from the CP at TSN,
"It's a puzzle to put together and try to make all the numbers work," Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman said Saturday. "That's clearly the biggest factor you're faced with when you have salary cap being what it is. You're going to have some tough decisions. We're not the only team that's in that position. There will be other teams that face the same things."
Without naming names, Bowman was describing the plight of the Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers, along with his Blackhawks, who almost certainly have to make sacrifices just to be cap-compliant. In the Bruins' case, it might mean saying goodbye to Jarome Iginla, a 61-point player and a major piece of their Presidents' Trophy-winning season....
Enter the likes of the Flames, Edmonton Oilers and Buffalo Sabres, teams with salary-cap space to take on salary. Oilers GM Craig MacTavish knows players won't be given away, but talent should be available.
"We're in a pretty enviable position to be able to take on some of those contracts," MacTavish said Friday night. "Those are really the style of deals that we've looked to make over the last little while where we give up a few assets, take the contract and the cap space, so we'll be trying to do some of that."
That was part of what went into the Flames trading for Bollig, who just signed a contract extension in March. When the cap was set at $69 million, it was at least $1 million, if not more, less than GMs were hoping for.
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