Jan. 27--Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman has worked the last few years to make sure the core of the Blackhawks' three Stanley Cup runs -- Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, coach Joel Quenneville, among others -- will be around for a long haul.
Now the Hawks have made sure Bowman will stick around as well.
Bowman and the Hawks agreed to a three-year extension on Tuesday that will run through the 2020-21 season, a move that comes just a few weeks after the Hawks locked up Quenneville through 2019-20.
Bowman's new deal, which adds the title of senior vice president to his resume, represents the Hawks bringing to fruition one of the tenets that has been a pillar of their three Cup runs -- continuity within the organization.
"Continuity is an important thing," Bowman said. "We've talked about that a lot -- within our team and players on the ice. There have been some changing players here and there, but we've tried to identify the players who are most integral to our team success and we want to make sure they're going to be with us.
"Now we have the decision-makers in place as well with our coaching staff."
Bowman is in his 15th season with the Hawks, his seventh as the general manager. It has been his partnership with Quenneville that has helped produce three Stanley Cup championships, and it's a relationship that is set to continue into the next decade.
Whereas other coach-general manager relationships can wear over time, Bowman and Quenneville have been able to keep their relationship solid.
"It's a good balance we have," Bowman said. "We've worked together long enough now that we understand how each one sees the game. We see the game in a very similar way, and you're not going to see every situation identical, but that's OK. Differences of opinion here or there are not a bad thing.
"As long as there's a mutual respect, and there certainly is from my perspective, and I feel the same thing from Joel."
Quenneville used some of the same words to describe his relationships with Bowman -- it starts with mutual respect and having empathy for each other's perspective even when a disagreement may arise.
"We have a good understanding navigating in some tough waters, particularly after winning, you know you're going to lose some key pieces and trying to re-invent yourself ..." Quenneville said. "We understand he has to do what he has to do. As coaches, he has some respect knowing what we have to do. We're more of in the now business of having to win today where he has a longer perspective of goals of the organization."
Now Bowman is set to make plans for the Hawks well into the future. But for all the changes that Bowman has to engineer to maneuver around the salary cap and plug holes in the roster, he would like to keep things the same at the top.
"When you have a group that has done a lot together, there's certainly incentive to try to keep things going ..." Bowman said. "It's not easy and there will be challenges as we go forward, but I have a lot of confidence in the group here, both the players and the staff, that they can help us do great things."
With Bowman's extension, all the key players are in place for that.
chine@tribpub.com
