Blackhawks appoint new General Manager

After some tough years out of the playoff picture, the Blackhawks finally bounced back with a Western Conference fourth place finish in 2008-09. Subsequently, they went on to the defeat the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks to reach the Western Conference finals for the first time since 1995. However, they were not able to beat the Red Wings and were eliminated five games. Nonetheless, the season can be considered a success and a significant step forward for the franchise.

Thus, it might seem odd that the Chicago Blackhawk decided to replace their GM Dale Tallon when his efforts to rebuild the franchise finally yielded results. More specifically, former assistant GM Stan Bowman will take over Tallon’s duties immediately while the latter will stay in the organization as Senior Advisor. The reason behind firing Tallon is rumored to be his inability to send out qualifying offers to Chicago’s restricted free agents before the deadline on the 30^th of June. In fact, the Blackhawks failed to extend the contracts of eight restricted free agents which turned out to be a costly mistake. Re-signing the said players for roughly the same amount of money that they received before would have been desirable, but things did not work out as planned. Instead, they became unrestricted free agents on the 1^st of July, therefore the Hawks had to pay significantly more to re-acquire their services.

Especially, the re-signing of Cam Barker and Kris Versteeg on the free agency market turned out to be fairly expensive. Both players already accepted a 3-year deal, estimated to be around $9 million each. Obviously, Tallon’s mistake was inexcusable and ultimately led to him being replaced by Stan Bowman, the son of the famous NHL coach Scotty Bowman. However, given the aforementioned circumstances he will face the tough challenge of keeping the young core of the team together without exceeding the salary cap.

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