from Scott Cullen of TSN,

The Chicago Blackhawks won their third Stanley Cup in the past six seasons, downing the Tampa Bay Lightning in a six-game final series.

Off-Season Game Plan examines what should be an interesting summer in the Windy City, where they can't possibly keep their core together and remain under the salary cap.

Franchise cornerstones Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane have contract extensions that kick in next season and those deals come with a $10.5-million salary cap hit, putting a lot of pressure on GM Stan Bowman to fit in the rest of the pieces while remaining under the salary cap.

The Blackhawks, already pushing against the cap, need to leave enough flexibility in order to get a deal done with rising star left winger Brandon Saad, a restricted free agent. It's not known exactly where the cap will fall - estimates have hovered around $71-million, with the optimistic assumption that the NHLPA would use the 5% accelerator allowed by the CBA - but Chicago is going to need to clear out some salary; the question is, how much?

Patrick Sharp seems like the most obvious big-ticket item to move, but he could be the first of several if the cap doesn't end up as high as hoped.

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