FanHouse Dale Tallon

The renaissance of the Chicago Blackhawks is well-chronicled. After not making the Western Conference Finals once since 1995, Chicago got to the NHL's final four in 2008. A five-game series loss to Detroit ended their magical run, but the pieces are in place for the Blackhawks to again be a perennial contender in the NHL.

One of those key pieces is forward Patrick Kane. After posting over 140 points in his first two NHL seasons, the dynamic youngster graces the cover of EA Sports' NHL 10. Kane spoke with FanHouse about the game, the Blackhawks, and what was a tumultuous summer.

There have been some huge stories during the NHL offseason. Many of them have involved the Chicago Blackhawks.

With that in mind, FanHouse recently caught up with Comcast SportsNet Chicago analyst Ed Olczyk -- perhaps better known for his work as a main analyst for Versus and NBC -- to get his take on all the changes happening in the Windy City. Olczyk was born in Illinois, played part of his career for the Blackhawks, and still has some very strong feelings about the team, not to mention the state of affairs in the NHL.

The last 36 or so hours have been quite interesting for the Chicago Blackhawks. It started early Tuesday, when word got out that general manager Dale Tallon was fired (he was actually re-assigned) and replaced with assistant GM Stan Bowman.

When former Blackhawk star Martin Havlat got word, he used Twitter to express his frustration with Tallon's removal. He then spoke (thus avoiding that darn 140-character limit) to TSN's Darren Dreger. When he did that, he chucked Blackhawks president John McDonough under the bus. McDonough got his chance to respond Wednesday.

Martin Havlat may play for the Minnesota Wild now, but there is obviously some acrimony over his departure from Chicago.

Twice during the two weeks since Havlat signed with Minnesota, he has used his Twitter page to drop some interesting hints about why he is no longer with the Blackhawks. Tuesday's re-assignment of general manager Dale Tallon led to the latest Twitter outburst. Now, Havlat feels it really is time to move on, and he let it all out during an interview with TSN's Darren Dreger.

The four scheduled meetings between the Minnesota Wild and Chicago Blackhawks in 2009-2010 just got quite a bit more interesting.

It wasn't enough that former Blackhawk Martin Havlat appeared to rip the organization on his Twitter page after Chicago chose to sign Marian Hossa and let Havlat go to Minnesota as a free agent. Now, Havlat is taking aim at the firing re-assignment of general manager Dale Tallon.

Dale Tallon made a tremendous blunder this offseason when the qualifying offers for Cam Barker, Kris Versteeg and the team's other restricted free agents didn't get sent out in time. Tallon admitted it was his responsibility, admitted he screwed up, and in the end, worked out contract extensions with the key players (Barker, Versteeg), assuring that they wouldn't hit the open market as unrestricted free agents, free to sign with the highest bidder with no compensation coming back to Chicago.

In the end, it appears that blunder cost him his job, as reports out of Chicago early Tuesday morning indicated that Tallon was removed from his position, and replaced by Stan Bowman.

The Minnesota Wild had quite the busy day in free agency on Wednesday, signing shot-blocker Greg Zanon from the Nashville Predators, and swapping one oft-injured, yet supremely talented forward (Marian Gaborik) for another oft-injured, yet supremely talented forward (Martin Havlat). There was also a report from Michael Russo of the Star Tribune that the team was working on a deal with Saku Koivu.

Havlat, 28, signed a six-year, $30 million deal in Minnesota late Wednesday night, and followed it up by voicing his displeasure with the negotiating process in Chicago ... via Twitter.

It's not exactly a national secret that hockey teams tend to go through coaching changes about as often as a high school kid goes through a change of clothes (speaking on personal experience, that's about once per year). As we begin the conference finals, it's probably worth pointing out that three of the four teams taking part -- the Pittsburgh Penguins, Carolina Hurricanes and Chicago Blackhawks -- experienced a change behind the bench during the regular season.

Late yesterday afternoon Kevin Schultz passed along the story of how the Chicago Blackhawks gave up an off day to travel to the funeral of the father of team general manager Dale Tallon over Thanksgiving weekend. Recently, the Blackhawks took a video camera back into the locker room to talk to the team about the experience.

Apparently, Blackhawks' GM Dale Tallon woke up this morning and swore to himself that he wouldn't go to bed tonight without a salary cap situation on his hands. After inking Cristobal Huet to a $5 million cap hit earlier today, he went ahead and picked up the most sought after defenseman on the market today by inking Brian Campbell. Campbell didn't come cheaply though, as it's going to take an eight-year deal worth a whopping $7.1 million per season to get him into black and red next year.

Campbell's a great pickup for the 'Hawks and he's a great offensive player and point man, but $7.1 million a year for a guy that's a bit of a defensive liability is a real indication of just how wild the market is running today. Plus, Campbell's already 29, so he'll be 37 at the end of this deal. The Blackhawks are getting a great player, but they're getting him at a high cost.

The other thing worth noting is that Chicago is now over the cap after the additions of Huet and Campbell. They're going to have to dump someone soon, and best bets are probably Nikolai Khabibulin. I don't know who's going to want a goalie with Khabibulin's price tag that plays like he has recently, but if Tallon can convince people that Havlat is healthy, he might make a nice consolation prize to whoever loses the Marian Hossa derby.