Chicago Blackhawks: 5 Stan Bowman Moves I Wish Were April Fools Jokes

Chicago Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman has made more than a handful of questionable decisions in his time at the helm, so here are five of them that I wish were April Fools jokes.

As Chicago Blackhawks fans, we aren’t strangers to seeing our team make seemingly unbelievable moves. As a result, I tried to come up with something that would shock Blackhawks fans on this April Fools’ Day like we’ve been shocked in the past. This proved to be a harder task than expected.

You see, some of Stan Bowman‘s moves possess an unbelievable quality that simply cannot be topped. So without further delay, let’s take a look at five of his moves that we wish were April Fools Day jokes.

1 – The Kunitz / Manning / Ward trifecta

Where do we even begin on this one?

The Chicago Blackhawks earned the best record in hockey and then fell apart for a week, resulting in a bad first round loss at the hands of the Nashville Predators. Bowman then blew up the team, helping them to miss the playoffs the following season for the first time in a decade.

After that season the ‘Hawks looked like a boat sinking quickly with 50 different holes in it, each in need of being plugged. Plugging the holes via free agency / trades isn’t something that can be done by just one or two moves, so I respect his waiting for the right time to make a splash.

The Chicago Blackhawks prospects will inevitably fill some of them, so waiting to see which wounds heal themselves make sense. Additionally, waiting a year would also allow him to make the most informed decision about what to do with the cap space in free agency. So much was up in the air that making a big move simply wouldn’t have made sense.

But still, the Blackhawks had just missed the playoffs for the first time in a decade. The team desperately needed help in multiple areas.

So they acquired Cam Ward, Chris Kunitz and Brandon Manning.

Yikes.

So much anticipation lead up into the opening day of free agency last summer. Rumors were flying about the ‘Hawks shopping for that top-4 defensemen they so desperately needed, yet all they got was Ward, Kunitz and Manning.

To throw salt in the wound, Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane put together seasons on the verge of breaking their career bests, with nothing but 11th place in the West to show for it.

Yikes, indeed.