It is rumor season, so one has to try to cut through the falsehoods when it comes to some of the stuff that’s out there ahead of the trade deadline.

And it’s not just media; there’s gossip shared among scouts and team executives around the league - some of it tends to take on a life of its own.

One such rumor that has made the rounds is that the Chicago Blackhawks need to move a key player in order to be better suited for next season's salary cap, which may not be as high as originally hoped.

The names of Patrick Sharp and Bryan Bickell were thrown around in that context.

I’m here to tell you that I don’t believe Hawks general manager Stan Bowman would move either player before the March 2 trade deadline, nor any of his core guys. I think the plan remains the same in Chicago: a quiet deadline, other than perhaps adding a depth experienced defenseman -- like a Scott Hannan-type. I think the Blackhawks have five or six names on their radar as far as depth defensemen and Hannan is one of them.

But in terms of anything bigger than that, if would take a significant injury to a key player, one that would put the Blackhawks in LTI position and suddenly give them cap room to shop for help. Otherwise, I don’t see Chicago doing much else.

Yes, the Blackhawks may have salary-cap issues ahead of next season, depending on what the number is, but they can deal with that this summer. And they’ll certainly not be alone if the cap doesn’t go up much. There are at least a half-dozen teams that will be in the same position.