Stan Bowman (right) and Al MacIsaac’s departures from the Blackhawks remove the last executives left from the 2010 team. | Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times file photo
A winless team, a broken sellout streak, a dire lack of experience or continuity in the front office and a tainted history leave the Hawks no framework with which to rebuild.
The Blackhawks have nothing good, nothing stable, left to cling to.
The banners, rings and memories of glory from their Stanley Cup dynasty? Forever tainted by their decision to prioritize winning the 2010 Cup — the one that set the stage for all three — over delivering justice to and protecting society from former video coach and now proven sexual abuser Brad Aldrich, as an investigation determined Tuesday.
The popularity and goodwill they built up in the community? Eaten away by years of aimless mediocrity, then destroyed with dramatic effect in the past few weeks, to the point that Sunday’s home date didn’t sell out for the first time in 535 games.
The front-office leadership with the experience to carry the Hawks through this mess? Decimated over the past two years — starting with John McDonough’s April 2020 firing, then Norm Maciver’s flight to the Kraken, then Jay Blunk and Pete Hassen’s departures this summer, and finally Stan Bowman and Al MacIsaac’s resignations.
The final wrecking ball that smashed through the Hawks on Tuesday demolished the last walls standing from the once-golden castle this organization represented and inhabited. It’s all gone. And forget any delusions about their road back to glory — their road back to simple respectability and functionality looks long, bumpy and uncertain right now.
AP Photos
The Blackhawks are winless through six games this season.
The team Bowman supposedly fixed this summer is a disaster on the ice and will be hindered for years to come by his imprudent decisions, even with the general manager himself now gone.
Overmatched defenseman Seth Jones’ eight-year, $76 million contract doesn’t kick in until next season. Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane have just one year left on their contracts (after this season) and are arguably no longer centerpieces to build around, anyway.
Five of the team’s six first-round picks between 2012 and 2018 have since been traded, along with their first-round pick for 2022.
Coach Jeremy Colliton’s seat should be scorching hot, considering how inept the Hawks have been — especially defensively — throughout his now four seasons behind the bench (although he has been saddled with poor rosters and many challenges during that tenure).
He and Bowman were tied at the hip — Bowman’s devotion to him as his hand-picked Joel Quenneville replacement has long been seen as his strongest safety net — and that security is now kaput, too.
But at this point, the Hawks may need to retain Colliton just to keep any semblance of continuity. It’s unclear, after all, who would even be qualified to fire him.
CEO Danny Wirtz and business president Jaime Faulkner have each been with the Hawks less than two years, and their backgrounds are in business and marketing, not hockey.
Interim GM Kyle Davidson was still in college when Bowman became Hawks GM in 2009, and was just promoted to assistant GM last year. So were the other technically highest-ranking people left in the Hawks’ hockey operations department, assistant GMs Ryan Stewart (pro evaluation) and Mark Eaton (player development).
Chicago Blackhawks
Blackhawks interim GM Kyle Davidson was just promoted to assistant GM last year.
Davidson’s rise from Rockford IceHogs intern in 2010 to this interim role is, on its own, a fascinating story. Originally in video and statistical analytics, Davidson ascended quickly once the Hawks discovered his adeptness with contract negotiations, salary cap management and collective bargaining agreement intricacies.
“It’s been about 10 years now of taking responsibility as they became available and trying to constantly learn from those around me,” he told the Sun-Times last December.
But his promotion to interim GM comes as a shock, likely even to him, and exemplifies just how much turnover has quietly (or, in Tuesday’s case, explosively) occurred within the front office.
Indeed, after several seasons of merely gradual decline, the speed and abruptness with which the Hawks have fallen into shambles recently is difficult to grasp. Since 2018-19, a season that ended only two and a half years ago, only six players and basically zero high-ranking executives remain.
The Hawks that will take the ice Wednesday against the Maple Leafs — likely to scattered boos from a less-than-capacity crowd — will have virtually zero connections to the Hawks of old (not even that old). The somewhat hilarious timing of Kane and Toews’ placements on the COVID-19 list make that statement particularly true.
In one sense, that’s a good thing. Tuesday’s investigation results certainly emphasized how much of the Hawks’ acclaimed former greatness was a mirage.
But when it comes to rebuilding this broken franchise, there’s no framework left standing. They must rebuild from scratch.
