Chicago Blackhawks: Who Deserves Credit For 2010 Stanley Cup?

The Chicago Blackhawks won three Stanley Cups in six seasons. Before their first Stanley Cup, there was a GM switch which changed the whole culture.

With the Chicago Blackhawks being on the downside of their success in the 2010s, we’ve had a lot of time to reflect on their success. Former General Manager Dale Tallon is almost forgotten about from casual fans who want Stan Bowman to get fired.

Tallon became the Blackhawks General Manager on June 21, 2005. He was apart of the organization for many years before that though. It’s not directly stated what draft picks before 2005 he is responsible for, but there were a lot of key players drafted during that time.

On July 14, 2009, the Blackhawks and Tallon parted ways. He made a lot of big moves that helped shape the 2010 Blackhawks.

A lot of people forget who Tallon brought to Chicago. He was the one that drafted Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane. It wasn’t a guarantee that Kane and Toews were going to be franchise-changing players. There has been their fair-share of top-five draft pick busts.

Besides Kane and Toews, there were more successful draft choices by Tallon. Ben Smith, and Marcus Kruger also played some key depth roles on many Blackhawks’ teams.

One of the biggest moves Tallon made was trading for Patrick Sharp. Sharp was a key part of the Blackhawks’ 2010s dynasty.

More players brought in under his watch were Martin Havlat, Michal Handzus, Kris Versteeg, Ben Eager, and Andrew Ladd. All of those players were on Stanley Cup-winning Blackhawks’ teams.

Key free-agent signings included Brian Campbell and Marian Hossa. Yes, Tallon signed Hossa on July 1st, 13 days before he was fired.

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Even though Bowman took over at the start of the 2009-10 season, Tallon was still given a Stanley Cup ring by the Blackhawks.

So yes, Bowman was the General Manager at the time but he was just sitting there. He didn’t do much of the dirty work. He wasn’t there taking heat from 2005-to-2009 when the team was bad. He took over a contender.

I’ll give Bowman credit here though, he took over that team and changed their identity. After 2010, they needed to clear cap space. Tallon still was apart of the group of guys that drafted/signed the core players, but Bowman brought pieces around them to be successful.

I give 2010 to Tallon and the rest to Bowman. He is a smart guy, I just believe he made too many knee-jerk decisions after back-to-back first-round exits in 2016 and 2017.

As the Blackhawks struggle today, it makes me wonder, how long will Bowman stay in Chicago? Is he going to be here until he decides to go? How many years do they have to miss the playoffs before someone else gets the nod?

We will have to see. I just want them to be successful again, I don’t care who the General Manager or Head Coach is. Success cures all.

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