Blackhawks Mailbag: Who will the next General Manager be?

On Friday, I asked for mailbag questions on Twitter involving the Chicago Blackhawks. Here are the answers.

Question 1: Who should the new coach and GM be?

Finding a new coach for the Chicago Blackhawks is an interesting topic. The Jeremy Colliton experiment hasn’t worked out at all. I’ve noticed fans dislike him during the season while wanting to give him a second or third chance during the offseason.

If the Blackhawks decide to pull the plug, I could see them going in many different directions. Let’s say they fire Colliton during the regular season next year, they’d probably promote Marc Crawford. I wouldn’t mind them going out and trying to get Eddie Olczyk back into coaching.

Olczyk struggled his first time around in coaching, but with the talented roster the Blackhawks have, he could help turn them around. The last name I have right now is Gerard Gallant. He is the hot coach on the market, who took the Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2018. He could do the same in Chicago.

The Blackhawks do need to look elsewhere when it comes to the general manager position. Norm Maciver could easily slide in and take the team over as an interim general manager, as he’s been with the team for eight years now.

I don’t see Marian Hossa coaching the Blackhawks, at least not yet. He is still young and has a player’s relationship with most of the players. Moving him to the general manager role is something that I could see happening once his contract ends in 2020-21.

It worked in Colorado with Joe Sakic, why not give it a try in Chicago?

Question 2: Why has Bowman not been fired yet?

Stan Bowman hasn’t been fired yet, though he is on the hot seat. Sadly, Rocky Wirtz did say he’d be back in 2020. The question becomes, what happens if the team looks outside of the organization for their new team president.

Would a new team president want to switch things up with Bowman and move him in a different role?

One last thing, could Bowman be promoted to team president? I sure hope not, though we will know hopefully by the end of the summer where everything stands, as we are in a rough situation with the coronavirus making it hard to interview people for the job.

Question 3: What do the Hawks do if there is no compliance buyout this offseason?

This is a great question. Let’s look back to 2012-13. The NHL missed half of the season due to the lockout. With the lockout, the salary cap didn’t increase like it was supposed to do. Every team was granted two compliance buyouts that wouldn’t count against their salary cap, regardless of the player’s age.

If the NHL brings that back this summer, the Blackhawks could free up space by buying out Brent Seabrook‘s $6,875,000 contract.

Now, if the NHL doesn’t do the same thing they did back in 2012-13, it would be foolish for the Blackhawks to buy out any contract, as they are already tight on the salary cap. It would just be a waste of money.

Also, if there is no compliance buyout, their offseason will be rough to manage, as I assume the salary cap will remain the same as last season. The Blackhawks have little to no salary cap space as it is.