Chicago fires GM Tallon

[ilmickeyli 40]

Would all the "Dale Tallon is a genius" posters, please make yourself visible again. We have some crow for you to eat.

I don't think even the hawks fans remaining on the board considered him genius.. From what I remember, most of them questioned his moves this offseason.

[xtrememachine1 795]

I don't think even the hawks fans remaining on the board considered him genius.. From what I remember, most of them questioned his moves this offseason.

I got into it with at least one Hawks fan and one Wings fan telling me that "Tallon isn't stupid. He has a plan. The Hawks will be fine... etc etc etc". I wonder if getting his butt fired was part of that plan.

[StevieY9802 6]

I don't think even the hawks fans remaining on the board considered him genius.. From what I remember, most of them questioned his moves this offseason.

What Hawks fans comments were you reading? They kept saying how great he was and thought they were great moves. I don't remember one Hawks fan questioning the signings. And then I remember a few Wings fans thinking he was better than Holland because ya know Holland didn't have cap space the Hawks did....

[Guest mindfly]

On TSN too

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=284670

[VM1138 1,921]

Seems kind of strange for him to be fired, unless I'm missing something. Was he fired just over his crazy signings this summer?

[StevieY9802 6]

Seems kind of strange for him to be fired, unless I'm missing something. Was he fired just over his crazy signings this summer?

Just listened to XM radio and it sounds like there was a lot of disagreements in the front office. Rumors he didn't want Hossa and wanted to keep Havlat. Obviously he gets crap over the Campbell and Huet signings but they were big splash signings which teams like that often do. Just look down the road at the Tigers in 03 and 04 with Pudge and Maglio, granted those worked but time will tell if Huet will or not, I think Campbell flopped. I still think it's a raw deal. he drafted a lot of these guys and was a big reason for this team. He'll land on his feet.

[cusimano_brothers 1,655]

Put a tent over that circus.

[deetroit dario 27]

I have no idea what the hell is going on with the Hawks.

is that some cryptic way of saying "i work in their front office"?

[Decoy Jones 0]

I wasn't aware this was going to be a surprise. Scotty went to Chicago to help his son. I think there was a thread on this a year ago. Scotty goes to Chicago and figures out a way to force Tallon out and get his son the GM. Not to say his son won't do a fine job. It just seems like some are acting like no one saw this coming.

[cusimano_brothers 1,655]

From Chicago Tribune :

After what he deemed "a hectic week," general manager Dale Tallon took responsibility for a paperwork foul-up that put the Blackhawks in a bad light and could have cost them a number of key players.

Sounds like he fell on his sword.

Asked why the offers were received late, Tallon responded, "I'm not a mailman, so I don't know. There were a lot of things that could have gone on. We should have filed earlier. We didn't, but the good news is we got everybody signed and we're moving forward."

Playing the "blame game".

1961. â„¢

[Guest micah]

That's important to remember - Scotty is shrewd and kind of a dick. A lot of succesful people are that way.

Tallon will be okay. I doubt very much that his carreer is over. I don't think that Chicago is in that bad a situation either. I suspect they'll have a pretty good year. This year they watch and learn who clicks with eho, next year they have a firesale with the guys who didn't work out. They'll be alright.

[Snazzy 0]

Epic meltdown in chicago-land. Sad season in Chi-town if you're a hawk fan. I love it!

[stevkrause 1,247]

Summary of the 6 texts I got this morning from my Hawks friends . . .

I very rarely use the abbreviation "lol" because it's usually not true, I'm usually not "laughing out loud" but rather just smiling and rather chuckling to myself... but that graffic just actually made me audibly laugh

to you good sir - :beerbuddy:

[gcom007 1,465]

I've got to say, I'm more scared of Bowman's than Tallon. Bowman's with even more power now? I don't know what they'll do or if they'll go in different directions or try to remedy things they thought that might've gone wrong, but I have little doubt that what they do will be, at least mostly right. Nobody's perfect, but Bowman's not far removed even if his son is the "official" front man.

I figured Tallon would keep making this team stronger, but Bowman will most assuredly make this team stronger by the time the playoffs role around. They will be a great challenger this year. Don't doubt it. Enjoy the ride. Competition is a good thing.

[Snazzy 0]

Does this mean Yzerman is headed for Chicago (e5)?

[Snazzy 0]

I've got to say, I'm more scared of Bowman's than Tallon. Bowman's with even more power now? I don't know what they'll do or if they'll go in different directions or try to remedy things they thought that might've gone wrong, but I have little doubt that what they do will be, at least mostly right. Nobody's perfect, but Bowman's not far removed even if his son is the "official" front man.

I figured Tallon would keep making this team stronger, but Bowman will most assuredly make this team stronger by the time the playoffs role around. They will be a great challenger this year. Don't doubt it. Enjoy the ride. Competition is a good thing.

I couldn't disagree more. Chicago will continue to be duds no matter who the GM is. The problem in Chicago wasn't Tallon, it is John McDonough.... that prick wants his nitty paws on everything and it is hurting the team. Tallon did a good job finding young talent and seemed to have a good eye on scouting, and seemed to have a good plan for their future... which could have worked out nicely if McDonough didn't f*** everything up. Chicago just got worse today. I'm sure Tallon will find a job rather quickly, and I'm sure if he goes to a weak team that is in dyer need of finding talent, Tallon will be the man to turn their club around. Blackhawks will continue on being a club with issues as long as their is "too many chiefs and not enough indians" (no pun intended). Not to toot my own horn, but I am usually right (pun intended)

Edited July 14, 2009 by Snazzy

[wingslionstigers 12]

Nice job rewarding Tallon for all the good he's done for the Hawks. I guess this is what you get when you bring a team from last to the conference finals in Chicago? lollerskates.

Anybody can do that with 30 years worth of top 5 picks..

This guy completely put this team in ruins. This team has so many players signed for ridicules amounts of money. Next year they are completely screwed.

[Snazzy 0]

/blank

Edited July 14, 2009 by Snazzy

[gcom007 1,465]

I couldn't disagree more. Chicago will continue to be duds no matter who is the GM. The problem in Chicago wasn't Tallon, it's John McDonough.... that prick wants his nitty paws in everything and it is hurting the team. Tallon did a good job finding young talent and seemed to have a good eye on scouting. Chicago just got worse today. I'm sure Tallon will find a job rather quickly, and I'm sure if he goes to a weak team that is in dyer need of finding talent, Tallon will be the man to turn their club around. Blackhawks will continue on being a club with issues as long as their is "too many chiefs and not enough indians" (no pun intended). Not to toot my own horn, but I am usually right (pun intended)

Duds, eh? They made it to the final 4 last year. I can think of a lot of other teams that would've liked to be there. Are you really this illogical or do you just post like this for fun?

[Drake_Marcus 890]

Would all the "Dale Tallon is a genius" posters, please make yourself visible again. We have some crow for you to eat.

Ok. So the year is 2005 and the Blackhawks are the laughing stock of the league. They forget what the playoffs feel like and are struggling to get asses in the seats. Chicago could care less about the team. That summer Dale Tallon is promoted to the GM position. The next season the team does horrible and gets themselves the 3rd overall pick. Dale and his team choose Jonathan Toews and manage to make some other good choices. Next season the team is still weak as hell and tanks, ending up with a 1st overall selection in the '07 draft. Tallon and his team choose some kid names Kane. September rolls along and the team's idiotic owner passes away. Now the door is open to finally get the team on TV again. Cool. Kane and Toews have amazing rookie seasons- Tallon looks pretty smart. The rest of the team's young talent starts to filter up through the minors and looks very promising. The people in Chicago start buying tickets to Hawks games again. Things are looking up. In the off-season Tallon adds some more talent to the team and makes some moves. The next season the Hawks make it all the way to the Conference finals. All their games are sell-outs now. Under Tallon's eye the Hawks have gone from the league's laughing stock to a legitimate contender in only 4 seasons.

I'm not saying he's a genius, but the description above doesn't make him sound like a bad GM. From what I've read the bad offer sheets weren't his doing. He's not perfect, but given how far the Hawks have come since he took over this is an undeserved shot in the nuts for him.

[Drake_Marcus 890]

They researched Kopecky.

Post of the day.

[RedFX 48]

I don't know what confuses me more: this move, or the fact that Eklund was right about something

Edited July 14, 2009 by RedFX

[gcom007 1,465]

Ok. So the year is 2005 and the Blackhawks are the laughing stock of the league. They forget what the playoffs feel like and are struggling to get asses in the seats. Chicago could care less about the team. That summer Dale Tallon is promoted to the GM position. The next season the team does horrible and gets themselves the 3rd overall pick. Dale and his team choose Jonathan Toews and manage to make some other good choices. Next season the team is still weak as hell and tanks, ending up with a 1st overall selection in the '07 draft. Tallon and his team choose some kid names Kane. September rolls along and the team's idiotic owner passes away. Now the door is open to finally get the team on TV again. Cool. Kane and Toews have amazing rookie seasons- Tallon looks pretty smart. The rest of the team's young talent starts to filter up through the minors and looks very promising. The people in Chicago start buying tickets to Hawks games again. Things are looking up. In the off-season Tallon adds some more talent to the team and makes some moves. The next season the Hawks make it all the way to the Conference finals. All their games are sell-outs now. Under Tallon's eye the Hawks have gone from the league's laughing stock to a legitimate contender in only 4 seasons.

I'm not saying he's a genius, but the description above doesn't make him sound like a bad GM. From what I've read the bad offer sheets weren't his doing. He's not perfect, but given how far the Hawks have come since he took over this is an undeserved shot in the nuts for him.

Absolutely. Way too many homers posting drivel about Chicago lately. I'm a Wings fan first and foremost and always will be, but I can still recognize and admire when other teams are doing things right. Chicago is a team that has done a lot of right things and while their situation looks rather shady now, I don't doubt that they'll find some reasonable way out of it. They'll make compromises next year just like everyone else who's a contender has been doing lately. It happens when there's a cap. But they'll still be strong after however they look.

I said it in the WCF and I'll say it again now: I expect Chicago to win a Cup sometime in the next 5 years.

[gcom007 1,465]

I don't know what confuses me more: this move, or the fact that Eklund was right about something

HA!

[StevieY9802 6]

Anybody can do that with 30 years worth of top 5 picks..

This guy completely put this team in ruins. This team has so many players signed for ridicules amounts of money. Next year they are completely screwed.

He did it well though with those picks. You can't say that about everybody. Picked Toews over Kessel which has worked out nicely for them and even better picked Kane when he was getting pressure to pick Turris or James Van Riemsdyk. As pointed out by John Jaeckel in a blog he wrote for hockeybuzz, John also points out the trades Tallon worked well: dealing Matt Ellison, Brandon Bochenski, Michal Barinka and Mark Bell for Patrick Sharp, Kris Versteeg and Martin Havlat. While I agree he signed some guys to bad deals, really the bad ones were last summer when they were grasping at getting guys to come there and making the big splash. There were too many egos in that front office. Tallon took the fall for that. I'm sure Scotty helped push him out too as people have said Scotty can be a dick.