Nearly a decade after its inception, the reality of a hard salary cap once again rears its ugly head to make Chicago Blackhawks fans come crashing back down from our collective Stanley Cup Championship high. It was a nice couple of weeks while it lasted.
We all knew in our hearts that we would have to say goodbye to several players, even as we struggled to accept this fact of life. And we all had at least some faint idea as to which guys would most likely continue their careers with a different team, just as we were quite certain which guys would remain in Chicago to help defend the title next year.