The Blackhawks have money, needs and a strong desire to get back to the postseason.

So why aren’t they likely to be a big player in free agency when it begins Monday? Here are five reasons to help explain:

1. They already took care of their top priority: The biggest question heading into the offseason was how general manager Stan Bowman would retool the defense, the main reason the Hawks allowed the second-most goals in the league last season.

Bowman addressed that need in June by acquiring a pair of smart, stay-at-home defensemen in Olli Maatta and Calvin de Haan who are both adept at blocking shots. While they’re not top-pairing guys, they’re veterans who can kill penalties and be relied upon for 18 to 20 minutes a night.

The top three free-agent defensemen — Erik Karlsson, Jake Gardiner and Tyler Myers — are far superior, but Karlsson re-signed with the Sharks and Gardiner and Myers are likely to receive annual salaries around what Maatta and de Haan are getting combined.

Will two slightly above-average defensemen be as good an option as going after one top-pairing guy? The answer should have a big impact on how next season turns out.

2. Alex DeBrincat and Dylan Strome are getting raises after next season: As much as Bowman has focused on the upcoming season, he can’t take his eye off 2020-21, when DeBrincat and Strome will be restricted free agents and require enormous raises.

DeBrincat should wind up in a different salary stratosphere than Strome, who has had only one strong partial season after having a hard time establishing himself with the Coyotes. Still, Strome was nearly a point-per-game player during his 58 games with the Hawks, and as a second-line center who gets a lot of power-play time, his numbers should stay strong.

But DeBrincat is the more indispensable of the two.

After scoring 28 goals as a rookie, he came back with an eye-popping 41 goals last season, and with his incredible release and ice awareness, he should be in that range throughout his career.

The pair will go from taking up just under $2 million in salary-cap space to around $12 million to $14 million after next season.

That’s a huge chunk that would be somewhat offset if the Hawks don’t re-sign Corey Crawford ($6 million cap hit) or trade Artem Anisimov ($4.55 million), but Bowman has no intention of putting himself in a position where he has to sell off valuable assets at a discount to make room for core players.

3. Bottom-six players don’t get big deals: The only forward Bowman added during free agency last year was Chris Kunitz, who was 39 when the season began and at the end of an excellent career when he received a one-year, $1 million contract. This year Bowman is shopping in a different marketplace, as he put it recently, but not by much.

The Hawks would welcome and could use top free-agent forwards Artemi Panarin, Matt Duchene and Anders Lee, but they are seeking long-term deals and have many suitors. A far more likely option would be Chicago-area native Ryan Dzingel, who scored 26 goals last year with the Senators and Blue Jackets and wouldn’t be as pricey as the top-tier free agents.

Maatta and de Haan ate up $8.5 million in cap space, leaving Bowman with around $6 million to play with after factoring in Sunday’s trade for Andrew Shaw and an expected raise for restricted free agent Brendan Perlini. It’s unclear now if David Kampf will return to the Hawks. If Anisimov is traded this week, that would clear up more space, but that money isn’t likely to be used this offseason.

4. Bowman prefers the trade market: Bowman hasn’t been shy about saying the Hawks need some new players. That wasn’t going out on a limb; every team makes changes, and the Hawks clearly needed upgrades to have a shot at ending their two-year postseason drought.

Free agency has a clearly defined pool of players that’s much smaller than the trade market. Bowman can target whom he wants through trades while already knowing their salary situations.

More important, he knows the cap situation of the teams he’s dealing with. He acquired de Haan for Anton Forsberg and Gustav Forsling mainly because the Hurricanes wanted to rid themselves of de Haan’s salary.

Free agency is more like the Wild West with dozens of players trying to get as much as they can for as many years as they can.

“Not a lot of free agents take one-year contracts,” Bowman said.

“So that’s the thing — if you’re going to sign a free agent, you’ve got to look at what’s going to be the implication two years down the road. So from that perspective, trades might be more appealing to us than adding a top free agent.”

5. The Hawks aren’t a destination team right now: In past seasons, Joe Pavelski might have viewed the Hawks as a perfect place to chase the Stanley Cup that eluded him during 13 seasons with the Sharks.

But Pavelski turns 35 next week and is running out of time. As a free agent for the first time in his career, he’ll choose from teams he believes will have a chance at the Cup in the next few seasons. The Hawks no longer offer that guarantee.

That’s unfortunate because Pavelski, who scored 38 goals last season, is a perfect fit for the Hawks. The Sharks captain the last four seasons is a great leader who would instinctively know how to blend in with a team led by Jonathan Toews, Brent Seabrook, Duncan Keith and Patrick Kane.