Chicago Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman said that he will start negotiating with his restricted free agents once the NHL draft is over on Saturday.
Michael Frolik, Chris Campoli and Troy Brouwer are eligible for restricted free agency and Bowman said that the organization has already decided what RFA's they want to talk to. "We're certainly going to approach the off-season with that optimism and excitement that we can bring in some new players," Bowman said. "Once we find out where we're at and get our RFAs signed, we'll know exactly where we're at." The salary cap is expected to be $64 million in 2011-12 and that will give the Blackhawks a lot of flexibility, especially compared to the 2010 off-season where they were forced to trade three regulars to Atlanta and Kris Versteeg to Toronto in order to get under the cap. Stay tuned.