Make no mistake about it. Dale Tallon made some keen decisions, especially in the draft, since he was named Blackhawks general manager on June 21, 2005. But he also made some questionable free agent signings that put the team in a serious tight spot to sign Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane to long-term deals next off-season.

The Blackhawks’ qualifying offer ‘debacle’ was just the final straw for upper management, which has already replaced him with Stan Bowman.

Tallon’s biggest mistakes happened last summer when he signed free agent defenseman Brian Campbell to a seven-year deal worth $7.14 million annually and goaltender Cristobal Huet to a five-year deal worth $5.625 million per year. Campbell struggled at times while still putting up 52 points, the second best total of his career. Meanwhile, Huet lost the starting job at the end of the season to Nikolai Khabibulin, who then took the team to the Western Conference Final.

This offseason, he let Khabibulin and Martin Havlat leave for nothing, while signing Marian Hossa to a 12-year deal. The thinking was that Hossa doesn’t have the injury history that Havlat does, but as Erik Duhatschek points out, the two players aren’t that different.

Last year, Havlat actually played seven more games, and each averaged 0.95 points per game. Objectively, it is hard to argue that Chicago is any better with Hossa than Havlat, just different.

Then there were the qualifying offers. By scrambling to sign all of his RFAs before the matter was investigated by the NHLPA, it should be debated whether or not Tallon overpaid his players in order to get them signed quickly. Kris Versteeg and Cam Barker both signed three year deals worth over $9 million each.

Now the Blackhawks are in a tight spot. They have $42.5 million tied up in 12 players for the 2010-2011 season in which the salary cap may fall to around $54 million. The Hawks will have around $11.5 million to fill out their roster, which will include signing RFAs Kane, Toews, Duncan Keith, and Andrew Ladd, among others. Unless they sign 20-year contracts with a low cap hit, Kane and Toews should each expect to make at least $6 or 7 million per season. The math doesn’t work for Chicago.

So now they have to dump some salary, most likely by trying to move Campbell and his huge salary. But in this economy, how many teams are able to take on a long-term contract worth over $7 million a year? Just look at the Dany Heatley situation.

Tallon was responsible for drafting Kane and Toews, but now because of him, the team’s ability to re-sign the two superstars is in doubt.