LAS VEGAS -- Eight days after being crowned the best, Jonathan Toews said the Chicago Blackhawks are prepared for the worst.

Toews knows the salary cap, which will be $71.4 million for the 2015-16 season, is expected to play a role in dismantling some of the pieces to Chicago's Stanley Cup championship team. It's a reality that he expects will hit him and his teammates, the ones who stay and the ones who go, hard soon, perhaps as early as this week.

"We're all pretty realistic about what might happen," Toews said Tuesday from the MGM Grand Garden Arena, where the NHL Awards will take place Wednesday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN, TVA Sports).

Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said Friday that he knows the other 29 NHL teams noticed defenseman Dougie Hamilton's breakout 2014-15 season.

Paired with Bruins captain Zdeno Chara for most of the season, Hamilton had career-bests of 10 goals and 42 points while averaging 21:20 of ice time.

Now those same teams will be watching the Bruins to see if they can sign Hamilton to a new contract before July 1, when he would become a restricted free agent.

OTTAWA -- Ottawa Senators coach Dave Cameron already is working on having his team pick up where it left off this season.

Cameron, 56, went 32-15-8 after replacing Paul MacLean as coach in December. On Thursday, he signed a two-year contract that runs through the 2016-17 season.

The Senators were the story of the final two months of the 2014-15 regular season; they went 23-4-4 down the stretch and overcame a 14-point deficit to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It was the largest such margin in NHL history. They lost in six games to the Montreal Canadiens in the Eastern Conference First Round.

Cameron had the Senators play a more aggressive forechecking system, and he gave some young players a bigger role.

Young players often can regress after a quick start to their careers and Cameron is mindful of that. He said to prevent any backsliding, there's been an emphasis placed on summer conditioning.

BUFFALO -- Buffalo Sabres forward Cody Hodgson could have the final four years of his contract bought out, general manager Tim Murray said Thursday.

The period to buy out contracts began Wednesday and is open until June 30.

"Status is still the same with Cody," Murray said. "We've discussed it with Cody based on the year he's had. And saying that, we've been in contact with his agent. And as I've said before, he's in Sweden. He's trying to improve himself and improve his game and improve his, I guess, fitness. I'm not sure how much fitness came into it, but skating and all that. We're following that and we're getting updates. Again, it's an option based on the League."

OTTAWA -- Ottawa Senators general manager Bryan Murray is trying to trade a goaltender and perhaps clear some room under the NHL salary cap. The Senators have Craig Anderson, Robin Lehner and late-season hero Andrew Hammond under contract for next season.

In a marketplace where there are other teams trying to move goaltenders, it looks like Murray will have his work cut out for him.

"I think what's happening at the moment is teams are going team-to-team and kind of seeing what the price is to get a goaltender," Murray said. "All I've said to each one of them is, 'If you want the best one, you better call Ottawa because we have the best guy to trade.' I sincerely believe that.

"We certainly are open for business and we do have a few moves we'd like to make, an upgrade or two on the team if we could, and obviously moving a couple of contracts would have to be a part of that deal."

ST. LOUIS -- For the first time since being selected by the St. Louis Blues in the first round of the 1999 NHL Draft, defenseman Barret Jackman faces the prospect of playing for someone else in 2015-16.

Jackman, 34, will become an unrestricted free agent after being informed by the Blues that they will not re-sign him before free agency begins on July 1.

Jackman was the 17th player drafted in 1999. He spent his entire NHL career with St. Louis and is the city's longest-tenured professional athlete. But with the Blues having failed to advance past the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the third year in a row, changes were expected; with the emergence of younger defensemen, Jackman will have to explore other options after completing a three-year, $9.5 million contract.

"I think I saw it coming," Jackman said Friday. "They really like the way [Petteri] Lindbohm has played, and [Robert] Bortuzzo has earned a spot too. So I knew I'd be on the outside looking in."

WILMINGTON, Mass. -- It's one thing to declare one's devotion to a team and it's another thing to back up those words.

Boston Bruins coach Claude Julien chose to prove his commitment to Boston by waiting out the organization twice -- when the Bruins searched for a general manager and when new GM Don Sweeney took time to evaluate the entire operation -- and it paid off.

Sweeney and the Bruins reciprocated Julien's dedication by announcing last week the coach and his entire staff would be retained to start the 2015-16 season. The Bruins fired GM Peter Chiarelli, who hired Julien in 2007, on April 15 and promoted Sweeney from assistant GM on May 20.

Julien, in his first public comments since the Bruins' front-office shakeup, said Wednesday he was hopeful throughout his wait he'd be given a chance to get the Bruins back on the right track. Julien signed an extension last fall that will start with the upcoming season.

"I said right from the get go when I met with [upper management], I understand the business, you have to allow the GM time to assess and make decisions and he's got to feel comfortable too," Julien said. "So as much as it wasn't a lot of fun or easy, it wasn't frustration. It was more about understanding the situation. I understood it. I spoke with Don quite a few times and we talked about different things. So it wasn't just about one situation, which is the coach, it was about the whole situation of coaches, trainers, everything else. We went through the whole scenario of what was important for him to know. And he had to make some decisions."

They have won the Stanley Cup twice and the Calder Cup twice. Two of them are switching teams, two were out of work, two are being promoted from the minor leagues, and one is arriving from college.

They range in age from 40 to 52. One has 1,094 games of NHL experience; one has 602; and three have zero.

There will be seven new coaches in the NHL next season after the Detroit Red Wings filled the final vacancy when they hired Jeff Blashill on Tuesday.

NHL.com recaps the coaches who have been hired since the end of the regular season, in chronological order:

Nicklas Lidstrom's final season in the NHL was Jeff Blashill's first.

It was 2011-12, and Blashill started the season as a 37-year-old first-time NHL assistant coach to Mike Babcock tasked with working with the Detroit Red Wings forwards. Blashill finished it as a 38-year-old ready to coach his own team in the American Hockey League.

"He did have some ideas on the power play and looking at different things we can work at, but he came in kind of on the learning curve as well, trying to get familiarized with the team and the NHL, what it's like to be part of the NHL," said Lidstrom, the former Red Wings captain.

"It was a good learning experience for him to get that one year in before being in charge at Grand Rapids."

Blashill on Tuesday became Babcock's successor as coach of the Red Wings.

OTTAWA -- As a teenager from the Ottawa Valley town of Shawville, west of Canada's capital and across the Ottawa River in Quebec, Bryan Murray would travel into the city to play hockey.

Murray, 15 at the time, played for the Shawville Pontiacs in a Senior A hockey league, competing against and playing with men 20 years older. They played at the Auditorium when they visited Ottawa, a building long gone.

Almost 57 years later and a few blocks away from where the Auditorium used to stand, Murray will be inducted into the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame on Friday.

"Obviously, very proud of that," said the 72-year-old Ottawa Senators general manager, who will be honored for his career in hockey, which includes 34 years in the NHL as a coach and manager.

"I'm a Valley boy from Shawville. Coming to Ottawa was a big event. We didn't come that often. We were the country bumpkins, I guess, at that point, but when we came we usually beat them in hockey."