustin Byfuglien being key members that will have expiring deals next year. Hockey fans league-wide, not just in Chicago, should be excited that at the very least, they have Toews, Kane, Keith, Hossa, Sharp, Versteeg, Campbell, Huet, and Dave Bolland signed for the next three seasons. With hockey continuing to be more competitive and exciting each year, the possibility of a mini-dynasty in Chicago is equally as exciting to think about. Hopefully management doesn?t revert back to their woeful ways of the late 90?s and early 2000?s, and can keep this legendary franchise at or near the top of the standings for the years to come. Nick can be reached at nickobergan@hotmail.com or on twitter at @nickobergan