Blackhawks: Rocky Wirtz Still Believes in Team’s Management

With the hope of changing the Chicago Blackhawks’ General Manager, chairman Rocky Wirtz recently showed a vote of confidence in Stan Bowman and others.

For years now, Blackhawks‘ fans have been calling for Stan Bowman’s firing. We’ve wanted to see it ever since Joel Quenneville was fired in 2018. I get it, Bowman has made some terrible decisions. The Artemi Panarin trade still is mind-boggling today.

Recently, Rocky Wirtz, the team’s owner, and chairman is ‘confident, in the team’s management to ‘figure it out’ during an interview with Pat Boyle on the Blackhawks’ talk podcast. He went on to speak about his belief in the team’s prospects and John McDonough.

With Wirtz saying all of these positive things, it makes me worry that McDonough and Bowman aren’t going anywhere. Speaking of people not going anywhere, Jeremy Colliton could be under that umbrella too.

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Besides Wirtz failing to realize that serious changes need to be made, I respect his decision to pay United Center employees during the NHL pausing their season. There is more to life than hockey. The Blackhawks are still a first-class organization. No one can question that.

There’s just a lot of tough decisions that need to be made by Wirtz. It’s very unlikely that McDonough and Bowman will be able to steer the ship back in the right direction. Chicago could be on their way out to missing the playoffs three straight seasons. That doesn’t scream success.

Any team that has Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews on it, in their prime, should be at least a wildcard team. Looking at the Western Conference, a team with less than 90 points could be the last wildcard spot this season. A Kane and Toews lead team can’t get 90 points?

It’s come to an interesting halt after great success over nine years. With the team falling deeper and deeper into a hole, what are their options? I mean, you could clean house. The only problem with that is how you set your team back at least two seasons.

They can make small adjustments, like adding a veteran coach. That is their best chance at keeping a steady push for the playoffs.

Their last choice to keep things together would be to get rid of Scotty and Stan Bowman. They’ve done their part in successful retooling the 2013 and 2015 Blackhawks, and ruining the 2018-present Blackhawks.

If they add a veteran General Manager who has won somewhere else, there’s a good chance they’ll retool quicker than anyone can expect. The Blackhawks are more than halfway done with their rebuilding process. They just need a few more prospects to pan out.

The future is bright. Kirby Dach, Adam Boqvist, Dylan Strome, Alex DeBrincat, and Dominik Kubalik will all be lifting the Stanley Cup in Chicago. Let’s just make sure it’s sooner rather than later. Championship windows are very short.

Right now, they’re playoff hopefuls. In a year or two, that can all change for the better.