NHL fans and in particular those in Chicago and Toronto should keep an eye on the Blackhawks and Maple Leafs as there could be some changes coming to their respective rosters albeit for vastly different reasons. 

The Blackhawks are believed poised to announce the re-signings of forwards Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews along with defenseman Duncan Keith but owing to a rule in the NHL collective bargaining agreement (CBA) they might have to dump some salary first. 

Kane, Toews and Keith are eligible for restricted free agent status (RFA) in July so in order to prevent rival teams from trying to sign them away via offer sheets the Blackhawks have reportedly negotiated new long-term contracts for the three, which would take effect in 2010-11. 

The problem however is that the rumored combined salaries of those new deals would push the Blackhawks payroll for next season to over $60 million committed to 16 players. 

That violates what's known in the CBA as the "tagging rule", which in a nutshell means a team cannot commit more to next season's payroll than this season's current cap limit, which is $56.8 million. 

To make the re-signings of Kane, Toews and Keith official the Blackhawks will have to dump around $4 million in salary either via trade or demotions to get under $56.8 million. 

As for the Maple Leafs, reports out of Toronto claim GM Brian Burke has run out of patience with his struggling roster, which finds itself mired dead last in the league's overall standings following Thursday's 6-5 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. 

Burke admitted he's considering some trade options and wasn't ruling out the possibility of demoting some players on one-way NHL contracts to the minors. 

He didn't single anyone out but it's believed Jason Blake, Mikhail Grabovski, Nikolai Kulemin, Garnet Exelby and Luke Schenn could be among the potential candidates for demotion. 

Don't expect Burke to find many takers for most of those aforementioned via trade and while Schenn is struggling big time in his sophomore season the Leafs GM isn't going to shop him, preferring instead to send down to the minors in hopes it'll help the 19-year-old blueliner regain his confidence.