The firing of Dale Tallon surprised me, but the story continues as it appears his firing may have been in the works for awhile. Darren Dreger of TSN put out a good piece today outlining some more info, as well as comments from former Blackhawk, Martin Havlat.
Is Havlat just venting about the Blackhawks because he wasn’t re-signed? It may sound like it, but I don’t believe he is.
Here are a couple good quotes from Havlat:
“My negotiation with Chicago was not between Dale and my agent, it was between Dale and McDonough,” Havlat said “Why? Because McDonough couldn’t stand that Dale was so successful and getting the credit for building the Hawks from a last place team to making the Conference Final in three short years. Remember, we were also the youngest team in the NHL last year.”
“I was too closely identified with Dale,” he continued. “McDonough knew long ago he was going to fire Dale. He wanted someone he could claim as his own He wanted to stand up at the convention and claim credit for signing this guy or that guy.”