Toews, Kane extensions 'highest priority' for Blackhawks

Chicago Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman gave his end-of-year presser Tuesday afternoon.

On the subject of getting contract extensions done for captain Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, who are slated to become unrestricted free agents next summer:

"Yeah, It's the highest priority for us looking at next year. There's no doubt that's what we're going to do. I've made it clear. We've never wavered from that. There's no doubting the important of those two players.

"At the beginning I talked about sort of the franchise in general and the direction we've taken and it's really been in tandem with those two players. When Patrick and Jonathan came onto the scene, it really sort of breathed life into the franchise and into our team. I think there was excitement and certainly the success of the team has helped reach the level that it's at now. But they've played a huge part in this.

"The negotiations, that's something - I'm not going to do that publicly, but we've got a great relationship with Pat Brisson. He's the best agent in the game. He understands. He's got a lot of high profile clients. He gets deals done. I'm excited to work with him and get that worked out."

On if he has any doubt at all Toews and Kane want to be in Chicago and if this will be a problem at all:

"No, I mean, I don't want to speak for them, but I know in my conversations it's been always very positive. They've loved the experience here. The one thing I know about both of them is they want to win. I mean, bottom line - you take all the other things, set them aside - they're winners. They want to win. We're committed to winning. We're going to do everything we can, year after year, to be a team that has a chance to win."