Tallon: Hawks might get younger

Dale Tallon tells Tim Sassone in part two of a three part interview, that he sees the Hawks getting even younger. Tallon points to the Hawks system and wingers Jack Skille and Kyle Beach could be two of those players, assuming defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson has a spot nailed down.

The 20-man lineup the Blackhawks used in their season-ending Game 5 loss to Detroit in the Western Conference finals featured 10 players who were homegrown draft choices.

Drafting well and developing their players is what general manager Dale Tallon believes will keep the Hawks not only competitive but an elite franchise for years to come.

Good drafting and having players ready to step into the lineup with entry-level salaries has never been more important for NHL teams in what is now the salary-cap era.

Especially for a team such as the Hawks, who have some huge contracts with more on the way, slotting at least a handful of players into the payroll at around $600,000 is a key to managing the salary cap.

“We might even be younger next season,” Tallon said at one point during the playoffs.

Certainly removing 36-year-old Nikolai Khabibulin from the mix would bring down the average age of the team, but what Tallon was referring to was the possibility of one or two prospects cracking the roster at training camp.

Skille and Beach could replace, say, Ben Eager and Colin Fraser should the Hawks decide to go that direction for financial reasons.

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