Blackhawks GM preparing to turn the page on the past.

»I don't know if it's necessarily putting the past behind us... It's more clearing the deck to some extent to allow the organic growth for young players into leadership roles and offer this new era of Blackhawks players the same opportunity that Toews, (Patrick) Kane, [Duncan] Keith, [Brent] Seabrook were all offered when they came into the league.»

When there's a player like Jonathan or Patrick in your locker room, you defer to them. You just let them handle the leadership and there's not a lot of development opportunity there. So now we believe that it was beneficial for this next group to allow leaders to emerge, and form that relationship with Luke [Richardson], form that relationship with myself. In the locker room, be the voice rather than deferring to someone who's been here for so long. It gives them an opportunity to step up and be the new leadership group of the franchise.

"It's just one of those things that, in the situation we're in, these tough decisions have to be made. And this is just another one of those. I get the potential disappointment because they're legends. They've done so much for the city, so much for the organization and brought so much success that's only natural. But we've got to do what we think is best for the growth of the team and this was something that we thought was best for them."