Rumor : Superstar defenseman, forward soon out of Chicago to fit under the cap?

Managing the salary cap is one of the toughest job for a GM. Obviously, you tend to recruit the best players available, but these guys need to get paid. Agents of hockey players know the drill very well and will milk every dollar possible out of a team's salary cap for their clients. It leaves a lot of problems behind. 

According to Blackhawk's insider Mark Lazerus, this could be the reason to move huge pieces of the lineup out of the team. 

Granted, these are only rumors and speculations, but to be honest it makes a ton of sense. These guys are highly paid and obviously deserve it, but you can't make magic tricks with numbers. It either fits or it doesn't and you have to make your move accordingly. 

Now the interesting question would be to ask what the Hawks could get in return. Hossa is at the end of his career but still produces nicely and Hjalmarsson shows a lot of skills and will be around for a while. A pretty exciting summer is under way in Chicago!