Tallon Fired & Blackhawks Convention

The Blackhawks fired General Manager Dale Tallon on Tuesday. On Wednesday, I received my passes to the Chicago Blackhawks Convention. What do these two things have to do with each other? Nothing and everything. Read on and learn.

As most of you know by now, Dale Tallon was removed from his position as GM and reassigned to be the team's "Senior Advisor of Hockey Operations". Assistant GM Stan Bowman was promoted to GM. Stan is the son of Scotty Bowman, who also works for the Blackhawks in an advisory position.

This seems to be a strange move for the Blackhawks. Tallon was well-liked by the players, and actually did build a team that made it to the Conference Finals. The players' respect for Tallon was so great that in December, they made a detour on their road trip, sacrificing several days off to instead attend his father's funeral.

Sure, as a GM Tallon made his share of bad moves. He signed and overpaid Adrian Aucion. He signed and overpaid--and gave a no-movement clause--to Brian Campbell: $7 million a season for eight seasons. He signed Christobal Huet, who ended up being a $5 million per year backup goalie behind Nikolai Khabibulin last season.

Tallon made good moves too that usually canceled out the bad ones. He drafted Jonathan Toews and Cam Barker. He traded forgettable players and got guys like Martin Havlat, Patrick Sharp and Kris Versteeg in return.

And then there was the whole Marian Hossa signing, which counts both as a good thing and a bad thing.

But Tallon made a crucial mistake. Apparently, the Blackhawks were too late in tendering qualifying offers to eight restricted free agents by the deadline date of June 30. That technically makes them unrestricted free agents, according to a grievance filed by the NHLPA. The 'Hawks signed all of the players in question, but it is believed that they had to overpay to keep them.

Tallon took responsibility for the fact that these offer sheets were not sent out on time. And that, according to Team President John McDonnough, was the main reason Tallon was removed from his job.

Changing the subject...last week Wednesday (July 8), I called the Blackhawks and asked if my Blackhawks Convention passes were mailed. They claimed that the passes were sent out on July 3, and that I should have them any day now. A week later, I call the team again on July 14, and their agent informs me that the passes were mailed out on July 10, and again I should get them any day now.

Finally, on July 15, I received my Convention passes, which were mailed out via UPS Next Day Air on July 14. So obviously, the passes were not sent out on the 3rd or the 10th.

The point is--in my ramblings on Tallon and the Convention--that mailing things out late seems to be a problem with the entire Blackhawks organization, not just with their GM. Yeah, the RFA thing was a bit more important, but sending out passes--that I paid for in March--three days before the convention seems a bit haphazard, wouldn't you say?

But speaking of the Blackhawks Convention, look for my report about it here on Puck Junk. Hopefully, I'll be able to get some scans of the stuff I get autographed--along with some video--in a timely manner. Not sure if I'll do updates over the weekend, or if I'll just do one big update on Monday...but yeah, stay tuned.

Finally, along with my three passes, here's a fake form letter from Blackhawks team captain, Jonathan Toews, thanking me for purchasing three (3) convention passes. Enjoy.