Blackhawks Split Business and Hockey Operations, Name New Presidents
The Chicago Sun-Times broke significant news and the Blackhawks have now confirmed the top of the food chain has been established at the United Center.
The Hawks will split business operations from hockey operations.
Danny Wirtz — Rocky’s son — becomes the CEO.
As CEO, Danny Wirtz will carry on the franchise’s commitment to reimagining the potential of hockey, liaise with ownership and other Wirtz businesses, and oversee the team’s Finance and Human Resources departments and the Foundation.
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) December 16, 2020
RELEASE: https://t.co/YEX6t4Guz6 pic.twitter.com/nbuD3zZDe3
Stan Bowman will become the Blackhhawks’ president of hockey operations. He will own the hockey side of the organization and retain his GM duties, according to the report.
And Jaime Faulkner has been hired as the Hawks’ new president of business operations, officially taking over January 4.
Jaime Faulkner will focus on advancing the fan experience and business model while generating revenue through her oversight of strategy and operations across corporate partnerships, ticketing and customer relations, and marketing communications.
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) December 16, 2020
RELEASE: https://t.co/YEX6t4Guz6 pic.twitter.com/Xkcj47rf1d
Who is Jaime Faulkner? Her bio from the story:
“In 2013, Faulkner founded E15, which became the analytics arm of the Chicago-based entertainment venue hospitality company Levy Restaurants.”
Well no doubt where Bowman stands now, the on ice product is solidly his for time being. If success is slower than anticipated be interesting to see what kind of length he has for a leash, be some disappointed posters here for sure. Obviously Faulkner should have the business end is in capable hands, as her track record would indicate. Hopefully success on and off the ice is the end result, patience for now i guess.
new eyes on every function in the blackhawks organization except for the product on the ice…..which drives revenue and every other function in the organization.
imo bowman has made many more poor personnel decisions than good ones over the years, but those decisions have not nearly been the nadir of his performance. his ability to win a contract negotiation is nonexistent and only slightly better than his ability to manage the salary cap. this is the guy who rocky gives the keys to the kingdom?
i’m not going to spew another thousand words about how important managing a cap in a hard cap league is and the individual pathetic decisions bowman has made crushing the hawks in that regard. for those of you who don’t understand by now it is likely you never will.
just as telling is the hawks need to sign free agents to play third and fourth line roles because their drafting and development has not allowed them the good fortune to have players available who are on elcs to creditably fill those roles. again, hits against the cap. every dollar saved is important in overall management and bowman has proven time and again he is not up to the task.
things are likely to become much uglier on the ice in the next several years under the command of the bozo who crafted the current situation. shame on you rocky. you took the easy, stupid way out.
Congrats to all 3.
God help us Blachawks fans. Instead of pitching that turd Blowman, he gets a promotion. Thought Rocky was smarter than that. Took a page from his old man’s book. Why do better when you can still make money and continue to farce the fans with shit. Dollar Bill baby!!
From a business standpoint, looks like a good decision.
From the on ice product standpoint, The Bob Pulford era returns…. ineptitude gets promoted….
Glad I saw an amazing Cup run in my lifetime.
Never thought I would see such a thing because of the aforementioned Pulford and his minions.
Will not happen again anytime soon as the promotion of Bowman and his minions prove the philosopher Santyana correct.
Well now we know everything hockey wise going forward is on one pair of shoulders. Contracts that were thought that Mc Doughboy might have a finger on is not an excuse with the players acquired or to be acquired.
Also I am in the thinking that this is a better team that last year except goaltending. I would see if one of the four would take control. In my dreams either Lankinen or Tomkins pulls a Carter Hart trick. If not maybe take Raantta or Fluery for half and get assets with them. For Raantta a 2 in 22. For Fluery a 2 in 21 and a 3 in 22. (they have two of each)
Are you kidding me.
2020 truly is a CF.
Did Rocky have a stroke or is he doing drugs? Absolutely didn’t see this coming, giving Stan total control is unbelievable.
Bowman got a promotion? …Jeez!
Clear that John McDonough was the biggest problem. A marketing schmuck that Rocky let get too powerful and have influence on the hockey product.
I like Stan Bowman. Let him rebuild this thing the right way. Blackhawks dicked around for 3 years denying that the glory era was in the rear view mirror. With no McMarketing douche around, Bowman was freed to get busy on a rebuild. And screw Jonathan Toews if he doesn’t understand that a rebuild is needed. We don’t run this organization in deference to his ego. If he’s too stupid to realize the time is past due to move on then tough. His $10.5 M per season for average NHL Center play at this stage is part of the problem in terms of rebuilding. Now if Brent Seabrook would do the right thing and allow himself to be placed on LTIR for the duration of the league’s worst contract.
2021 is going to be ugly for the Hawks on the ice. But hopefully it nets a top 5 pick. In Stan I trust.
P.s. Stan, you know Jerry Colliton needs to be gone after 2021, right?
Wow! Now I know what it feels like to be in a lifeboat watching the Titanic sink. The Wirtzs own the ship and we can only observe for damm our opinion. Bowman will stay in the Captains quarters as the ship sinks for the next 3 years. Painful to watch but we can watch some of the kids develop.
I could hardly believe my eyes. Bowman gets a promotion and is still GM as well. Rocky rewards all his exceptionally stupid moves. Bad trades. Bad drafts. Bad FA signings. How the hell does anyone explain it? I’m stunned. I guess the Wirtzs are only thinking about the money. Put whoever you like on the ice, the fans will still watch. What does Scotty Bowman have on Rocky? What is he thinking??? Folks…fellow loyal fans…we need to just say we were so fortunate to witness that 3 cup run. It was fantastic! But that’s it. Finito. Stan Bowman will now sink the team further, beyond all help, we are back to the Pulford years.
An owner who seems stubbornly in denial (or maybe no longer cares that much about success on the ice). A bungling GM who marches to the beat of an alternate drummer and whose position in the org rises in lockstep with the demise of the team. Yep, the Dollar Bill/Pulford vibe of these latest moves is hard to miss.
@Live, I like your optimism, but I fear that it maybe misguided. Stan is a maintenance hockey executive and not a team builder. He did well to keep an established team going during the Cup run, but he does not have the strategy or vision as to how to rebuild a hockey team in my opinion. Here are 2 examples.
His management of the goaltenders has been short sighted. Stan was/is completely unprepared to fill Crow’s skates. It was no surprise that Crow would be gone when his contract expired being older and concussed. Nevertheless, the Hawks had no one even close to taking his place in the starting lineup. Look at the last 10 years of drafting, all the goalie picks were 6/7 round with the exception of a late 3rd rounder on a kid from Belgium and Commesso this year. Stan invested too little draft equity into the position too late now. We did have a Lehner on the roster, but he gone and Subban has a 2-year extension. This is not on McDonut it’s on Stan.
The dmen management maybe even more indicative of his no vision, strategy lacking, knee jerk management style. When he realized that Keith and Seabs were getting older Stan shifted drafting priorities and for 3 years between 2017 – 2019 the Hawks used 5 of their 6 1st and 2nd round picks on defensemen. Joker got traded for an underachieving forward, Boqvist broke into the lineup and was mostly physically abused, and the remain 3 are working toward the NHL where there is no available ice time due to the veterans. Then, what really has me scratching my head is why Stan used one of his best trade assets, Saad to get more defensemen. There must either be a lack of confidence that the young dmen will develop, or Stan drafted too many 6 foot and under dmen and had once again to burn an asset to fix and problem he created. So he got 6’5″ Zadorov. It could also be that the goaltending is such a joke that he is trying to beef up the D in order to keep 2021 interesting. Either way this is squarely on Stan.
As a Hawks fan I really hope Stan can turn it around seeing that Rocky gave him the vote of confidence. He is going to be here a while. 2021 will be a s@@t show but if the Hawks play their prospects, trade the dead weight like Nylander and Strome, find homes for some of the vets to open up ice time, and get rid of JC, they could be an interesting watch. Go Hawks
Jordyhawk,
You echo the opinion of my post.
Great minds thinking alike.
From what we heard and saw from Wirtz, this isn’t really much of a surprise , like it or not. One point is with the core still in tow and a hope to load up around them in next few years is alot different. Progress and job performance there will be revisited regularly, development this year and on ice improvement after that. Cleaning house on the core vets all together and turning over the reins on a long term, quite likely most of a decade long process rebuild would be alot more concerning to me.
The clearly indicated Askarov was their draft target, in which case his expected arrival is 2 to 3 years. Resigning Crawford likely for a couple of years to bridge the gap would have likely happened. When that didn’t work out, they took their choice of next best goalie, with decision on Lehner already made and Crawford not reasonably able to play another 5 or 6 years needed for Commesso arrival another route is needed. Whether this is belief an in house option can step up or a chance for another high pick or combo of both remains to be seen.
This.
Now with no acts of congress influences caphits and other things Bowman can rebuild the roster the right way. With top 5 picks. Letting the young goalies growing pains of a better roster then last few yrs. Then we get those top 5 picks and goalies are ready and young wave is ready/good.
LIVE FROM THE BIG BARN ON THE WEST SIDE
December 16, 2020 at 9:11 pm
Clear that John McDonough was the biggest problem. A marketing schmuck that Rocky let get too powerful and have influence on the hockey product.
I like Stan Bowman. Let him rebuild this thing the right way. Blackhawks dicked around for 3 years denying that the glory era was in the rear view mirror. With no McMarketing douche around, Bowman was freed to get busy on a rebuild. Now if Brent Seabrook would do the right thing and allow himself to be placed on LTIR for the duration of the league’s worst contract.
2021 is going to be ugly for the Hawks on the ice. But hopefully it nets a top 5 pick. In Stan I trust.
P.s. Stan, you know Jerry Colliton needs to be gone after 2021, right?
No more 17th picks we we earned a 9th pick.
I want another two players like Dach and were in good shape for that. Then the young core will be good enough. Need two top pair guys anyway we can.
Why not see Bowman in higher spot then at some point in next few yrs we get a different GM and coach and team system. While Bowman stays at higher position.
Good luck Jaime …you`ll need it !
So Rocky is saving money on a real General Manager and a legitimate NHL Head Coach.If this turns into a train wreck he will have to fill both of those important positions.Pressure is off Bowman I guess.Worst cade for him is that a General Manager is brought in.
Worst case,I meant.
“P.s. Stan, you know Jerry Colliton needs to be gone after 2021, right?”
It was Stan who picked Colliton. You trust him to pick the next coach?
I’m Toews and stand behind someone who knows how to win. Stan has been saving face for the last few years. I’m hopeful for this team, but Stan’s record of awful talent management is undisputed.
Unbelievable! This is the only franchise in pro sports that promotes people based on mediocrity. I swear this organization is run like “Kruger Industries” on Seinfeld.
I don’t know what else to say! I’m flabbergasted!
“And screw Jonathan Toews if he doesn’t understand that a rebuild is needed”
We have our winner for Dumbest Comment of 2020.
And let me tell ya… there have been some legit all-time doozies this year.
Congrats to Live from the big bard on the west side for this one. Impressive. The rest of y’all have 13 days to match/beat it.
Haven’t posted in a while. Am very disappointed like most of you. If my job performance was like Bowman’s I would have been bounced a long time ago.
Mainly want to second Tab by saying that the comment about the captain was at best moronic. If all players held themselves to the high standards he holds for himself, any team would have more success. After fighting through concussions, Toews had a great season a year ago. He never makes excuses for himself when his performance is not up to par. He sets an example that others would be wise to follow. Yes, he wants to win sooner than later. All players should have this attitude. It would help to have better quality to play with, no fault of his.
Well, well, well…. Dollar Bill is back in da House !