Brent Seabrook signed a big contract over the weekend that assured he’d be part of the Blackhawks organization for years to come. But now the team has roughly $49 million committed to 12 players for next season.

So was the Seabrook contract one that the Blackhawks will regret over the years or one that secures the team’s future?

“First of all on Brent Seabrook, you talk about character people, someone I would want on my organization, representing my family or my team, he does it on the ice, he does it off the ice. I think it’s a very good contract, a very comparable contract when you look at other guys in the National Hockey League. He’s having a career year this year in assists and in points, he plays very hard.

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“It’s a similar situation to what they were in this past summer…The salary cap this year is $59 million. I think Stan [Bowman] did a wonderful job last year of riding himself of some bad contracts. He had to, he had no leverage because of some of the contracts that were in play. They had to be able to get down below the working number…At the end of the day, I think you have to be really careful, the salary cap is a hard cap. There’s no way around it and there’s only so much of the pie to go around. But the contract for Brent Seabrook, I’m glad he’s going to be around. Because I think I look at him, [Jonathan] Toews and [Duncan] Keith as really kind of the corner stone, the middle piece of that pyramid that you need, to continue to have this franchise move forward.”