This story is the second installment of a four-part interview with Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman that took place Monday. For part one, detailing the Hawks’ rebuilding plans, click here.
The Blackhawks’ rebuild, now official after Tuesday’s much-discussed letter to fans, will focus on giving NHL opportunities to young prospects.
And while that subsequently means the team will employ fewer veterans than in years past, the ageless “old core” of Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith will remain with the Hawks for the foreseeable future.
General manager Stan Bowman definitively confirmed that Monday, adding that he talked with the collective group of Toews, Kane, Keith and Brent Seabrook via Zoom last week to reassure them.
“I had a chance to talk with all those guys recently, and I was trying to explain to them the direction that we’re taking, which is not that much different than what we’ve been doing over the last couple of years,” he said. “We’ve used [Alex] DeBrincat. We’ve leaned on [Kirby] Dach. We gave [Adam] Boqvist an opportunity.”
That meeting occurred shortly after an explosive Toews interview with The Athletic on Oct. 11, in which Toews said the Hawks’ decision to move on from Corey Crawford and Brandon Saad — the biggest moves of their rebuild so far — “came as a shock” and represented a “completely different direction than we expected.”
Bowman, seemingly surprised by Toews’ comments, dismissed the situation as a misconstruction.
“What I wanted to clarify with Jonathan was, ‘What you’re anticipating is not [what’s happening],’” Bowman said. “We’re continuing on a path that we’ve been on. So the path is not really changing. If anything, though, we’re going to be more clear about it with everybody, and we’re also going to continue to invest in young players to a probably even larger degree than we have in the past.”
But Bowman did take the blame for the Hawks’ lack of transparency and clear public messaging about their intentions during the days immediately following Crawford and Saad’s exits.
That PR disaster presumably contributed to the franchise’s decision to usher in a new era of more open communication between the front office, players, media and fans, starting with Tuesday’s letter.
“Certainly you don’t want your players to be misinformed, so that’s on me to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Bowman said. “When I did talk to all the veterans recently, it was a very detailed, in-depth conversation. I don’t think there will be any future misunderstandings.”
Toews’ original Oct. 11 comments made waves especially because Crawford and Saad also both referred to a lack of communication from the Hawks in the weeks leading up to their departures.
Crawford said the Hawks made just one contract offer to him and his agent shortly after the playoffs ended in August, and never followed up with a counter-proposal — as he expected them to — before giving up on re-signing him on Oct. 8.
Bowman said they didn’t follow up because it was clear the two sides wouldn’t see eye-to-eye on term.
“The problem with signing him to a multi-year deal is that, if at the end of this year there was a young goalie that was available, whether through trade or free agency, we would not be in the market to get that person because we’ve already committed ourselves to Corey for another year,” Bowman said. “So shorter term — a one-year deal — was much more appealing to us, and that didn’t interest Corey.”
Crawford ended up signing a two-year contract with the Devils.
And in the case of Saad, who had one year left on his contract, Bowman said he simply followed standard business procedure by not talking much before the trade.
“You’re not going to call and say, ‘Hey, we’re probably going to be trading you, Brandon,’” Bowman said. “And then if it doesn’t pan out, you say, ‘Actually we’re not trading you, forget what I said.’ There was no reason for me to communicate with Brandon until the trade was consummated, and then we had a good talk at that point.”
