Tallon Replaced as Hawks GM by Stan Bowman--UPDATED

TFP has confirmed that
the Chicago Blackhawks fired general manager Dale Tallon late Monday
and an official announcement will be made on Tuesday.

TFP Columnist and Comcast
Chicago anchor Josh Mora has also confirmed that Stan Bowman, the
club's assistant GM, will be taking over as GM.

So 'Hawk fans what's your take on this? Do you really think this is the best move for the org. or it had to be ...?

The Senators fired Muckler a few days after the team was ousted from the Stanley Cup Finals. Doesn't really surprise me anymore when stuff like this happens. I think there was a difference of opinion between Tallon and the guy(s) who sign the cheques in terms of what direction the team needed to take, and I guess they felt it was time for them to move on.

PKC wrote:The Senators fired Muckler a few days after the team was ousted from the Stanley Cup Finals. Doesn't really surprise me anymore when stuff like this happens. I think there was a difference of opinion between Tallon and the guy(s) who sign the cheques in terms of what direction the team needed to take, and I guess they felt it was time for them to move on.

I think they figured out how to work their calculators and realized that the team is going to risk losing one of Toews, Kane, or Keith in the next calender year if they don't get their Dung together and start managing their cap better.

To that end, you make Mr. Tallon back away from the chequebook, nice and slowly, and with his hands in the air...

What's there cap at right now, aren't they over 3 million. Looks like they going to try to deal Campbell - Huet away before next year.

shield4life wrote:What's there cap at right now, aren't they over 3 million. Looks like they going to try to deal Campbell - Huet away before next year.

That would be the best move they make. Either, or both. Campbell should be the easier sell, although as we're seeing with Heatley, it's not exactly easy to move these big monster contracts.

My thoughts are pretty much spelled out on the other thread on the subject...

John McDonough runs the team for Rocky Wirtz. He has wanted 'his guys' in place for some time.

Therefore, Dale Tallon is out, Stan Bowman is in.

From ESPN this morning:

REPORT: HAWKS FIRE GM TALLON
ESPN.COM News Services/2:29 ET, July 14 2009

Despite helping assemble a team that went to the conference finals, Dale Tallon is out as Blackhawks general manager, Comcast Sportsnet in Chicago reported late Monday night.

Stan Bowman, the son of legendary coach Scotty Bowman, will reportedly take over as general manager.

Tallon had trouble recently when the team didn't mail out qualifying offers in time to a number of free agents, including rookie of the year candidate Kris Versteeg.

All of the players ultimately signed with the team but not before the players association filed a grievance.

Though the incident was embarrassing for the team, it may have had little to do with Tallon's firing. He was a holdover from the regime before the Blackhawks named former Cubs executive John McDonough president of the club.

Tallon was named general manager of the Blackhawks in 2005. He is responsible for drafting young talent like Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews and acquiring Patrick Sharp and Versteeg. He also signed high-profile free agents Brian Campbell, Nikolai Khabibulin and Cristobal Huet.

The Blackhawks went from 65 points in Tallon's first season to 104 last year when the Hawks eventually lost to the Red Wings in the conference finals.

Stan Bowman has been an assistant general manager with the Hawks for almost a decade. He has been primarily responsible for contract negotiations, collective bargaining agreement issues and free agency.

I was saying a while back that Campbell would have to be moved, and that they wouldn't really miss him. While his presence certainly has helped the development of his replacements the term was just too long. He may be hard to move but they don't really have a choice.

As for Huet, even assuming someone would want to trade for him, who would you put in goal? They've got Niemi and several possible future backups (according to the HockeysFuture profiles). They are probably stuck with Huet.

wprager wrote:I was saying a while back that Campbell would have to be moved, and that they wouldn't really miss him. While his presence certainly has helped the development of his replacements the term was just too long. He may be hard to move but they don't really have a choice.

As for Huet, even assuming someone would want to trade for him, who would you put in goal? They've got Niemi and several possible future backups (according to the HockeysFuture profiles). They are probably stuck with Huet.

CHI has some good goaltending coming up the pipeline, for sure. Crawford, who is NHL ready, is projecting to be a #1 goalie. And Niemi could well surprise. Give those two some playing time this year, see how they do, move from there.

Crawford is rated as 7.0 C. The 7.0 means a "journeyman #1", and C means "may reach potential, could drop to ratings". A drop to 5 would be "depth goalie".

By the way, Tallon has been moved to a senior advisor position. Not fired, technically.

wprager wrote:Crawford is rated as 7.0 C. The 7.0 means a "journeyman #1", and C means "may reach potential, could drop to ratings". A drop to 5 would be "depth goalie".

Not sure where you're taking that from. By all accounts, tho', Crawford is CHI's goalie of the future.

rooneypoo wrote:
Not sure where you're taking that from.

Hockey'sFuture.com.

rooneypoo wrote:By all accounts, tho', Crawford is CHI's goalie of the future.

And Elliott was ours, until we dealt away a slick center with great face off skills for #1 with injury history.

wprager wrote:

rooneypoo wrote:
Not sure where you're taking that from.

Hockey'sFuture.com.

rooneypoo wrote:By all accounts, tho', Crawford is CHI's goalie of the future.

And Elliott was ours, until we dealt away a slick center with great face off skills for #1 with injury history.

Elliott is still heir to the throne, tho'. If Leclaire faulters or gets injured, Elliott is the go-to guy moving forward. In fact, if Leclaire is anything other than a good, dependable, healthy goalie in the next two seasons, he won't get extended after 2010-11. It's only a 2-year contract, after all.

Anyway, lots of organizational momentum behind Crawford. He was the guy who got the call to back up Huet after Khabby went down in the playoffs this year. There is a reason why some guys succeed where others don't: how much faith the organization has in you as a player. The Bobby Ryans and Jack Johnsons of the hockey world have a lot more lives than most other prospects.

Here's the NHL's story based on official information from the Chicago Blackhawks.

BOWMAN REPLACES TALLON AS CHICAGO GM
Dan Rosen, NHL.com, July 14, 2009

From the time he was named general manager of the Blackhawks in the summer of 2005, Dale Tallon had worked tirelessly to put together a young and talented core of players that are supposed to bring the Stanley Cup back to Chicago.

Now it will be up to his former assistant to see it through.

The Hawks announced Tuesday that Tallon has been reassigned to Senior Advisor, Hockey Operations and replaced in the GM's chair by Stan Bowman, the son of legendary coach Scotty Bowman and an assistant GM for the past two seasons.

Stan Bowman, who has a finance background, has been with the Blackhawks for the last eight seasons. He spent four as the special assistant to the GM, two as director of hockey operations and the last two as an assistant GM.

Scotty Bowman remains on the Hawks' payroll, also as Senior Advisor, Hockey Operations.

"I would say that any time you make a change there is not a right time to make any of these decisions," Blackhawks President John McDonough said. "We now are about six weeks out from the end of the season, and we take a look at every single aspect of our business operation. Some of the areas that I think we need to improve on are the decision-making areas. How decisions are made, who is involved, timetables that are involved, just the process. I think we will improve that."

Tallon has been with the organization for more than 30 years. On Tuesday McDonough praised him for his role in helping reshape the Hawks into a Stanley Cup contender.

However, Tallon recently came under fire for sending qualifying offers late to eight restricted free agents. McDonough said that had that snafu not happened, Tallon likely still would be the GM.

"Probably not," McDonough said when he was asked if Tallon would have been reassigned had the offers had gone out in time. He said he was not thinking about reassigning Tallon prior to July 1.

Tallon insisted the offers were sent out prior to the June 30 deadline, but the eight RFAs -- Cam Barker, Kris Versteeg, Corey Crawford, Ben Eager, Colin Fraser, Troy Brouwer, Aaron Johnson and Bryan Bickell -- received them after the deadline. They were mailed, but the Blackhawks had a two-week window to send out the offers.

The NHL Players Association filed a grievance, but the Hawks signed all eight players to new contracts. Barker and Versteeg, a Calder Trophy finalist, received three-year deals reportedly worth roughly $9 million; Tallon said both were "fair-market value" deals, though both were far more than the players made in 2008-09.

Tallon initially took the blame for the tardiness of the qualifying offers, but on Tuesday McDonough threw himself on the sword, saying that as president of the organization, ultimately the mistake lies with him.

Nevertheless, he believes the Blackhawks' front-office staff needs to do a better job of communicating.

"I just think we should be better at doing our business," McDonough said. "This should be something that should have been solved. Ultimately that's my mistake. I believe that the timeframe on this is June 15 to June 30, and I believe we could have done a better job."

While saying the mistake of sending the qualifying offers out too late played a role in his decision to re-assign Tallon and promote Bowman, McDonough threw cold water on the idea that he and Tallon had a frigid relationship.

Tallon was the lone front-office staffer from the regime of late owner Bill Wirtz to have the same job.

"People have been talking the last year about some friction between Dale and I, and I would say there have been some style differences," McDonough said. "I might be characterized as aggressive, assertive and at the same time calculated. Dale's (style) was every bit (as) effective, but just a different approach. Ultimately the president of the organization is accountable and I need information.

"I think that within a period of time, Dale and I worked very, very effectively together. There were certainly times I would have liked to see smoother and better communications."

McDonough and Bowman insisted Tallon still is very much in the front-office picture. He had his contract, which would have expired at the end of the 2009-10 season, extended another two years.

Bowman said he will use Tallon as a guide and mentor. McDonough said Tallon is needed to make the transition go smoothly.

Tallon, who was not present at the news conference, said in a statement released by the team that "although my position has changed, my goals have not. In my new role as Senior Advisor, Hockey Operations, I will continue in any way that will help make this a better product on the ice. I've seen Stan come up through our ranks and I'm confident he is the right person to step in. This is what is best for the Chicago Blackhawks."

Bowman's job won't be easy. While Tallon put together the roster, Bowman will be tasked with trying to keep the Blackhawks' young core together in a salary-cap world.

With hefty contracts already doled out to Marian Hossa, Brian Campbell, Cristobal Huet and Patrick Sharp, plus the prospect of the salary cap going down next summer, there are serious questions as to how the Hawks will be able to keep everyone they want to keep.

Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith will be due new contracts after the 2009-10 season. Brent Seabrook and Dustin Byfuglien are up for new deals after 2010-11.

"A lot is going to happen between now and then," Bowman said. "We don't know what the salary cap is going to be and what our team makeup will be a year from now. There are a number of variables, so it's hard to speculate. Our desire through all this is to keep our core together. We want to build an elite franchise here by building with our core players."

Contact Dan Rosen at drosen@nhl.com

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The two video clips of the press conference announcing Stan Bowman's appointment as GM by John McDonough can be seen here:
http://blackhawks.nhl.tv/team/console.jsp?catid=690&id=44958
http://blackhawks.nhl.tv/team/console.jsp?catid=690&id=44966