The Blackhawks will reportedly be headed by the same three leaders — president John McDonough, general manager Stan Bowman and coach Jeremy Colliton — in 2020-21.
Hawks owner Rocky Wirtz told The Athletic on Thursday that all three will “absolutely” return next season.
That news will surely upset a large portion of the fan base, which — angered by the inevitable third straight playoff miss that loomed before the NHL season shut down — had soured somewhat on Colliton and greatly on Bowman in recent months.
But one perhaps overlooked factor is that any GM change — any moving on from the man who signed each member of the Hawks’ core to their currents contracts and has held firm in his belief that the Hawks are playoff-caliber — would likely also usher in an era of rebuilding.
At this point, Bowman has inseparably bonded himself with the retooling approach: making peripheral additions (Olli Maatta, Ryan Carpenter, etc.), using the draft picks the team is automatically awarded (Kirby Dach, Adam Boqvist, etc.) and favoring old and certain over new and risky (Corey Crawford over Robin Lehner).
If the Hawks’ ownership is happy with that highway, there’s no reason to part ways with Bowman, especially because that status-quo decision in itself aligns philosophically with Bowman’s aforementioned roster decisions.
If the Hawks’ ownership had elected to make a management change, the new GM would almost certainly have been enlisted to follow a different and more radical course than Bowman. Even if he wasn’t explicitly, he’d have been foolish not to. That scenario would likely involve Crawford and Duncan Keith — among others — heading out of Chicago now, with Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Brandon Saad not too far behind.
And that rebuilding period might have proved more frustrating for fans, and more destructive to the United Center’s sellout streak and the Hawks’ profits, than this ongoing yearning-for-past-glory stretch.
By keeping Bowman, Wirtz ensures the Hawks will stay the course, retain their aging (though still productive) core and seek to improve via short-term tinkering instead of tearing it down.
After all, that’s exactly how Bowman explained his philosophy when asked after last month’s trade deadline.
“The one encouraging thing is just that Jonathan and Patrick, they’re having really good years even though they’re in their 30s,” he said in the middle of a longer response. “That’s helping us. We have some young players on the way; we’re trying to get some more. And when they start taking that step forward, hopefully our team can take a step forward.”
Retaining Colliton will likewise boost that philosophy — not only because Colliton was Bowman’s hand-picked coach choice two years ago, but also because Colliton has echoed much the same rhetoric dozens of times this season.
That doesn’t mean the Hawks will remain identical next season, though.
Some jettisoning will be necessary this offseason (whenever it occurs) due to salary cap concerns alone. Bowman is clearly committed to the youth movement in a way he wasn’t during the dynasty era, too.
He and Colliton both spoke at length after the trade deadline about the importance of Dach and Boqvist’s development. Upcoming new contracts for Dylan Strome and Dominik Kubalik will presumably flesh out the Hawks’ growing “young core,” which also contains guys like Alex DeBrincat and Connor Murphy. And rookies Nicolas Beaudin and Brandon Hagel impressed in their well-earned NHL debuts last week.
So yes, the Hawks will still evolve over time.
But Thursday’s emphasized commitment to the franchise’s current leadership group does mean that evolution will occur at only a gradual pace.
