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About 10-11 years ago, then Hawk GM Dale Tallon went on an offseason spending spree, hauling in what at that time, and at that place in Hawk history, seemed like a treasure trove of then prized free agents: Nikolai Khabibulin, Adrian Aucoin, Curtis Brown, Jassen Cullimore.
Yeah, those guys.
For that, Tallon got a standing ovation in the lunchroom at 1901 W. Madison, or so the story goes.
Well, tomorrow at noon Central, current GM Stan Bowman deserves a full-on parade of sorts, right past the salad bar.
Defying his critics, and sticking to his plan, Bowman has gone out and spent big to make a couple of possibly significant improvements to his roster in defenseman Kimmo Timonen and center Antoine Vermette.
Rather than folding up his sails in the face of the perfect storm of injuries to Johnny Oduya and Patrick Kane, he used it as a tailwind, taking cap space opened up by Kane's injury to acquire two quality NHL veterans in areas of acute need—for three draft picks and a decent to good prospect.
This is what winning GMs do.
No, these deadline moves (often called "overpays"), as some are so quick to point out, don't always work in terms of winning a Cup in the year they take place. But sometimes they do.
And they have a lasting effect of the players, coaches and fans knowing their GM left it all on the ice.
It was the right move. This was also no blind swing for the fences either. The Hawks have already developed a plan for the offseason, and begun some early investigation of how it could play out, that tells them that they will likely recoup some of these draft picks before Gary Bettman appears at the podium in late June.
Is Bowman done? Likely, but you never know either. And there's a whisper from a strong source this morning he isn't—and "the big deal" may be yet to come.
Yes, this is the new aggressive Stan Bowman 2.0.
Great to be a Hawk fan this morning.