Crisis averted, Hawks' Tallon moves forward

Even after the grind of getting all his key restricted free agents signed, putting the issue of the grievance by the NHL Players Association behind him, Blackhawks general manager Dale Tallon still can't sit back and relax.

Finding that physical, stay-at-home defenseman to bolster the back end is something Tallon would like to make happen.

"We have lots of time to look at everything now and see what our needs are," Tallon said Wednesday. "We have tremendous depth up front and we're going to look and see what we can do to bolster the back end if we think we have to."

The Hawks have seven defensemen signed in Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Brian Campbell, Cam Barker, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Brent Sopel and Aaron Johnson. It's possible the Hawks could open the season with that group if a favorable trade doesn't materialize.

"Why not? They performed very well last year," Tallon said. "Hjalmarsson stepped up and really played well for us in the playoffs and we expect him to play more minutes this year.

"We have good speed on the back end and good mobility, but we're always looking to get better."

Getting that defenseman can only come via a trade now with the Hawks right up against the NHL's $56.8 million salary cap, according to Tallon, following the signings of restricted free agents Kris Versteeg and Barker.

The Hawks' payroll sits at approximately $55.4 million, not including either Antti Niemi's hit of $827,000 or Corey Crawford's $735,000 as the backup goalie.

Tallon stressed the Hawks are under the cap.

"We're in good shape," Tallon said. "We can play right now with this team, and that's with 23 players. We're basically going to carry 22 or 21."

The Hawks formally announced Versteeg's three-year, $9.25 million deal Wednesday - the exact same contract Barker got.

While Tallon admitted the team made a mistake getting qualifying contract offers to its restricted free agents on time, leading to the union's grievance, he claimed the goof did not mean Versteeg and Barker got more money than they would have had their not been a problem.

Versteeg and Barker signed their three-year, $9.25 million contract extensions after earning $984,000 and $490,000 last season, respectively.

"I think that we got them at fair market value," Tallon said. "When you compare the comparables, looking at the point production of Barker and Versteeg and all the other players, those numbers are right in line with what they possibly would have gotten in arbitration. We're happy to get them long term."

Versteeg had 22 goals and 53 points and was a Calder Trophy finalist. Barker had 40 points in 68 games.

Tallon didn't go into details about what exactly happened with the qualifying offers and why they were late.

"We were late filing this year," he said. "It's something we had not done in the past, but for a couple reasons we were a little bit late. We should have filed earlier. It was something we shouldn't have done. It won't happen again.

"We have great relationships with our players. The key is they all want to be Blackhawks. None of them wanted to leave."

Tallon accepted blame for the error.

"The buck stops here, so let's move forward," he said. "I can take the heat. The bottom line is these guys are signed and they're Blackhawks and we have a better team than we have had in the past."

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=305684">Tallon says Keith will get his reward<span class="date"> [7/9/09]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>