Blackhawks Update Search For A New GM
On Wednesday afternoon, the Chicago Blackhawks published a statement from Danny Wirtz updating the club’s search for a new general manager.
You can read the complete statement here.
In it, a few interesting notes stand out:
First, Wirtz indicates current interim GM Kyle Davidson will be included in the interview process. We’ve heard for a while now that the organization likes Davidson a lot, so we’ll see if get the job permanently.
Davidson is going to be able to do his thing between now and the trade deadline (March 31). He “will continue to have full autonomy of hockey decisions in the meantime.”
The Blackhawks are not immediately looking for a President of Hockey Operations. The new GM will report directly to Wirtz and will be the highest ranking person on the hockey side of the business.
Wirtz, President of Business Operations Jamie Faulkner and a yet-to-be-announced advisory committee will be leading the GM search.
The Hawks aren’t limiting their search to hockey-only people. So… Theo Epstein?
If they hire the “intern” they will look like idiots. Scary thing is they think the “exercise” revealed an incredible amount of in-house talent. Developed by the person responsible for flushing our team down the toilet. Can’t wait to hear the “great” news with this maneuver.
Not much we can do but see where it leads and hope for the best.
Name for me one company/organization that would say they just finished a complete check for talent of all their people in-house and……… OH MY GOSH!! We ain’t got a person capable of being anything here!!!
Of course they were happy after their internal examination. That’s what EVERY company/organization says.
So, looks like maybe Edzo can’t get out of his contracts until after the season is over? Pres of Hockey Ops to be named later sounds like he fits.
Being Canadian myself and having played the game I’ll add a few comments ! Davidson is Canadian and grew up in A northern Ontario city Sudbury where everyone knows who the Wolves are ! He likely knows what all hockey guys are like ! He would also know what makes them tick ! Everyone also knows the Wirtz boys run the club and they’ve never played the game !I’ll just leave it at that and let everyone read my comments and factor everything ! You roll the dice when you get players and you see who will play for you and who won’t and also who they hangout with ! The G.M and the Coach will have some guys eating out of their hand and they will be horsing around on road trips like the old circus trips ,which by the way were so important at winning cups ! That’s it ,that’s all I’ll say , pops 4
Wouldn’t rule out KD getting Al MacIsaacs old spot and a Gm brought in to run things, find out soon i guess.
Ian: I could live with that if the GM has no ties here.
Silent Spot: Why would you even announce this to the public??? Doesn’t that sound so amateurish?? Whoever they “hire” if he’s outside the organization(hopefully) is going to find out PDQ who;s going to be kept and who’s not. So why do it now??? Let that person be the one to comment on it unless they are going to hamstring the new person right off the bat (aka what the Bears did to Ryan Pace when he was 1st hired). This has been a bungle from the beginning. Other teams fired and hired their guys already and Danny just got done “creating a 6-week exercise”. Whooosh!!!! Am I wrong or too critical????
Agree with you Hammer that it has been bungled from the beginning. Apparently they felt the need – maybe media pressure from somewhere I don’t know – to act like they are informing us that they are being active in the search. I’m not gonna try to apologize for them.
It’s a cluster of epic performance. The entire season has been. They have a chance to get it right with some serious and necessary moves starting tonight and into the TDL, and then in the offseason. Personally, I think they will mess up the TDL opportunity too.
Low expectations mean they are more likely to make me happy!! Yeah, sure they will.
Agree it seems like a messed up way to go. Have to wonder what the priorities are behind it all.
My hope is KD is given another role, MacIsaacs old spot maybe. A fresh face brought in from outside to be Gm and a free reign run on ice affairs, hire his own coach, King back to Rfd. if they new Gm wishes. Then an in house audit of the on ice talent in Nhl and the system begins, then maybe start to look like a team again.
Ian – agree with all that – seems so obvious though that you wonder if the Hawks would actually do it – we need an outside person (and more experienced than KD) to be the GM – KD as assistant is fine – I think he could one day ascend to GM but not now
Maybe SS is right that Eddie O will be the Hockey Ops guy once he’s freed up from his current contracts
Not having a Hockey Op person at all would be disappointing – if it turns out to be Edzo eventually I can live with that
If it turns outs to be KD as the new GM we’ll know the fix was in – KD seems to have GM potential but to think he’s the best option available would be ridiculous – the cheapest possibly the best no the most loyal yes the best no – hire the best Danny if you want to restore credibility to the front office
Ian and Wrap: agree with both. If they want to be loyal to the intern that’s fine, they can have him do something.
hahaha we “incredible amount of in-house talent”…excuse me so how did we go from top 5 team to bottom 5 team in the NHL with all this “in-house talent”?
trades, scouts, development, assistant coaches, head coaches, and management all stink.
again don’t be surprised that they bring in people from lower wacker drive to interview and still give it KD.
again don’t be surprised Wirtz will take the typical Dollar Bill theory and promote due to loyalty.
@Goose – Effin’ Spot On!! In house talent may ass, look at our interim GM and interim HC, real F’g talent right there!
What I don’t understand is why this new hiring wasn’t made a month ago, so the person with hockey sense can see that he has a GK who is playing lights out and some contender needs to overpay. So, he can see that we have 3 4th lines and our top 6 needs an overhaul. Our Captain is a shell of his former self and should retire! Our superstar plays by himself in the corners or along the boards, because anyone outside of Helen Keller and Stevie Wonder can see that he is injured and needs to go on LTIR. Plus, our #3 overall superstar in the making has Nylander written all over him!
So, we have to endure another year of evaluations until we finally make any improvements?
Well here we go. “Exhaustive” assessment of in house talent conducted by whom? Same people that are that talent? What about Danny boy telling us earlier that have talked with successful organizations inside and outside (cubs,Hoyer) hockey to find out how the best operate. What came out of that exercise? Doesn’t instill much confidence does it. Next step is probably doing the corporate thing and bring in an outside consultant (McKensey) that will tell the wirtz boys what they want to hear. I noticed Danny boy did not tell us where they were going to look for candidates, or how the organizational structure will look, or what the job descriptions are. My opinion is they decided a few months back they were punting on this season. Many on the board here called it right. “Rows of empty seats” drives supposed activity. Have to show the fan base they are proactive and are doing something.
Vancouver just hired the assistant GM of the Penguins for their GM position. Our team is patting themselves on the back that they finished an exercise and will now finally conduct interviews. And hopefully will have him on board before the TDL, like that will give that person a real chance to make some moves before the TDL. Unless it’s already been decided that the cheap way out is to make up the exercise of futility and just hand the job to the “intern”. It would not surprise me in the least.
This smells like PR bulls#!$. In house talent? That part made me laugh.
I am sure Edzo has a escape clause in his TV contracts just for this scenario.
Danny says they’re looking at candidates inside and outside of hockey – you might hire someone like McDonough from outside hockey to be in marketing but how can you hire a person from outside of hockey to be a team’s GM – that’s being different just for the sake of being different and it’s a path I hope the Hakes don’t go down
So what if they ran Man U or the LA Lakers hockey is not either of those sports and if you don’t know hockey players how are you going to construct a roster that makes sense and ultimately wins hockey games? – you’re not!
At the end of the day you need players.