News Article: Norm Maciver leaving Blackhawks front office for Seattle Kraken

[RememberTheRoar]

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[Pez68]

Well then.

 

[Toews2Bickell]

Was basically demoted after the season when McD was fired

 

[Mrfenn92]

Good luck to him.

 

[Brightwing]

Hmmm, not sure what to make of this without knowing which decisions he was involved with. It's quite vague and I can't tell if he supported or opposed the rebuild. On the one hand being negative could mean saying we gotta rebuild we're not getting another cup. On the other hand it could be we need to stick with the core because we can't rebuild fast enough to do it in the Kane/Toews window. Absolutely no idea which way he swung.

But multiple sources said Maciver felt that he had been cut out of the inner circle by Bowman and Al MacIsaac in recent seasons as the internal push and pull between rebuilding and trying to squeeze one last Cup run out of the core intensified. One of the few occasional voices of dissent in the front office, Maciver was marginalized and, according to one team source, eventually ignored altogether.

“They iced him out,” the source said. “They thought he was too negative.”

Maciver was leapfrogged by Kyle Davidson, Mark Eaton and Ryan Stewart in the front-office shakeup. At the time, Bowman tried to frame it as a positive for Maciver.

 

[Pez68]

Hmmm, not sure what to make of this without knowing which decisions he was involved with. It's quite vague and I can't tell if he supported or opposed the rebuild. On the one hand being negative could mean saying we gotta rebuild we're not getting another cup. On the other hand it could be we need to stick with the core because we can't rebuild fast enough to do it in the Kane/Toews window. Absolutely no idea which way he swung.

But multiple sources said Maciver felt that he had been cut out of the inner circle by Bowman and Al MacIsaac in recent seasons as the internal push and pull between rebuilding and trying to squeeze one last Cup run out of the core intensified. One of the few occasional voices of dissent in the front office, Maciver was marginalized and, according to one team source, eventually ignored altogether.

“They iced him out,” the source said. “They thought he was too negative.”

Maciver was leapfrogged by Kyle Davidson, Mark Eaton and Ryan Stewart in the front-office shakeup. At the time, Bowman tried to frame it as a positive for Maciver.

I'd be willing to bet he was in camp McD.

 

[ClydeLee]

He is the last of the Whalers connection gone? idk about McD camp but assumed he would of been in line with Qs buddys. he was on the team in 89 with Q, Dineen, Ulf, and Tippet.

 

[Muffinalt]

Hmmm, not sure what to make of this without knowing which decisions he was involved with. It's quite vague and I can't tell if he supported or opposed the rebuild. On the one hand being negative could mean saying we gotta rebuild we're not getting another cup. On the other hand it could be we need to stick with the core because we can't rebuild fast enough to do it in the Kane/Toews window. Absolutely no idea which way he swung.

But multiple sources said Maciver felt that he had been cut out of the inner circle by Bowman and Al MacIsaac in recent seasons as the internal push and pull between rebuilding and trying to squeeze one last Cup run out of the core intensified. One of the few occasional voices of dissent in the front office, Maciver was marginalized and, according to one team source, eventually ignored altogether.

“They iced him out,” the source said. “They thought he was too negative.”

Maciver was leapfrogged by Kyle Davidson, Mark Eaton and Ryan Stewart in the front-office shakeup. At the time, Bowman tried to frame it as a positive for Maciver.

I hope we get the full details eventually in a few years about these in between years.

What if Bowman wanted to rebuild even more aggressively right after the Nashville defeat, but wasn't allowed? In hindsight we could be sitting pretty now had he done that.

Never healthy to have two sides pulling for different directions and in our case it could be that it cost is some prime K/T years.

 

[RememberTheRoar]

I'd be willing to bet he was in camp McD.

I mean, wasn’t it reported that he was the middle man between Stan and McD?

IIRC Zawaski said that Maciver would tell Stan to run things by McD

 

[Giovi]

I'd be willing to bet he was in camp McD.

That seemed to be the reason for his demotion after McD got let go, imo.

 

[Pez68]

I hope we get the full details eventually in a few years about these in between years.

What if Bowman wanted to rebuild even more aggressively right after the Nashville defeat, but wasn't allowed? In hindsight we could be sitting pretty now had he done that.

Never healthy to have two sides pulling for different directions and in our case it could be that it cost is some prime K/T years.

Yep. It's been speculated on here quite a bit. It was obvious McD would never get on board with a rebuild, and now he's gone. Looking back at a lot of moves that were made, it's obvious now that there were two differing philosophies working against one another.

 

[Brightwing]

I mean, wasn’t it reported that he was the middle man between Stan and McD?

IIRC Zawaski said that Maciver would tell Stan to run things by McD

I also remember Zawaski talking about that infamous meeting where Colliton got told to change his system after the players complained and that Stan may not have been there. Was Maciver the one to do it?

 

[b1e9a8r5s]

Seabrook to Seattle (E4)

 

[Pez68]

I also remember Zawaski talking about that infamous meeting where Colliton got told to change his system after the players complained and that Stan may not have been there. Was Maciver the one to do it?

Wouldn't doubt it. It will be very interesting to see how the next couple years play out.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Best of luck to him.

 

[GaryU]

I'd be willing to bet he was in camp McD.

Sounds about right. IBM had a team called Special Projects. You could shuffle paper all day, but your career there was over.

 

[DisgruntledHawkFan]

No idea if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Should make for an exciting book a decade or two from now.

 

[Northernhawk]

He was a very proud member of the Blackhawks for many years, the few times I had a chance to talk with him, MacIver had nothing but great things to say.

I met him once through an acquaintance and knew he played for the Oilers, which is my brothers favourite team...I asked for an autograph for him and the only thing we could find was a Chicago Blackhawks business card(player personnel) I didn't even know he was with the Hawks
I asked about the 'new guy' Stan Bowman as GM and MacIver said he is the smartest man he's ever meet in hockey, knows everything about everything
The second time I met MacIver was on his 'day with the Cup' back in 2015...I was fortunate to get an invite from my wife's coworker who's related some how, anyways Duluth is a short distance from Thunder Bay so we were able to visit with him(and the Cup) at his home and later that night at a golf country club. MacIver has a trophy room in his basement filled with past team pictures...he said "do you notice anyone familiar?" Coach Q, Kevin Dineen, Jimmy Waite, so on and so on...again he was a very proud Blackhawk, he had applied/interviewed for GM jobs elsewhere...which is normal, remember Chicago had Bergevin and Cheveldayoff...good luck in Seattle Norm, sorry to see you go...

 

[Callidusblackhawk]

I also remember Zawaski talking about that infamous meeting where Colliton got told to change his system after the players complained and that Stan may not have been there. Was Maciver the one to do it?

Am I the only one that thought the team actually played better before that system change, at least defensively? I remember feeling the Hawks were pretty unlucky to have the record they did early in the season. I think they lost a couple games on really flukey goals bouncing in off their own guys.

 

[Toews2Bickell]

Barstool Chief said last year in a blog that the front office was split into team Stan and team Norm and Stan basically cut everyone off and worked solely with Ryan Stewart and a few others...Seems like Chief was right all along...except he said his sources considered Norm the smarter of the two and his voice within the FO was being tuned out too much by Stan...Chief has always been a "we're wasting Toews/Kane/Keith" guy, maybe his source was in Norm's camp and felt the same, and Stan finally won the power struggle and announced a rebuild so presumably Stan was a rebuild guy and Norm was team retool (along with McD, "core four, etc)...one day we'll know what really happened and it will be a good story on the last 5 years because there are too many unanswered questions atm...

 

[BK]

Well this basically proves the McCub meddling theory that many of us believed. I really want to know how long the rebuild was put off.

To be clear, this does not absolve Bowman of the mistakes.

 

[featherhawk]

not surprising, good luck in Kraken country

from Thunder Bay, same home town as I

I live in Vancouver now and I will fore sure make the trek to Kraken country at times for a game...hope I bump into him

 

[Northernhawk]

Calling it here first

McIver is a big NCAA guy so I think Wyatt Kaiser will be a target for the Kraken...

Kaiser as a sweetener for Seattle to pick Seabrook...

Like Doug Wilson to SJ, Seabs is gonna be a Kraken

 

[Hattrick Kane]

Barstool Chief said last year in a blog that the front office was split into team Stan and team Norm and Stan basically cut everyone off and worked solely with Ryan Stewart and a few others...Seems like Chief was right all along...except he said his sources considered Norm the smarter of the two and his voice within the FO was being tuned out too much by Stan...Chief has always been a "we're wasting Toews/Kane/Keith" guy, maybe his source was in Norm's camp and felt the same, and Stan finally won the power struggle and announced a rebuild so presumably Stan was a rebuild guy and Norm was team retool (along with McD, "core four, etc)...one day we'll know what really happened and it will be a good story on the last 5 years because there are too many unanswered questions atm...

He can think that all he wants, but saying we’re wasting TKK seemed ignorant since we had already won three cups at that point.

Hindsight is 20/20, but after that third cup, you can see the mistakes start. Seabrook was showing major cracks in his game, he should have been signed to a much more reasonable contract or told to walk.

The other major killer was trading Panarin after a failed playoff appearance, which every team ends up going through. Norm’s side was straight up wrong, and I’m more than happy to give Bowman a real chance without interference to do a rebuild.

 

[Esq]