Stan For A Day: How Would You Change The Blackhawks?

Admit it….we all do it from time to time. We all play the role of General Manager of our favorite franchises. Today it’s Stan Bowman’s turn. Have a seat in his office, and let’s see what you would do with the Blackhawks for a day. Where do you begin?

For the last several years, the ‘Hawks have struggled to remain competitive. Much of this can be attributed to an epic run, with 3 Stanley Cup Championships in the last decade. At some point, the piper must be paid, and that’s where the organization finds itself now.

Big picture, the ‘Hawks are in a good spot. They are ranked 4th in franchise valuation (according to Forbes “The Business of Hockey”) in 2020 at $1.085B. As an original six franchise, their national popularity is high, and they are prevalent in national broadcasts and special events, such as the Stadium Series and Winter Classic.

They have a rabid fan base in a major media market, and they consistently sell out games at the United Center. They have everything working in their favor from a marketing perspective, and a fan base ready to reward success, so how do they get back to being a perennial playoff participant?

As President of Hockey Operations and General Manager of the Blackhawks, Stan Bowman is in a position to affect the entire spectrum of the on-ice product, and the hockey operations as a whole. But today, Stan is taking a day off, and we are taking his place. We have 24 hours to change the fortunes of the ‘Hawks, and there is a lot of work to do.

In our 24 hours, we are going to tackle several aspects of the hockey operation: The Coaching Staff, the Roster, and The IceHogs. I am staying away from the United Center and associated topics, just for simplicity’s sake.

The Coaching Staff

Jeremy Colliton and his staff were placed in a very difficult situation. How do you follow Coach Q? Sports history teaches us that you never want to be the first guy to replace a legend, whether it be a player or coach. And so far, it has played out exactly as you would expect. Moments where it looks like they are making great progress, followed by moments that make you wonder whether they should be coaching this team.

For this exercise, we will focus only on the bench coaches for the team. That includes Jeremy Colliton, Head Coach; Sheldon Brookbank, Assistant Coach; Tomas Mitell, Assistant Coach; Marc Crawford, Assistant Coach; and Jimmy Waite, Goaltending Coach. When they came on board for the 2019-2020 season, Blackhawk Up’s Jimmy Lynch talked about their roles here.

Coach Colliton is lauded for his communication skills, as well as his work with younger players. He plays things pretty close to the vest and is not a screamer-type coach on the bench. The players on the squad speak pretty well of him, and he seems to carry the approval of the veteran leaders on the team.  He is still very young by NHL coaching standards, the same age as Brent Seabrook.

The ultimate arbiter of success or failure is the record of the team. And this team, with 2 seasons (albeit very strange ones) with Colliton as the Head Coach, the ‘Hawks have failed to qualify for the playoffs. They have maintained a competitive team until late in the season, but seem to falter near the end of the year, and lack the push to make it to the Playoff 16…

Ultimately, I don’t think Colliton is experienced enough to navigate this rebuild on the fly. He seems stubbornly committed to running his defensive scheme, which has the ‘Hawks near the bottom of the league the last 2 seasons. A more experienced coach would adapt to something that could get better results. My choice would be to replace him for next season.

Sheldon Brookbank was identified as the Blackhawks Defense and Penalty Killing (PK) coach. The eye test says the ‘Hawks struggled on defense, and the basic stats back that up. In the 2020-2021 season, they gave up the second-most shots in the league, second only to Buffalo. The prior season, they gave up the most shots in the league. (per Hockey Reference).

On the PK, they slipped from 9th in the league (82.13%) in 2019-2020 to 28th (4th lowest) in 2020-2021 (76.82%). Much of this stemmed from teams being able to sustain long periods of time in the Blackhawks zone, and wearing them down, causing mental and physical errors.

When the two areas you are responsible for get appreciably worse from year 1 to year 2 under your guidance, that’s far from a good sign. I would replace him for next season.

Tomas Mitell was tabbed as a Player Development Coach for the ‘Hawks. Based on the performance of the young forwards this past season, I would say he did his job reasonably well. The question here is whether you trust him with the influx of young talent coming onto the Blackhawks roster for the next 2-4 years. Since my intention would be to replace the Head Coach, I would assume he gets caught up in the turnover and is replaced for next season.

Marc Crawford is the most experienced coach on the Blackhawks staff by far. The expectation was that he would manage the Special Teams. If he was working with Brookbank on the PK, that’s a pretty rough performance for him.

On the Power Play, the ‘Hawks were 28th in the league in 2019-2020, at 15.21%. They improved a lot in 2020-2021, finishing 11th at 21.71%. Much of this can be attributed to Alex DeBrincat’s rebound season, but the Power Play did improve by 6.5%. That’s more than just one player.

As a steadying veteran on the bench, there is nothing Crawford hasn’t seen or been a part of. As a former Head Coach, he knows how to run a team as well. I think you need that presence on the bench, so I would keep him for next season.

Jimmy Waite: Based on his reputation, and the performance of his charges, I would not do anything with Jimmy Waite. He has been with the ‘Hawks since 2014 and just based on last season alone, the performance he got out of Kevin Lankinen and Malcolm Subban is worthy of keeping him around. He stays in Chicago for next season.

The Roster

The Blackhawks roster is in a state of transition right now. You have older players coming to the end of long-term deals, as well as several players on Entry-Level Contracts (ELCs), and a sprinkling of players in their prime on short-term contracts. While every team has this dynamic to some degree, it creates questions for a team like the ‘Hawks, who have missed the playoffs for several years in a row.

So what do you do? Blow up the roster, trade multiple players, and load up on young prospects, draft picks, and cap space? Do you stay the course, and transition the roster over the next several years, and plan to compete for playoff spots in 2023-2024? Or do you move prospects and young players for one more run at the title with your core group of Kane, Toews, Keith, and DeBrincat?

In my opinion, the ‘Hawks have the right idea with what they are doing right now. Youth must be served, and they need to replenish the pipeline after trading away so much talent to try and stay in the Stanley Cup hunt for the last 6 seasons. But that’s not to say they can’t find ways to improve in the short term.

Since I do not believe the Blackhawks are playoff contenders for the 2021-2022 season, my plan would be to identify players who do not fit my long-term vision for the roster (think guys like Zadorov, Nylander, Carpenter, and Connolly) and trade them for any draft assets I can get, and play more young players this season to more accurately assess where the talent level is in the organization. 

This gives you hope for the future, but also an exciting team to watch, as you will want to see the young players like Brandon Hagel build on an exciting debut season, plus the continued development of players like Kirby Dach and Adam Boqvist, and see the team establish an identity for the future.

The IceHogs

The Blackhawks recently took full control over the Rockford IceHogs, their AHL affiliate. The team has been seeing 4 straight years of declining attendance, and an aging facility for fans to attend and watch games. There is a decent amount of talent that played in Rockford this past season, including several Blackhawks draft picks.

To evolve into a first-class hockey operation, the ‘Hawks and the ‘Hogs need to be in lock-step on everything from strategy and scheme, to player development, to branding and marketing. This move to take control is a step in the right direction.

As the President of Hockey Operations, I would look at moving the IceHogs to a new location. Rockford has a special relationship with the ‘Hogs, but I can’t ignore 4 years of declining attendance and the state of their facility. Plus, my loyal ‘Hawks fan base needs a more accessible venue to draw more fans, and create more crossover opportunities for revenue and brand-building.

I might also consider re-naming them (maybe to the IceHawks?), but would also work on changing up their branding and logos to be consistent with the NHL team. I would find a new venue for them or build one, that can handle up to 12,000 fans, and host special events there as well to keep generating excitement and revenue for the organization.

I would also make it a priority to beef up the marketing for the team, so that not only can they hype up future Blackhawks’ fan favorites, but also high-end prospects of other teams coming to town, so there are multiple layers of appeal for IceHogs games. AHL hockey can be a profitable business for the Blackhawks organization if they do it right.