Oilers hire Stan Bowman as GM & EVP of Hockey Ops

[Space umpire]

So it’s clear people have gained bits of info and are pretending they have a clue.

Beach told a scout (in confidence) what had happened (not Bowman).
A meeting was called where the coaching and management staff was informed. McDonough presided over the meeting. All were informed and McD said he would handle it.
I’m not sure what most of you do for a living but once the executive VP tells you to stand down … you stand down.

The report notes the scout went back to Beach and Beach wanted to keep it private. (Nobody i Chicago buried it, Beach did, trying to protect his career.

The Hawks didn’t write a glowing letter of recommendation. The was a blank form generally used by interns downloaded from the Hawks internal web. Nobody from the hawks signed it.

It wasn’t decided to hide it for a month. Quenneville did not was the players to know the specifics.
In fact as noted the team didn’t really hide it at all.

Both Bowman and Q said they were stunned when a few weeks later he was at the UC when the team returned as champions

 

[Crazy Cizikas]

That would be the case if his boss, the president, didn’t specifically say he would handle it himself, then 3 weeks later seemingly handled it by handing the issue over to the appropriate HR dept. of the Chicago Blackhawks. Who by their own admission failed to follow their own rules and guidelines on how to handle such an accusation.

When an employee gets assaulted, you don’t tell your boss. You tell the police.

 

[brentashton]

The bigger question for me is who the hell is in charge of personnel decisions in Edmonton? Why do they keep acquiring people of questionable character?

Because the personnel they do acquire allows them to beat teams in the playoffs….like the Canucks. . As far as being questionable, that’s a subjective standard.

I mean they did get to game 7 of the SCF and all this year with their “questionable” personnel.

 

[Killer Orcas]

Because when they do it allows them to beat teams in the playoffs….like the Canucks.

I mean they did get to game 7 of the SCF and all this year.

Kane and Perry weren't really factors in Oilers getting to the finals. They have plenty of great players over there just strange they keep hiring or getting guys that are low on the morals scale.

 

[brentashton]

Kane and Perry weren't really factors in Oilers getting to the finals. They have plenty of great players over there just strange they keep hiring or getting guys that are low on the morals scale.

They have a long history as an organization of giving people second chances, and also standing up for disadvantaged and people in need. Some organizations look beyond the immediate I guess. It doesn’t affect other teams so not sure why other fan bases are upset or question it.

 

[Skolman]

Kane and Perry weren't really factors in Oilers getting to the finals. They have plenty of great players over there just strange they keep hiring or getting guys that are low on the morals scale.

And both have been stated to be incredible teammates during their time in Edmonton.

It's honestly weird how non-Oiler fans seemed to be more focused on "character issues" in Edmonton, more so than Oiler fans themselves.

 

[Nut Upstrom]

Does this mean Detroit can hire Quenneville now?

f*** off

 

[Three On Zero]

Kane and Perry weren't really factors in Oilers getting to the finals. They have plenty of great players over there just strange they keep hiring or getting guys that are low on the morals scale.

When you’re a smaller Canadian market, you sometimes have to take chances on guys when other teams don’t want them. Rarely do you have players lining up to play in Canada. Albeit Perry is overblown and Kane is reverting to his old self

 

[Skolman]

When you’re a smaller Canadian market, you sometimes have to take chances on guys when other teams don’t want them. Rarely do you have players lining up to play in Canada. Albeit Perry is overblown and Kane is reverting to his old self

How exactly is "Kane reverting to his old self"?

And what even is his "old self"?

 

[Bowski]

Who is the second guy

Dr Disrespect, who's apparently in recent trouble for underage shenanigans.

 

[Three On Zero]

How exactly is "Kane reverting to his old self"?

And what even is his "old self"?

Pretty silly questions for how publicized a guy like Kane is

 

[Mattilaus]

So it’s clear people have gained bits of info and are pretending they have a clue.

Beach told a scout (in confidence) what had happened (not Bowman).
A meeting was called where the coaching and management staff was informed. McDonough presided over the meeting. All were informed and McD said he would handle it.
I’m not sure what most of you do for a living but once the executive VP tells you to stand down … you stand down.

The report notes the scout went back to Beach and Beach wanted to keep it private. (Nobody i Chicago buried it, Beach did, trying to protect his career.

The Hawks didn’t write a glowing letter of recommendation. The was a blank form generally used by interns downloaded from the Hawks internal web. Nobody from the hawks signed it.

It wasn’t decided to hide it for a month. Quenneville did not was the players to know the specifics.
In fact as noted the team didn’t really hide it at all.

Both Bowman and Q said they were stunned when a few weeks later he was at the UC when the team returned as champions

Okay so assuming everything you have typed here is accurate, what did Bowman and Q do after they were stunned to see Aldritch at the UC a few weeks later? What did they do in the following months/years? What did they do when they found out he became employed at a high school in a position where he could offend again?

 

[Yuke]

When an employee gets assaulted, you don’t tell your boss. You tell the police.

So why didn't Beach go tell the police?

 

[Skolman]

Pretty silly questions for how publicized a guy like Kane is

You failed to answer the question, of course.

I imagine you'll bring up Kane's time in Winnipeg when he was a teenager, which was way overblown as that locker-room was a disaster from the leadership down.

Nonetheless, how is he reverting to his old self?

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

So why didn't Beach go tell the police?

The police are absolutely trustworthy and good at their jobs.

 

[Crazy Cizikas]

So why didn't Beach go tell the police?

I don’t know the mind of victims. That’s a deep psychological issue that I don’t understand.

But I do know that it’s probably best to not blame the victim.

 

[JPT]

Why didnt the oilers just run the Jackson guy as President of Hockey OPs and run a season with him + assistant GMs running the team

His summer moves or whoever was making moves this year have all been pretty good to great

No idea why oilers rushed to get a GM and one who was medicore/crap his last few years on the Hawks and has horrible baggage with his failure to lead and act in the Kyle Beach incident?

Someone earlier in the thread said that Jackson didn't want the job. I'm not sure about that, but I tend to put some trust in what the fans of the team say.

I don’t know the mind of victims. That’s a deep psychological issue that I don’t understand.

But I do know that it’s probably best to not blame the victim.

Yes but what if blaming the victim makes me feel better about some horrible shit I believe?

 

[brentashton]

Pretty silly questions for how publicized a guy like Kane is

Actually it’s a legit question that is being asked. How is Kane “reverting”?

 

[FiveTacos]

I’m not sure what most of you do for a living but once the executive VP tells you to stand down … you stand down.

An NHL GM is powerful enough to not do that. He ain't getting fired over it that's for sure, because the team obviously did not want to have to explain the reason for it. If he pressed the issue, something would have been done, at the very least a real investigation. Let's not pretend he's some mid-level ticket sales exec whose job was at risk for pushing back against the boss.

If I'm not seeming very forgiving, it's because more than one person close to me was a victim in their past, one of them as a child. And every one of them, decades later, is still messed up about it. Every one of them also faced situations where people who knew and had the ability to make a difference, stood by and did nothing for one reason or other, and that's almost as traumatizing as the events themselves. People chose the easy path for themselves, and allowed horrible things to happen to others as a result. The resulting suffering is immense and will have to be carried for the rest of their lives, even if they've "healed" enough to live good lives.

Meanwhile guys like Bowman got to live he life of a wildly successful GM, and as soon as his suspension was up gets rehired like a hot commodity. He may have genuine remorse but make no mistake, his and other's inactions bought him a really good life. So the thought that they should focus on the Cup ... well they got to do that for 10+ years, now didn't they? He got exactly what he wanted out of pushing things off, the whole point was that management didn't want the inconvenience or distraction of this incident to detract from what they were doing on the ice. Great, well mission accomplished I guess.

And despite the scandal, those 10 years have now bought him an immediate prime seat right back at the table as soon as his suspension was up. Unfortunately for the victims, their suffering isn't just 3 years of volunteer work and then gets washed away.

Redemption for Bowman isn't going to come in the form of a successful GM gig. They could go on to win 5 straight Cups, and it means nothing to me as far as Bowman goes. What would really mean something is if he has an ethical situation, and chooses what's right even if it means it's not good for the team's on ice situation.

 

[Yuke]

An NHL GM is powerful enough to not do that. He ain't getting fired over it that's for sure, because the team obviously did not want to have to explain the reason for it.

Have you ever been an NHL executive with the know how to make this statement?
I've managed in enough companies to know there is a hierarchy, you do not over step. It is bad for business and company moral.

 

[wetcoast]

While I still find the hire questionable, teams are free to do what they want and the NHL also reinstated the 3 and there is this from Sheldon Kennedy.

Sheldon Kennedy: New Oilers GM Bowman must 'lead by example'

Three years later, Kennedy has expressed his support for Bowman in his new role as Edmonton Oilers general manager, but encouraged the 51-year-old to "walk the walk" going forward.

www.sportsnet.ca

People here obviously are going to have divergent views for various reasons and that's fair but if Kennedy is seeing something positive out of a bad situation then that's something right?

It's better to move forward than to just condemn and ignore these situations, people are human and make mistakes no one should be judged only by their worst day or act.

 

[Z-Diddy]

And both have been stated to be incredible teammates during their time in Edmonton.

It's honestly weird how non-Oiler fans seemed to be more focused on "character issues" in Edmonton, more so than Oiler fans themselves.

While I don't dispute their teammates opinions on both players, hockey locker rooms are a very tight niche comradery, every player quickly defends one another, any small crack or quip can really have a group suffer.

It still doesn't excuse the bizarre pattern of the Oilers seemingly being a second chance recluse for people that have proven issues.

Have to look at it from both sides, there is room for redemption and forgiveness, but the fan base homerism for just ignoring the past is weirdly discouraging.

 

[57special]

So it’s clear people have gained bits of info and are pretending they have a clue.

Beach told a scout (in confidence) what had happened (not Bowman).
A meeting was called where the coaching and management staff was informed. McDonough presided over the meeting. All were informed and McD said he would handle it.
I’m not sure what most of you do for a living but once the executive VP tells you to stand down … you stand down.

The report notes the scout went back to Beach and Beach wanted to keep it private. (Nobody i Chicago buried it, Beach did, trying to protect his career.

The Hawks didn’t write a glowing letter of recommendation. The was a blank form generally used by interns downloaded from the Hawks internal web. Nobody from the hawks signed it.

It wasn’t decided to hide it for a month. Quenneville did not was the players to know the specifics.
In fact as noted the team didn’t really hide it at all.

Both Bowman and Q said they were stunned when a few weeks later he was at the UC when the team returned as champions

You are bending over backwards to pass the buck and absolve as many CHI officials as you can of any responsibility.

 

[Number8]

Gary Bettman's handling of the Chicago situation as a whole makes me wonder is the person who has pictures of Gary doing something really, really bad.

Beginning to end he's been little more than an apologist for poor old Rocky and the entire load of defects that worked for him.

 

[wetcoast]

An NHL GM is powerful enough to not do that. He ain't getting fired over it that's for sure, because the team obviously did not want to have to explain the reason for it. If he pressed the issue, something would have been done, at the very least a real investigation. Let's not pretend he's some mid-level ticket sales exec whose job was at risk for pushing back against the boss.

If I'm not seeming very forgiving, it's because more than one person close to me was a victim in their past, one of them as a child. And every one of them, decades later, is still messed up about it. Every one of them also faced situations where people who knew and had the ability to make a difference, stood by and did nothing for one reason or other, and that's almost as traumatizing as the events themselves. People chose the easy path for themselves, and allowed horrible things to happen to others as a result. The resulting suffering is immense and will have to be carried for the rest of their lives, even if they've "healed" enough to live good lives.

Meanwhile guys like Bowman got to live he life of a wildly successful GM, and as soon as his suspension was up gets rehired like a hot commodity. He may have genuine remorse but make no mistake, his and other's inactions bought him a really good life. So the thought that they should focus on the Cup ... well they got to do that for 10+ years, now didn't they? He got exactly what he wanted out of pushing things off, the whole point was that management didn't want the inconvenience or distraction of this incident to detract from what they were doing on the ice. Great, well mission accomplished I guess.

And despite the scandal, those 10 years have now bought him an immediate prime seat right back at the table as soon as his suspension was up. Unfortunately for the victims, their suffering isn't just 3 years of volunteer work and then gets washed away.

Redemption for Bowman isn't going to come in the form of a successful GM gig. They could go on to win 5 straight Cups, and it means nothing to me as far as Bowman goes. What would really mean something is if he has an ethical situation, and chooses what's right even if it means it's not good for the team's on ice situation.

Fair enough and it's always difficult to have these types of discussions with people close to such incidents online and I hope there has been healing for the people involved that you mention here.

One thing I will say is that many institutions have dealt with abuse very poorly in the past and these men were from a different generation which is different than now and that we as a society are making progress and hopefully these types of incidents become rarer and rarer and something can be learned.

The whole thing about the Black Hawks situation and some peoples views on it is that it's easy to after the fact play armchair QB or GM or whatever but the reality is that most people in put in that position probably wouldn't have acted much differently in the timeline of events and actual knowledge and not speculation was part of the problem as the timeline unfolded.

There is always a lot of uncertainty for people to act when it might bite them in the ass and a lot of people hope the other person does it, especially if the information isn't 100% obvious at the time.