The Chicago Blackhawks have handed one-year contracts to forwards Max Domi, Andreas Athanasiou ($3M each) and goaltender Alex Stalock ($750,000). And a two-year deal at $1.2M AAV for winger Colin Blackwell.

The Blackhawks get: boom-or-bust, risk/reward forwards with tremendous upside and tremendous downside. Both Domi and Athanasiou get criticized for not always showing up. They disappear for long stretches. But in the right setting, both players can really flourish.

Blackwell is a hardworking player who is still fighting for respect in this league at 29 years of age. If he can stay healthy, he will be the surprise of these three. Hard work will shine through and he brings the most.

In Alex Stalock they get one of the most underrated goaltenders out there. Stalock signed a "show me" deal because he believes in himself. He saw an opportunity to be a full-time starter and if he can prove that he is that – then he'll cash in big time next year.

All of these players make for great trade assets come the deadline, and Chicago is banking on big years from one, two, three or all four of them so they can convert them into draft picks and prospects.

Fantasy Players Impacted: Stalock becomes a starting goalie. But for a team that is quite obviously tanking. Still, for dynasty leagues Stalock is worth an add because if he proves himself then he can parlay this into a nice future career that pays dividends of three or four future seasons.

Domi, Blackwell and Athanasiou become top-sixers. But there are a lot of moving parts here. Will both Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews remain with this team? Will one go? Both? Obviously their presence in the lineup would mean another 10 or 15 points for Domi or Athanasiou. Without them, will any Blackhawk get 50 points? The three of them will push Taylor Raddysh down the depth chart a little and probably knock some PP time off of Tyler Johnson's total. This could also buy prospect Lukas Reichel more time to develop in the AHL, which is a good thing for his long-term outlook. Mike Hardman is another player who will get pushed down the depth chart a bit.

But this situation is ideal for all four players who were signed today, because the bottom line is that none of these four would get more ice time with any other team.

Here is the Player Usage Chart for those three, with former Chicago players in there as points of reference. Athanasiou clearly struggles unless he gets sheltered minutes the way Domi did: