The Stan Bowman Interview In Review

Still can't believe this actually happened. Huge thanks to Stan Bowman for coming in and having a dialogue about his moves for an hour. It can't be easy to have a blogger roast you for years when you've got three rings and come in and question you and your competency to your face. On some level that has to obnoxious. With regards to the Blackhawks willingness to have discussions and be more transparent with their fans, this was a positive step. Huge thanks to Danny Wirtz, Adam Rogowin, John Steinmiller, and of course, Stan Bowman for coming in. 

A couple things about Stan here...I don't think he lied to me about anything overtly. I appreciated that. I had this tweet about you, the stoolies, and people in general, the other day when we broke the news that Stan was coming in

So when I say I believe Stan was honest, that is very important to me. I want to give credit to Stan for that. I don't know him as a person, but walking in I had some impressions of him that he was just full of shit and I know longer feel that way. I think he is a good guy who is just lost. A guy who wants to win, and is looking for the balance between building for now and for later and on a path to get neither. 

For me, the conversation really broke down around the Crawford situation

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This line of thinking is just completely unsatisfactory for me. It's troubling. It's the only time where I thought he wasn't being honest, but I feel like maybe he wasn't being honest with himself. 

With regards to the Crawford/Bubble/Future:

1) He said that he talked to Corey when the season ended. How did that conversation about his contract not take place in February? How did it not take place in July? Stan repeatedly says that he is trying to build something sustainable for the future. Well 19, 88, and 2 are still here, but time is also moving. While he's trying to position himself to go to get the goalie of the future, he's wasting time with the greatest players in the history of the franchise. Players who have proven in the last 2 years that they are still good enough to be the best players on the best team. By the time he finds that goalie, the hour glass might have run out. 

2) That goalie of the future was there in the draft, most likely. The Blackhawks reportedly tried to move up to get Askarov on draft night. Mark Kelley said on Redline Radio that they knew when the top 12 players were going to go. If you know you're moving on from Crawford, which he should've known well in advance of the bubble, then you should've just played Delia or Subban. Evaluate them in a high pressure situation. Either they're great and you feel more comfortable moving on from Crawford or they aren't and you're drafting in the top 8. 

Stan waxed about the value of playoff experience. I agree with him that a stretch of 9 playoff games in that type of environment were going to be very important for guys like Dach, Debrincat, Murphy, and Kubalik to get a taste. Where I think he is crazy is as a GM of a team that finished 12th this year, and hasn't won a playoff series since 2015, values 9 games in the bubble over like 300+ games from a top 8 pick. That makes no sense to me. 

The most troubling part of that answer was that he said he didn't know if that team would make a deep run. There is a difference between beating Edmonton and being able to contend with the top teams in the league. Edmonton is NOT a top team. They are NOT a team that is built for the playoffs. I know that. I bet the Blackhawks to win that series. I did NOT bet the Hawks to beat Vegas because they couldn't. It is literally Stan's job to be able to know that. To see that. To be honest in evaluations. When he said "I try to stay in the moment a little bit more"…dude…NO. That is NOT what you do. That is also in complete contradiction to everything that you have said. He himself said as much to Emily Kaplan

Which is it? Were the Blackhawks capable of going on a deep run or not? Its not like the roster is dramatically different now than it was at the start of the bubble. If he thinks it's not good enough now, he should've thought the same thing in August. I was all for trying to win, but that was under the assumption that the team was trying to improve for next year. That apparently isn't the case because he is using what might be the final year(s) of Toews/Kane/Keith to position himself to find Corey Crawford's replacement. A replacement that he has been searching for, or should've been searching for, since like 2017. Instead, he wants to run out a few guys who aren't starting caliber goalies for a playoff team instead of having a top 10 goalie at a bargain price for another two years. 

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If Bowman evaluated the team and the roster was as follows on opening night 2021 I would have zero issues

Kubalik-Toews-Janmark

Wallmark-Dach-Kane

Debrincat-Strome-Shaw

Highmore-Kampf-Carpenter

Keith-Mitchell

de Haan-Murphy

Zadorov-Boqvist

Crawford/Delia

On paper that team is better than the one we saw in the bubble. I would say that a coaching change is needed too in order for that group above to reach their high water mark and be in that 5-6 range in the West, but that group would keep more goals out of the net. They'd be tougher to play against. You lose some offensive production from Saad, but HOPEFULLY that is mitigated increased production from Dach, a bounce back year from Debrincat, and more offense from the backend with Boqvist in a role and with a partner that puts him in a better position to attack and be a weapon. I could see a path with that team. Without Crawford though it all falls apart. Any defensive improvements gained by adding Janmark, Wallmark, and Zadorov are washed away by not having a top 10 goalie(let alone two). Net-net you're likely giving up as many goals as ever and losing as many games as ever. So you're setting yourself up for ANOTHER wasted year of the greatest players ever to put on the indian head sweater.

It doesn't make any sense. It's hard to trust that Bowman has the right plan, when he hasn't executed his plan from the start. We hear about a long term vision, but then he says that he was staying in the moment. The moment being a 12th place team getting dusted away by Vegas in a bubble setting that realistically nobody really would've faulted him for if he chose to start the retool/rebuild then. If they still beat Edmonton with those other guys in net, then he gets all of things he said he liked about winning PLUS he had big games to evaluate them. If they lose, best case scenario you add a top 6 LW in Lafreniere that this team DESPERATELY needs in an effort to "stockpile" more young players. Worst case scenario you pick 8th and you're in a position to draft Askarov and you have your goalie of the future. A goalie prospect so elite that he might be the rare find who is ready at 20 years old. He could've then signed Crawford to that 2 year deal while Askarov was getting extra seasoning. 

He says that the Blackhawks will be in the playoffs in 2021. I don't see it, but I hope he is right. I hope he is right about everything. There is nothing I'd love more than to do this meeting again in 8 months and just let him gloat. I could do the whole "you were right, I was wrong. You're smart, I'm stupid. You're good looking, I am…not attractive". I don't think that will be the case unfortunately though. The most troubling thing was the lack of accountability. I wish he said "yeah, look, I was trying this with Panarin/Saad/Hjalmarsson and I fucked up". At least if he acknowledged that we could trust that he's learned from mistakes and that he is correcting them. Instead it feels like he is going down a "non-binary" path, to use his word. A path to nowhere and nothing because by the time he replenishes depth guys he is going to need STUDS again and the only true stud in the program right now under the age of 24 is Dach. So then they'll need to be bad again. 

Credit to Stan for coming in. All the feedback I've gotten on the internet is that they really respect him for doing this interview, and they should. I don't think anyone walked away from that interview feeling better about the future of the team though.