Stan Bowman thread (mod warning post 965)

Kaners Bald Spot

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Dec 6, 2011
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I figured I'd start this thread.

Just my opinions:
I don't think he's done an awful job, nor do I think he's done a great job either.
I liked a lot of the moves he made since Q got whacked.
However:
Something is amiss and I'm starting to feel like I did with Q. I don't want to fire him, but I think it's time for new eyes to look at the situation. I think there is a shelf life for everyone and Bowman's at the end of his. This is a change for the sake of change thing. I don't think that Bowman necessarily deserves to be fired, (same with Q) but sometimes there needs to be a fresh perspective in the organization.

Has anyone ever heard the saying "Fish and Visitors stink after 3 days" ? That's where I'm at.
I wouldn't say I'm on the Fire Stan team, but if they did so I wouldn't be upset with it either.
 
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clydesdale line

Connor BeJesus
Jan 10, 2012
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I figured I'd start this thread.

Just my opinions:
I don't think he's done an awful job, nor do I think he's done a great job either.
I liked a lot of the moves he made since Q got whacked.
However:
Something is amiss and I'm starting to feel like I did with Q. I don't want to fire him, but I think it's time for new eyes to look at the situation. I think there is a shelf life for everyone and Bowman's at the end of his. This is a change for the sake of change thing. I don't think that Bowman necessarily deserves to be fired, (same with Q) but sometimes there needs to be a fresh perspective in the organization.

Has anyone ever heard the saying "Fish and Visitors stink after 3 days" ? That's where I'm at.
I wouldn't say I'm on the Fire Stan team, but if they did so I wouldn't be upset with it either.

Lol this post is way too safe. You don't want to say another one of your hot takes, but you aren't all in on one side or the other.
 

Blackhawks

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Jul 25, 2007
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Lol this post is way too safe. You don't want to say another one of your hot takes, but you aren't all in on one side or the other.


When a “hot take” is “positive rainbows and butterflies” we are gonna win a cup its embraced initially but gets exposed months later so it’s mostly safe unless someone resurrects it. But when a hot take is talking hard truths it’s attacked immediately, the Stan Stans will come out in hordes if he says what he really thinks so he toned it down lol
 

Sarava

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May 9, 2010
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When a “hot take” is “positive rainbows and butterflies” we are gonna win a cup its embraced initially but gets exposed months later so it’s mostly safe unless someone resurrects it. But when a hot take is talking hard truths it’s attacked immediately, the Stan Stans will come out in hordes if he says what he really thinks so he toned it down lol

Well he had one that was "positive and rainbows and butterflies" a couple of weeks ago, so he has all angles covered I guess :laugh:
 

Sarava

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West Dundee, IL
As for Stan. I've never been a huge Stan fan. But we have to understand that there's a down period after the long period of sustained success the Hawks had. They had low draft picks, traded picks for Cup runs, etc. and bad contracts are probably an inevitability of the long sustained success as well.

All in all Stan has done a fine job given the circumstances. And I like the Kirby Dach pick more and more as I keep watching him.
 

Cowch

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Jan 24, 2019
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As for Stan. I've never been a huge Stan fan. But we have to understand that there's a down period after the long period of sustained success the Hawks had. They had low draft picks, traded picks for Cup runs, etc. and bad contracts are probably an inevitability of the long sustained success as well.

All in all Stan has done a fine job given the circumstances. And I like the Kirby Dach pick more and more as I keep watching him.
Was about to say something similar. It's not cheap or easy to win 3 cups. I actually think that bowman has been on an upswing over the past year. Confuses me when people think he should be fired when I would argue he's been building a pretty damn good team
 

BobbyJet

I am Canadian
Oct 27, 2010
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Was about to say something similar. It's not cheap or easy to win 3 cups. I actually think that bowman has been on an upswing over the past year. Confuses me when people think he should be fired when I would argue he's been building a pretty damn good team

An upswing in trying to recover from an ongoing and serious downswing perhaps. Stan has dug a pretty good hole for this team and it appears that Hawks are looking at the 3rd year in succession out of the playoffs. He'll probably survive the season but it will take quite a turnaround in team performance to save his job I reckon - and JC may go with him if he is still around in the summer.
 

Kaners Bald Spot

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Dec 6, 2011
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Kane County, IL
As for Stan. I've never been a huge Stan fan. But we have to understand that there's a down period after the long period of sustained success the Hawks had. They had low draft picks, traded picks for Cup runs, etc. and bad contracts are probably an inevitability of the long sustained success as well.

All in all Stan has done a fine job given the circumstances. And I like the Kirby Dach pick more and more as I keep watching him.
I haven't been a huge fan of his either, but I thought that some people were unfair to him on some of the trades he made during the time in which they were cap strapped. He had no leverage. There were some trades and signings that he made that I would've rather they not done.

The critical point in Bowman's tenure was the summer of 2015. There were 2 choices at that point: take a significant step back and try to be competitive on the back end of the 19/88/2 contracts or go the way of the Red Wings. They chose the latter, which never made any sense. That is why they're in this situation now.

I would have traded both Seabrook and Hjalmarsson that summer and retained Saad, Bickell and Teravainen. It would have resulted in them being a lottery team from 2016-19 but they were in 2018 and 19 anyway. Imagine if the Hawks had a top 10 pick from 2016 and 2017 without having to trade for them. They wouldn't have the Seabrook boat anchor and probably still would have Panarin.
 

Pez68

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An upswing in trying to recover from an ongoing and serious downswing perhaps. Stan has dug a pretty good hole for this team and it appears that Hawks are looking at the 3rd year in succession out of the playoffs. He'll probably survive the season but it will take quite a turnaround in team performance to save his job I reckon - and JC may go with him if he is still around in the summer.

This is the price of championships in the salary cap era.... Once you pay your winners, there's not much left. If Hawks had cut ties with Seabrook they would be in a much better position. That's really the only thing he can be blamed for. Hawks are drafting well, and they routinely find talent in Europe. He has been really good the last year. Bowman will get every opportunity to try and turn this around in the next year or two. As he should. The reality is this team was NEVER going to bottom out enough to full on rebuild with Toews, Kane, Keith, Hossa, Hammer, Crawford here. Look at 2010 through 2012 for the proof of that. The only way Hawks avoid the current situation is by blowing it up in 2016. And he WOULD have been fired for that.
 
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Pez68

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I haven't been a huge fan of his either, but I thought that some people were unfair to him on some of the trades he made during the time in which they were cap strapped. He had no leverage. There were some trades and signings that he made that I would've rather they not done.

The critical point in Bowman's tenure was the summer of 2015. There were 2 choices at that point: take a significant step back and try to be competitive on the back end of the 19/88/2 contracts or go the way of the Red Wings. They chose the latter, which never made any sense. That is why they're in this situation now.

I would have traded both Seabrook and Hjalmarsson that summer and retained Saad, Bickell and Teravainen. It would have resulted in them being a lottery team from 2016-19 but they were in 2018 and 19 anyway. Imagine if the Hawks had a top 10 pick from 2016 and 2017 without having to trade for them. They wouldn't have the Seabrook boat anchor and probably still would have Panarin.

What???? What is the "way of the Red Wings"? Because they are currently in their sixth season of suck, with no light in sight....
 
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Kaners Bald Spot

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What???? What is the "way of the Red Wings"? Because they are currently in their sixth season of suck, with no light in sight....
What I meant is that they held on to some of their more important players for too long, and didn't move on when it was clear that they were going to lose in R1 or R2 of the playoffs at best, or be a bubble team at worst. They held on to their guys way too long, and they're paying the price for it. The Hawks were too attached to Seabrook and it's killing them. The Hawks also have held on to some guys way too long, but they have done a better job of drafting and had better luck with their lottery picks. Just imagine if the Hawks lost Saad and didn't have Panarin. Panarin delayed the inevitable for 2 seasons. Think about where the Hawks would have been in 2016 and 2017 without him. 2015 was the end no matter how you slice it. I shudder to think what this team would look like if Panarin signed elsewhere in 2015.
 
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Hattrick Kane

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Oct 8, 2018
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It’s funny, the moves that Bowman likely hung himself with occurred a few years ago. He had a very solid offseason.

Nylander has impressed, Maatta has been solid, Kahun has done nothing, DeHaan was acquired for peanuts. Anisimov for Smith is a cap dump.

He’s drafted well, he could have fired the coach sooner, but at least it was done.

But that Seabrook contract gets him fired. Trading Panarin and Hammer reeks of upper management interference. The core has given up.

If you want a Bowman fired, then fine. But I hope you people b****ing understand that it’s not going to get better until the core is told to GTFO. And a new GM is unlikely to be able to do that.
 

Kaners Bald Spot

Registered User
Dec 6, 2011
22,704
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Kane County, IL
As for Stan. I've never been a huge Stan fan. But we have to understand that there's a down period after the long period of sustained success the Hawks had. They had low draft picks, traded picks for Cup runs, etc. and bad contracts are probably an inevitability of the long sustained success as well.

All in all Stan has done a fine job given the circumstances. And I like the Kirby Dach pick more and more as I keep watching him.
I actually agree with this post. The only reason to fire him is change for the sake of change.
I don't think he deserves to be fired. The only people that do are those who don't understand the fact that years of drafting low and trading picks for cup runs eventually catches up with you. They're a victim of their own success more than anything.
 
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Kaners Bald Spot

Registered User
Dec 6, 2011
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Kane County, IL
It’s funny, the moves that Bowman likely hung himself with occurred a few years ago. He had a very solid offseason.

Nylander has impressed, Maatta has been solid, Kahun has done nothing, DeHaan was acquired for peanuts. Anisimov for Smith is a cap dump.

He’s drafted well, he could have fired the coach sooner, but at least it was done.

But that Seabrook contract gets him fired. Trading Panarin and Hammer reeks of upper management interference. The core has given up.

If you want a Bowman fired, then fine. But I hope you people b****ing understand that it’s not going to get better until the core is told to GTFO. And a new GM is unlikely to be able to do that.
I'm with you here. I agree with this post as well. Bowman has been mostly on fire with his moves since Q got whacked. Strome/Schmaltz TBD.
 

Blackhawks

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I love how people still convince themselves he’s a good GM with huge blunders like (Saad/Anisimov)/Seabrok/TT/Hammer/Panarin/Schmaltz/Danault/ etc. A lot of these guys should have been part of the new core, even a guy like Danault was never replaced to this day. TT is looking amazing in Carolina, Saad should have never left to begin with, now we have Smith as a baggage and we lost Panarin for two years because of it. There is a lot residual junk from his pathetic moves over the last 4 years till this day and he’s not stoping...
 
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ColdSteel2

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Aug 27, 2010
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I agree with most everything said. The decision to keep Seabrook and resign him and the other moves required to do it changed the course of the team. Saad turned into Anisimov and now into Smith. TT had to go to clear cap space. Sharp was still a good player but became a cap dump. Not having any top 4 D prospects to step in has also been a major factor.
 

Blackhawks

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Jul 25, 2007
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I agree with most everything said. The decision to keep Seabrook and resign him and the other moves required to do it changed the course of the team. Saad turned into Anisimov and now into Smith. TT had to go to clear cap space. Sharp was still a good player but became a cap dump. Not having any top 4 D prospects to step in has also been a major factor.


I don’t agree that TT had to go, it was one year at 4M, why give a future star which is what was projected from pretty much everyone, if you are a good GM you find other avenues there are other teams in the league.
 

ColdSteel2

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Aug 27, 2010
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I don’t agree that TT had to go, it was one year at 4M, why give a future star which is what was projected from pretty much everyone, if you are a good GM you find other avenues there are other teams in the league.

Yeah, I agree it will go down as one of the most lopsided trades ever and everyone knew there was a chance it would at the time. I’m just saying it also relates to resigning Seabrook. Without Seabrook, there wouldn’t have even been a pressing need to move 1 year of Bickell, let alone overpay to do it.

I’ll say this in Bowman’s defense. He was aware of the problems in advance. He traded a 2nd for Rundblad, maybe that was a player to potentially replace Seabrook. He’s drafted defensemen with 2nds and other picks throughout his tenure. None of those plans worked out and it had a cascading effect on other decisions that didn’t work. Here we are now. It seems he’s got some really good prospects in Mitchell and Boqvist, had another in Joki. Hopefully Nylander continues to progress. But Seabrook is still here and all of those other players are gone and the Hawks are paying for it now.
 
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