By: David Kay
Dale Tallon blamed the United States mail system. Since the Blackhawks can’t fire the post office, they instead have reportedly given Tallon the boot as general manager.
In a recent interview with the Chicago Tribune, Tallon was quoted as saying he “can take the heat” for the mistake he made by not notifying the Hawks’ restricted free agents that the team would be offering them qualifying offers before the league deadline. Instead, eight players including key contributors like defenseman Cam Barker and right winger Kris Versteeg did not receive the offers, and the Hawks had to rush in re-signing them before they were possibly ruled unrestricted free agents, meaning other teams would have been able to sign them.
That boneheaded goof forced Chicago to re-sign Barker and Versteeg to three year, $9.25 million deals, paying them market value rather than saving some cap space and bringing them back for the minimal restricted free agent amount. The organization suffered major embarrassment due to this error and now Tallon is truly feeling the heat.
Barker and Versteeg’s contracts combined with the recent, massive 12-year, $62.8 million deal the Blackhawks gave Marian Hossa earlier this off-season, now limits what Chicago can do with their young talent like Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Patrick Sharp, and Duncan Keith when it’s time to re-sign them to long-term deals. It also reduces any flexibility the Hawks have in making a trade deadline-type acquisition during the season.
While the Blackhawks have struck gold in recent years through the draft, Tallon has been criticized for some costly mistakes involving free agency. He grossly overpaid for defenseman Brian Campbell last off-season and also signed goalie Cristobal Huet to a four-year, $22.5 million deal when Chicago already had Nikolai Khabibulin on the books for around seven-million dollars last season. (Although the Huet signing doesn’t look terrible now that Khabi signed with Edmonton earlier this month.)
But let the conspiracy theory begin… Was Tallon really fired because of these blunders or does the reason run deeper?
Tallon was a Bill Wirtz guy, hired as GM in 2005 after previously serving as the team’s assistant GM and director of player personnel. It is being reported that current assistant general manager Stan Bowman, the son of legendary NHL head coach Scotty Bowman, will replace Tallon. With that being said, it is not crazy to think that this move was made coming off the heels of Tallon’s mess-up as a way to give more control to Bowman, a John McDonough/Rocky Wirtz guy, without admitting that they just wanted to hand the keys over to their guy, Bowman.
Am I just stirring the pot? Maybe, but don’t forget the Hawks fired head coach Dennis Savard just four games into the 2008-2009 season, the day after the team just picked up a win. Plus, Bill Wirtz’s body was barely cold when his son decided to put all Hawks’ home games on TV in Chicago, something his father stubbornly refused to do when he was in charge of the team.
I am sure the younger Wirtz and McDonough will site Tallon’s free agency gaffes with the latest restricted free agents fiasco as the straw that broke Tallon’s back. Can you really believe that when the team Tallon put together just ended a revived season of Chicago hockey in the Western Conference Finals? With the sticky salary cap situation the Blackhawks will face in the up-coming seasons, maybe you can… or maybe you’re convinced that Lee Harvey Oswald didn’t act alone in assassinating JFK. Conspiracists, spin your web…