Blackhawks: What will it take to fire Stan Bowman?

Since the firing of Joel Quenneville, Chicago Blackhawks’ fans have wanted Stan Bowman fired. We are still yet to see it, even after the team has fallen down the standings each season since 2017.

Many fans are curious about what it will take the Chicago Blackhawks to fire Stan Bowman. What does he have to do? It seems like they’ve given him a free pass to do whatever he wants, which he has taken to do so.

The notable trades that have fans still angry are the Artemi Panarin trade, along with the Robin Lehner trade. In both cases, the Blackhawks didn’t get anything back that they should have. Both trades should have gotten the Hawks a first-round draft pick, as Panarin is one of the best players in the league and Lehner is one of the best goalies in the league.

Some other trades that still bug me are the Dustin Byfuglien trade, the Troy Brouwer trade, the Nick Leddy trade, and the Teuvo Teravainen trade.

Today, Leddy and Teravainen would still make an impact on the Hawks. Byfuglien and Brouwer could have helped the Hawks win another Stanley Cup or two, looking at how great some of those teams who lost were.

"Chicago Blackhawks: Stan Bowman’s 7 Worst Trades as GM"

So, bad trades aren’t enough for Bowman’s firing. Let’s look at his track record now. He has 3 Stanley Cups, with the first team being set up by Dale Tallion. Still, he has helped re-tool the Hawks to two more Stanley Cups.

He helped re-tool the team to the playoffs from 2010-2017. Those are positives. During the last three season’s though, the Blackhawks never held a playoff spot during the regular-season for longer than a day or two, never making the playoffs (until the pandemic)… We can say part of it comes down to coaching, but Jeremy Colliton is the coach the Bowman hired to replace Joel Quenneville. Doesn’t Bowman deserve blame for his underperforming roster?

To make things worse, part of the underperforming roster has contracts that make them unmovable.

The 2020 offseason has to be Bowman’s last one as General Manager. I understand they’ll be in a rough spot with the salary cap for this offseason, but, there are still some moves he can make to keep young players on the team.

There’s no excuse to lose Dylan Strome or Dominik Kubalik. If he can sign those guys, along with bringing in a goalie that can help this team win, his job will be safe for another year. If he fails to do that and Chicago misses the playoffs, it’s time for Rocky Wirtz to send him packing.