Rising salary cap would benefit Hawks

The Blackhawks’ off-season is about to become a little more manageable for GM Stan Bowman with the expected formal announcement next week of the NHL salary cap rising from its present $59.4 million to approximately $64 million.

That’s a significant bump for the Hawks and Bowman, who now would have about $9.7 million in cap space to work with this summer instead of $5.1 million.

The additional $4.6 million with a $64 million cap is potentially two players for Bowman to sign — either unrestricted free agents from another club or his own key restricted free agents.

It’s anyone’s guess what the Hawks have planned for restricted free agents Troy Brouwer, Michael Frolik, Chris Campoli, Jake Dowell and Viktor Stalberg with it unlikely all five will be offered new contracts before July 1.

The Hawks must certainly find a way to re-sign Frolik, whose solid two-way play was one of the highlights of the Hawks’ short playoff run.

For a team looking to get bigger and grittier, it’s hard to imagine Brouwer not getting a new contract as a player with size, the ability to score 20 or more goals and who was among the league leaders in hits in 2010-11.

Campoli would appear to be a keeper as well unless Bowman decides to use his depth on defense to formulate some sort of trade package for a physical second-line center or a top-nine winger with some sandpaper to his game.

Right now the Hawks have only 15 players under contract for next season, and that’s assuming you consider Marcus Kruger and Ben Smith to be locks to make the team.

As for the Hawks’ unrestricted free agents, center Ryan Johnson could be back depending on how much money he wants, but consider Tomas Kopecky, Marty Turco, Fernando Pisani and Jordan Hendry gone.

Rule 48 tweaked:The NHL Board of Governors on Tuesday approved a change in wording for its controversial Rule 48 dealing with hits to the head.

Removed from the rule book were the words #147;lateral#148; or #147;blind side#148; for such hits when the head is targeted and the principal point of contact.

What this means is hits such as the one Vancouver#146;s Raffi Torres delivered to Brent Seabrook#146;s head in the playoffs, leaving the Hawks defenseman with a concussion, are now be illegal and subject to a penalty and supplementary discipline.

Torres escaped punishment because the hit on Seabrook was considered to be #147;lateral#148; in what the NHL referred to as the #147;hitting zone#148; behind the net.

#147;The confusion some of the players have expressed as to what direction they#146;re approaching a player has all been taken out,#148; new chief of discipline Brendan Shanahan told NHL.com.

However, the league did leave itself some wiggle room in Tuesday#146;s change to Rule 48 by saying the circumstances of such hits, including whether the opponent put himself in a vulnerable position, can be considered.

Selke watch:The NHL awards will be given out tonight in Las Vegas with Jonathan Toews the only Hawks player a finalist in any category.

Toews is one of the three finalists for the Selke Trophy, which goes to the league#146;s top defensive forward. Vancouver#146;s Ryan Kesler and Detroit#146;s Pavel Datsyuk are the other two finalists with Kesler the heavy favorite win the award.

It#146;ll be interesting to see who wins the Hart Trophy as MVP, with Anaheim#146;s Corey Perry, Vancouver#146;s Daniel Sedin and Tampa Bay#146;s Martin St. Louis the three finalists.

I#146;m calling it for Perry.