Oilers hire Stan Bowman as GM & EVP of Hockey Ops

[Space umpire]

you’re refuting arguments I never made but enjoy your strawman victory and weird flex about having an AA in criminal justice.

LOL, actually my AA (earned in 1982) has never been used. I’m a retired teamster truck driver and retiring fully in 7 months when I turn 62.
But even then you could not prosecute someone without a victim unless you could reasonably prove the victim was dead.

So what should Bowman have done?

 

[Space umpire]

One thing I know.
I was born/raised in Chicago so my heart lies there.
I live in Florida and attend 20-25 games a year split generally evenly between the Panthers and Lightning. Following those teams fairly closely has created a secondary rooting interest.
After reading all the blatantly fake goodie two shoes accounts about what people claim they would have done while they have basic facts about what occurred wrong and evidently zero knowledge of corporate structure in the real world …
I hope the oilers wins cup soon so I can laugh at you all.

 

[BlueSeal]

What should he have done?

Call the police? And tell them what? (Be specific).

You call the NHL department that handles this shit and have them launch an investigation. If nothing comes of it, that's fantastic but you did your job and watched over the folks and franchise like you're supposed to. In my job I'm a mandated reporter, is there some reason that a GM like Bowman with all the folks under him and responsibilities wouldn't be?

Everyone is working together but each person in the mix has an agenda and even though its a mutually accepted deal, whatever it is, doesn't make what happened right or the initial response to it forgivable. That initial response is what tells about one's character over anything and else. Everything after that is hindsight and what we're seeing now is 95% of that.

A mandated reporter is liable if they fail to report or report honestly, and I mean jail time liable. Bowman has gotten packages, money, forgiveness and a GM job back after all of this.

What price has he paid?

 

[Space umpire]

You call the NHL department that handles this shit and have them launch an investigation. If nothing comes of it, that's fantastic but you did your job and watched over the folks and franchise like you're supposed to. In my job I'm a mandated reporter, is there some reason that a GM like Bowman with all the folks under him and responsibilities wouldn't be?

Everyone is working together but each person in the mix has an agenda and even though its a mutually accepted deal, whatever it is, doesn't make what happened right or the initial response to it forgivable. That initial response is what tells about one's character over anything and else. Everything after that is hindsight and what we're seeing now is 95% of that.

A mandated reporter is liable if they fail to report or report honestly, and I mean jail time liable. Bowman has gotten packages, money, forgiveness and a GM job back after all of this.

What price has he paid?

Launch an investigation how?
I’ve represented labor (not management) at the union level (teamsters) for nearly 30 years until I retired there in 2022.
He cannot LEGALLY do anything without the players permission.
You call the cops and file a report saying person x was molested by person y and person x is sueing you and your organization for millions.
Some of you really have no concept of how this works.
Also no department head (Quenneville) or division head (Bowman) is going to report the heard 2nd hand with not direct evidence of a crime when the corporate VP told them to stand down.
The police will not investigate without at least 1st hand knowledge (victim of crime or eye witness to crime)
So stop pretending what a great guy you are when all it shows is how little you know.

 

[PaulD]

I sincerely hope nothing bad ever happens to anyone around you if you feel this is the case.

Sure you do.
Bowman and Beach have a great working relationship today.
All negligent parties were disciplined and suspended for over 2 years.
All have spoke of remorse and regret for their lack of action at the time.
All have been willing to work with others to prevent this from happening to some one else in hockey.
Bettman and the NHL are lifting their ban.
If all those involved are good and put in the work since the incident.....including the victim. Well, that's good enought for me.

ps .Bowman is gonna win his 4th Cup in Edmonton .
But he won't soon be chasing his dad's number.

Cheers

 

[Mattilaus]

Sure you do.
Bowman and Beach have a great working relationship today.
All negligent parties were disciplined and suspended for over 2 years.
All have spoke of remorse and regret for their lack of action at the time.
All have been willing to work with others to prevent this from happening to some one else in hockey.
If all those involved are good and put in the work since the incident.....including the victim. Well, that's good enought for me.

ps .Bowman is gonna win his 4th Cup in Edmonton .
But he won't soon be chasing his dad's number.

Cheers

Classic

"Bowman did nothing wrong!!! What was he supposed to do if Beach didn't want to go to the police?!"

Then in the next breath talk about how he should be forgiven because he has undergone training and work to ensure it doesn't happen again in the future.

So which is it? Was there nothing he could do? Or does he require training/work to correct his behaviour for the next time? If he didn't do anything wrong the first time why does he need training?

Don't worry about responding, I know it'll just be more bullshit.

 

[FiveTacos]

Launch an investigation how?
I’ve represented labor (not management) at the union level (teamsters) for nearly 30 years until I retired there in 2022.
He cannot LEGALLY do anything without the players permission.

There are other avenues to investigate besides criminal investigations. The investigation that happened 11 years later was not conducted by the police.

They could have hired someone to do an internal investigation, and suspended the accused with pay pending the results. If he's cleared or it's inconclusive so be it. If there's wrongdoing then they at minimum could have fired him with cause, and without naming the victim could have made it known why so that he would not be able to go out and victimize others easily.

You really think Beach told them about it while simultaneously expecting them to do nothing? The lawsuit and it's details suggests otherwise.

Really in a few days we've gone from defenders saying "Bowman screwed up and paid his price but has learned," to now "he did everything right". What's next, you folks gonna build him a statue and call him the real victim?

 

[BlueSeal]

Launch an investigation how?
I’ve represented labor (not management) at the union level (teamsters) for nearly 30 years until I retired there in 2022.
He cannot LEGALLY do anything without the players permission.
You call the cops and file a report saying person x was molested by person y and person x is sueing you and your organization for millions.
Some of you really have no concept of how this works.
Also no department head (Quenneville) or division head (Bowman) is going to report the heard 2nd hand with not direct evidence of a crime when the corporate VP told them to stand down.
The police will not investigate without at least 1st hand knowledge (victim of crime or eye witness to crime)
So stop pretending what a great guy you are when all it shows is how little you know.

How little I know? Do you even know what a mandated reporter is or should I take your demeanor as not knowing and exhibiting your nature, since you aim to try to belittle me over educating me. Should I assume that's how Teamsters do things?

You wish to educate, then do so. The moment you seek out to insult people is when you lose the argument.

Would you like to try again with a different tone? I'd like to hear about your experience and how your CBAs are similar or differ than NHLPA CBAs since that's where your experience would be vital in understanding this. I'm under a CBA with my own Union, so I understand the base concept and what mine says and I also know they can all be quite different.

I'm not against being told I'm wrong and here's why, I'm just not going to sit down to a bully who doesn't even acknowledge the concept of mandated reporting. It's ok if you don't know, but don't gloss over it and try to be high-handed. That won't work with me.

So be my friend. We all seem to be on the same page, it's the details we're struggling to work out amongst one another. So let's do that.

 

[Crow]

Okay, tell me the names of the other victims. They came forward and by your logic that means everyone on the planet know who they are. So go ahead, tell us their names. They must not care if people know since they came forward.

I’m not very well informed about other criminal cases BA was involved in beyond knowing that he was convicted for 4th degree sexual misconduct with a minor. I don’t even know what that really means but I’m sure it’s deplorable. Minors are afforded additional protection when it comes to their identity. Adult victims also have rights to remain anonymous in the media, but those protections often fail. Details of the case that are permissible to publish such as the date, location, age of victim, accused party, etc can narrow down the field of victims to a single possibility. This actually happened to Kyle Beach before he went public with his name. Posts here were deleted naming him. Had gone to the police at the time it’s extremely likely that he would have been easily identified right away.

Long story short its a victims place to report a crime. If you don’t understand why at this point google “what I should and shouldn’t do to help someone who was a victim of sexual assault” and educate yourself on those and many other implications of going against a victim’s wishes to report their crime for them.

 

[BlueSeal]

There are other avenues to investigate besides criminal investigations. The investigation that happened 11 years later was not conducted by the police.

They could have hired someone to do an internal investigation, and suspended the accused with pay pending the results. If he's cleared or it's inconclusive so be it. If there's wrongdoing then they at minimum could have fired him with cause, and without naming the victim could have made it known why so that he would not be able to go out and victimize others easily.

You really think Beach told them about it while simultaneously expecting them to do nothing? The lawsuit and it's details suggests otherwise.

Really in a few days we've gone from defenders saying "Bowman screwed up and paid his price but has learned," to now "he did everything right". What's next, you folks gonna build him a statue and call him the real victim?

Thank you.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

LOL, actually my AA (earned in 1982) has never been used. I’m a retired teamster truck driver and retiring fully in 7 months when I turn 62.
But even then you could not prosecute someone without a victim unless you could reasonably prove the victim was dead.

So what should Bowman have done?

Congrats on nearing retirement! (Sincerely)

There were allegations of one of the teams coaches sexually assaulting one of the teams players. It should be glaringly obvious how serious of a situation that is. A coach may have sexually assaulted a player. It should set off alarms all through the organization and be investigated immediately. It may not have led to a prosecution but you foster an environment where someone is more likely to come forward and may eventually testify if necessary. The Blackhawks fostered a culture that empowered the predator by keeping it secret.

It’s naive to think he passed word along and assumed it just got handled. Any reasonable person would at least ask “so whatever happened with that prospect of ours and our video coach?” Actually any reasonable person would likely think “do we need to fire this guy? Do we need to call the police? Has anyone talked to legal about this?” And you can bet that there were conversations with legal about the exposure and implications of a potential assault.

It wasn’t a miscommunication or a bad assumption. They all wanted it to go away and succeeded for a decade. These guys were admiring their names being engraved on the Cup just a few names away from a sexual predator.

 

[archangel2]

This guy should have not been allowed back

 

[SaltNPeca]

we're so back

 

[TheNumber4]

Nobody is saying he had to do the exact right one thing or he is terrible, but how about him doing literally anything at all? That's too much to ask I guess. Call me crazy but I think I personally would be able to rise over the VERY low bar of doing literally anything. It's a shame you feel you wouldn't.

You say he did “literally” nothing at all but that’s not true. He heard the allegation, and at that time all is was was an allegation. He was told by his boss, a boss characterized by his employees as being “extremely controlling” that his boss would handle it. He assumed the boss had handled it cause the boss brought the issue to HR which resulted in Aldrich’s resignation. In his head, at the time, Bowman assumed something already had been done. His assumption was wrong, and his negligent management had him fired as the Hawks GM and Olympics GM. Upon more coming to light recently when Beach brought it to the public, he then put in the work to educate himself and better himself in these situations moving forward. So there’s a reasonable reason for some of Bowman’s inaction and when faced with his own mistakes he’s made plenty of actions to atone for that mistake.

 

[PaulD]

Classic

"Bowman did nothing wrong!!! What was he supposed to do if Beach didn't want to go to the police?!"

Then in the next breath talk about how he should be forgiven because he has undergone training and work to ensure it doesn't happen again in the future.

So which is it? Was there nothing he could do? Or does he require training/work to correct his behaviour for the next time? If he didn't do anything wrong the first time why does he need training?

Don't worry about responding, I know it'll just be more bullshit.

your arguing with the wrong poster. I never said Bowman did nothing wrong.
for that matter. Neither did the NHL. Neither did Bowman himself.

Go respond to some one who actually said that.

Cheers

 

[TheNumber4]

There’s a difference between investigation and police investigation. The Blackhawks should have conducted an investigation, their own HR dept guidelines states exactly that, and the Jenner and Block report states that that lack of an investigation is what the Hawks management group did wrong. But that’s different from a police investigation. A police investigation should NOT have been requested by the Hawks without approval by the victim.

Classic

"Bowman did nothing wrong!!! What was he supposed to do if Beach didn't want to go to the police?!"

Then in the next breath talk about how he should be forgiven because he has undergone training and work to ensure it doesn't happen again in the future.

So which is it? Was there nothing he could do? Or does he require training/work to correct his behaviour for the next time? If he didn't do anything wrong the first time why does he need training?

Don't worry about responding, I know it'll just be more bullshit.

Why would you put in quotes something no one has ever said? Or atleast not the person you are speaking to.

 

[Three On Zero]

Launch an investigation how?
I’ve represented labor (not management) at the union level (teamsters) for nearly 30 years until I retired there in 2022.
He cannot LEGALLY do anything without the players permission.
You call the cops and file a report saying person x was molested by person y and person x is sueing you and your organization for millions.
Some of you really have no concept of how this works.
Also no department head (Quenneville) or division head (Bowman) is going to report the heard 2nd hand with not direct evidence of a crime when the corporate VP told them to stand down.
The police will not investigate without at least 1st hand knowledge (victim of crime or eye witness to crime)
So stop pretending what a great guy you are when all it shows is how little you know.

That’s false.

Legally he is allowed to file a formal complaint or call in with a concern that the police can investigate. Although that is quite an extreme measure for these types of situations.

 

[Laus723]

“What’s the latest in this thre…never mind.

 

[Space umpire]

There are other avenues to investigate besides criminal investigations. The investigation that happened 11 years later was not conducted by the police.

They could have hired someone to do an internal investigation, and suspended the accused with pay pending the results. If he's cleared or it's inconclusive so be it. If there's wrongdoing then they at minimum could have fired him with cause, and without naming the victim could have made it known why so that he would not be able to go out and victimize others easily.

You really think Beach told them about it while simultaneously expecting them to do nothing? The lawsuit and it's details suggests otherwise.

Really in a few days we've gone from defenders saying "Bowman screwed up and paid his price but has learned," to now "he did everything right". What's next, you folks gonna build him a statue and call him the real victim?

Did you read what you wrote before you clicked post?
The employee resigned before the investigation started so your entire 2nd paragraph is meaningless nonsense.

Do you even know what Bowman (and Q) were disciplined by the league for.
I do, all the things people are saying he (they) should have done that day are not what they were suspended for.
It’s the follow up, a week or 2 later. Make sure McDonough did his job.
They were not disciplined for not usurping corporate structure.
They were not disciplined for not calling the cops.
They were not disciplined for not holding a press conference and going public.
They were disciplined for not checking with him shortly after and even in the future.

Not many people are saying Bowman did nothing wrong but where most of you are saying Bowman dropped the ball. … isn’t.

Bowman admits he should have handled it differently. In that the termination was not his role (as much as many of you want it to be) is not in question. Where he dropped the ball was not contacting Beach after to see if he needed help (counseling or otherwise).

I get you hate the Oilers but you’re just wrong in your take here. It’s a waste of time I’m done with you and this.
I do hope he wins a cup with the Oil so I can bring back this post and laugh at all of you self righteous but poorly informed people.

Have a great evening.

 

[Space umpire]

That’s false.

Legally he is allowed to file a formal complaint or call in with a concern that the police can investigate. Although that is quite an extreme measure for these types of situations.

That Beach could or would sue isn’t false.
Bowman can certainly call the police while having no actual evidence of a crime.
It would in Beach’s eyes tarnish his career, which is why he didn’t go public in the 1st place. Once he was outed (if you’re calling police, you’re naming names) Beach’s 1st call would have been a lawyer.

 

[HugginThePost]

This is a joke. If everyone knew before you, you suck at your job. People obviously do not trust you.
Note: read the post below by Soundwave regarding the HR role. This is 100% correct, HR are trained to deal with situations, others are trained to notice and report them

What are you even talking about? Who said everyone would know before me? Who said no one trusts me? Take a deep breath and use your head.

Do you know how many sexual harassment cases I've had to deal with in the last 20 years? You'd have to take your shoes off to count them. I've been on more training courses than I care to remember. Do you know what all of them don't mention??? Not bothering with it for a couple of weeks because you have an important Board Meeting/Playoffs coming up.

Of course, you involve HR; that's the first thing you do. They do the ground work. I've seen everything from "he drew a penis on my whiteboard" to "I was taken advantage of at the Christmas party." One of those scenarios was taken a lot more seriously than another. Can you guess which one? The investigation took about a day to conclude; the person was put on administrative leave until things went through our lawyers. As an American company, you can imagine the blowback from lawsuits if you get it wrong.

The point was that the individual was walked out of the office that day, not three weeks later. That's why my staff trusts me. I do the right thing, unlike Chicago Management, including Bowman.

 

[AnInjuredJasonZucker]

Yes, Bowman and Beach literally worked hand in hand on a hockey team and on the subject of player safety. And Kennedy has worked his entire life in that area and is a victim himself. Both have come out and supported Bowman, but apparently I’m supposed to beleive the rage baiters around here that want me to believe that Bowman is some irredeemable piece of shit? Nah. I’ll take their word and actually try to understand the facts of the case before I pass judgement.

Given the subject matter, this is the worst possible misuse of the word "literally".

 

[FiveTacos]

Did you read what you wrote before you clicked post?
The employee resigned before the investigation started so your entire 2nd paragraph is meaningless nonsense.

They gave him the choice to resign or be investigated. Problem is, an offer like that means if he is a predator, you basically let him become someone else's problem. They weren't interested in helping Beach, they weren't interested in preventing more victims. They just wanted the problem to go away.

Not many people are saying Bowman did nothing wrong but where most of you are saying Bowman dropped the ball. … isn’t.

He could have made an investigation happen if he wanted. He had clout by virtue of his name, and position.

He just didn't care if it was true or not.

Bowman admits he should have handled it differently. In that the termination was not his role (as much as many of you want it to be) is not in question. Where he dropped the ball was not contacting Beach after to see if he needed help (counseling or otherwise).

Well of course he didn't ... He did not care. He didn't care when it first happened, he didn't care after the guy ran away from a potential investigation, he didn't care for 11 years. He gets exposed and suspended and disgraced ... And all of a sudden he cares!

I get you hate the Oilers but you’re just wrong in your take here.

I don't hate the Oilers. Hell I was hoping they would win the Cup a few weeks ago. At worst I'm largely indifferent to them.

If you think hating the Oilers is the only way someone could possibly dislike what the Hawks brass did, then that must mean you think most hockey fans hate the Oilers. Because a hell of a lot of people think the Hawks brass were trashy as hell, and have thought that since this whole thing started.

Did you defend Bowman as vehemently 3 years ago? Or only after he got hired his week?

I do hope he wins a cup with the Oil so I can bring back this post and laugh at all of you self righteous but poorly informed people.

The fact that you think winning a Cup would mean anything as far as ethics goes shows that you're just like the Hawks brass who felt a Cup run was more important than dealing with an assault allegations. No wonder you defend them, you're kindred spirits.

 

[Yuke]

What are you even talking about? Who said everyone would know before me? Who said no one trusts me? Take a deep breath and use your head.

Do you know how many sexual harassment cases I've had to deal with in the last 20 years? You'd have to take your shoes off to count them. I've been on more training courses than I care to remember. Do you know what all of them don't mention??? Not bothering with it for a couple of weeks because you have an important Board Meeting/Playoffs coming up.

Of course, you involve HR; that's the first thing you do. They do the ground work. I've seen everything from "he drew a penis on my whiteboard" to "I was taken advantage of at the Christmas party." One of those scenarios was taken a lot more seriously than another. Can you guess which one? The investigation took about a day to conclude; the person was put on administrative leave until things went through our lawyers. As an American company, you can imagine the blowback from lawsuits if you get it wrong.

The point was that the individual was walked out of the office that day, not three weeks later. That's why my staff trusts me. I do the right thing, unlike Chicago Management, including Bowman.

I think you are full of crap
Without going back the comment was, everyone knows before the management. Something like that anyway.

 

[HugginThePost]

I think you are full of crap
Without going back the comment was, everyone knows before the management. Something like that anyway.

You're entitled to your opinion. I'd be happy to supply you with all the evidence you want.

The statement that you are too lazy to go back and read, but have no issue flapping your gums about, was that in a company the size of an NHL team, or my company, there are no secrets.

If someone were being targeted, especially sexually, everyone would know about it. Everyone would also see if it was being swept under the rug. If the C-Suite had done nothing, you're right; no one would have trusted us. We would have been negligent in our duties. But that didn't happen.