OK, so Dale Tallon GMed the Hawks to the Conference Finals, after 7 years of seeing every Blackhawk working on being a scratch golfer instead of seeing them think about their names engraved on the Stanley Cup.

His reward for this stewardship? No contract extension yet. A relationship with Scotty and Stan Bowman which he has to know will ultimately end with Stan's family pictures on his desk.

Three players who are the nucleus of the team all reaching restricted free agent status in a year. Your top scorer (and his agent) campaigning for a new contract via Twitter. Dave Kaplan not even being the dumbest newspaper writer to write about the Hawks.

Nice way to start the summer, right?

Oh, but it gets better. See, your first rounder from last season seems to be a world-class jagoff, which will make him virtually untradeable, so he'd better straighten his shit out if he ever wants to see the NHL. You've got 5 defensemen signed for next season (Keith, Seabrook, Campbell, Hjalmarlsson, and Sopel) with a 6th (Barker) an RFA. While everyone would love to see Martin Havlat sign again, Sammi Pahlsson is probably more crucial to the long-term success of the team.

His biggest problem is this: He has a game of musical chairs being played out. He has three chairs and four players - Martin Havlat, Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, and Duncan Keith. Each chair represents a long term contract worth around $6 million/year. Who do you really, I mean really, want standing when the music stops? Sure, you wish Tallon could just go all Neil Smith on your ass, sign the whole damn world to big contracts and be done. And, for the first time, he'd have ownership approval to do so. The cold, hard, reality is there is a salary cap, and you can't sign everyone you like. Winning a championship requires toughness not only on the ice, but in the front office as well. Here's hoping that Toews, Kane and Keith are the ones in the chairs when the music stops.

Next comes trading. Dale's job got a lot easier here, since there are players who actually enhanced their trade value during the playoff run. The two names that stand out are Dustin Byfuglien and Cam Barker.

Now, I'm not advocating trading these players just to trade them. It's just that their value may never be higher. Barker is the one who should be shopped most vigorously. He had a nice playoff, but will just make too damn much money for a third-pair defenseman. You can think about putting him on Campbell's right, but Soupy has proven he's at his best when there's a solid stay-at-home guy over there. He improved exponentially when Matt Walker was replaced by the Hammer over there.

Now Campbell - I actually said trading Campbell for Dany Heatley would be a good idea on another site, and someone construed that to being my advocacy for dumping Campbell. Not at all. I'd only trade him for another superstar - I don't think picking up a 50-goal scorer is exactly a "dump".

Trade Byfuglien? There are teams interested, to be sure. Funny thing is, Big Fugly was like Campbell - instrumental to beating the Canucks, a non-factor against Detroit. If Fugly could become another Homlstrom, he could become a legend here. He's still inconsistent, and Dale would be remiss if he didn't at least listen to offers.

The other RFAs worth mentioning are Kris VERSTEEG! and Dave Bolland*. Dale should sign them both for three years, and Q should staple VERSTEEG! to Bolland's right. Done.

As for UFAs? Here's hoping the only one to return is Pahlsson. His presence, and the emergence of several young Hawks (including Fugly) happened at the same time. Coincidence? I think not. I know our friend Earl Sleek would love to see his return, but I'd prefer to see him in the United Center, thank you very much.

On Draft Day, I'm sure Tallon will be interested to see if maybe a player like Jeremy Morin or Kyle Palmieri falls to him at #29, but a trade-down for more depth might be a good idea. As long as it's not for any picks in next year's draft, which is looking craptastic at this stage.

Stay tuned...

*I didn't forget Ben Eager, I specified "worth mentioning". After watching him take asinine penalty after asinine penalty, my give-a-damn is busted on him.