New Hawks bosses still busy repairing years of damage
John McDonough has tackled many subjects since taking over as president of the Blackhawks, but none of his words have been as on-target as those he used the other day at the United Center when talking about chairman Rocky Wirtz.
"Rocky has been tremendous since Day 1," said McDonough. "The one thing that he and I talked about was we needed to get out of the grudge business. We needed to get out of the grudge business with everybody, former players, media, anything. Those days are over."
These are definitely your new Hawks with Wirtz and McDonough continuing to do the right things, their latest correction taking place Monday with the formal announcement that Pat Foley was returning as TV play-by-play man.
The popular Foley was axed two years ago because of differences with the old regime. Call it a grudge if you must.
Late owner Bill Wirtz and former senior vice president Bob Pulford held a lot of grudges, and those deeds went hand in hand with the Hawks bottoming out as an organization, which Rocky Wirtz and McDonough recognized and quickly set about fixing.
Bill Wirtz and Pulford had no use for the media, treating it as the enemy and then wondering why there was so little coverage of the team. They never understood the important of television, ignored the fans, especially kids, and chased away legends such as Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita and Tony Esposito because the Hall of Famers were more popular then they were.
Silly grudges.
The old Hawks regime held grudges against agents as well, which was why Jeremy Roenick and Ed Belfour were traded after they had the gall to ask for what they were worth.
Why was Brett Hull never a Hawk? Because of a grudge against his old man.
So when McDonough says the Hawks are out of the grudge business, it's a pretty significant statement and one fans should clip and save while remembering how awful things used to be.
Deal or no deal: A lot of general managers, including the Hawks' Dale Tallon, think there could be plenty of trade talk leading up to this weekend's draft.
"I think it's going to be active," Tallon said. "A lot of teams are looking to move."
Calgary picks 17th and Ottawa 18th with both GM Darryl Sutter of the Flames and Bryan Murray of the Senators having expressed an interest to move up into the top 10. The Hawks have the 11th pick, which might be close enough to the best players for those teams looking to deal up.
The Flames may be dangling center Alex Tanguay, but perhaps the biggest name available in a deal is Florida Panthers center Olli Jokinen, who would look good in a Hawks jersey down the middle with Jonathan Toews and Robert Lang.
The Panthers don't have a first-round pick and might be looking for one.
"I think Olli is a top-line center and I've had some calls about him," Panthers GM Jacques Martin told The Canadian Press. "I don't know what's going to happen. If we can help our hockey club, we will, and he could be a player that's involved. But at this point in time I don't have anything firm."