Confirmed with Link: Oilers hire Stan Bowman as GM & Executive VP- press conference at 10:30

[Oilhawks]

According to the Jenner report, Aldrich did not recieve any recommendation via letter or otherwise from the Hawks and got the positions afterwards at the highschool independently of the Hawks entirely, utilizing his own personal connections through his uncle. None of his post Hawks jobs or resumes even have any record of him having worked for the Hawks.

Ah thanks, I missed that. I wonder how that rumour got started. Good to know that no one did that

 

[ChaoticOrange]

Ah thanks, I missed that. I wonder how that rumour got started. Good to know that no one did that

Likely because Quenneville did write positive performance evaluations of Aldrich.

 

[iCanada]

Ah thanks, I missed that. I wonder how that rumour got started. Good to know that no one did that

Yeah I will say that actually reading the Jenner report and that detail in particular dulled a lot of the rage I felt towards the Hawks to be honest.

That portion and rumor was actively harmful, unacceptable and the kind of thing that just makes you want to punch someone; how the f*** could you endorse someone who you don't trust to work with men to work with children?! Like wake the f*** up.

Outside of that - I don't really find how the Hawks handled it to be that egregious. To be honest I think they likely handled it better than 90% of companies would have. Just ask Hockey Canada, USA Gymnastics, Penn State, Baylor University, etc...

Again... The Hawks took the matter seriously, investigated it, and fired the guy. Period. Look at the above where they didn't take it seriously, ignored it, it actually swept something under the rug or hid something and covered for people.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

This is exactly what happened when Ken Holland shook loose out of Detroit and Bob Nicholson positively wet his pants falling all over himself to hire him. We've learned absolutely nothing as an organization.

Once again we have to ask if the Oilers ever considered anyone else or did any due diligence. Like the OP said, there was smoke around this weeks ago.

 

[Canovin]

This is exactly what happened when Ken Holland shook loose out of Detroit and Bob Nicholson positively wet his pants falling all over himself to hire him. We've learned absolutely nothing as an organization.

Bob Nicholson might be the worst hire the Oilers ever made. He knew jack all about actual hockey. How he got where he got there must be filled with skeletons. If JJ was at helm even with Chia, we might have won multiple cups

 

[Salvaged Ship]

He also added Panarin for nothing, so that's a weird point. It's not like he was going to be able to keep Panarin. If Bowman got us the next Panarin, hed have to trade him too. There is a cap.

He did make mistakes with the roster but he is coming in at the same point in the team's evolution. It's about maintaining the core rather than building it. Hopefully he learned from his mistakes. That's probably why he got hired. In his interviews, he was likely the only one who had detailed plans and understanding of our team and its challenges

He had to get rid of Panarin because of dumb signings like the Seabrook extension when clearly the guy was in decline. Those are the hard decisions you have to make, he screwed up too many times and as the core aged he had them locked in to a point he was screwed when a player like Panarin came along. The guy gave out long term contracts with no movement clauses like candy. He buried the franchise, with Seth Jones being the cherry on top. You figure out how to keep a guy like Panarin. As far as how he will do with the Oilers, with his track record on handling contract extensions and maneuvering the cap I don’t like it long term. Short term it’s easy, the roster is as good as there is in the league. I wish the Oilers well, I am not going to turn on them because of this asshat but I don’t like it and hope he is on a very short leash.

 

[K1984]

He had to get rid of Panarin because of dumb signings like the Seabrook extension when clearly the guy was in decline. Those are the hard decisions you have to make, he screwed up too many times and as the core aged he had them locked in to a point he was screwed when a player like Panarin came along. The guy gave out long term contracts with no movement clauses like candy. He buried the franchise, with Seth Jones being the cherry on top. You figure out how to keep a guy like Panarin. As far as how he will do with the Oilers, with his track record on handling contract extensions and maneuvering the cap I don’t like it long term. Short term it’s easy, the roster is as good as there is in the league. I wish the Oilers well, I am not going to turn on them because of this asshat but I don’t like it and hope he is on a very short leash.

I don't think Panarin was a cap move, it was a "need to shake up the core" panic move after getting swept in the first round despite finishing 1st in the Conference.

At the time I remember something along the lines of the "core" telling him that they missed Saad and needed to get him back. I could be wrong as this is purely on memory, but I'm pretty sure this was a "right the ship" attempt more than anything, which is probably worse.

 

[MoontoScott]

Ah thanks, I missed that. I wonder how that rumour got started. Good to know that no one did that

This whole issue really transcends the world of sports.

Sexual abuse is nothing new in sports at either the college or pro levels (or for that matter at the "society" level). If you look closely there are literally hundreds of cases like this that have been underreported over the decades with multiple teams.

I have said before (and will say again) that if an athlete goes out and buys a stick of weed then everybody jumps out of their seats and asks what kind of person is this and why do we have him on the team? Suspend the guy for being disrespectful and breaking the law.

But when these very serious matters of physical and mental abuse occur then you tend to get the old "boys will be boys" mentality. As an "eye opener" I would recommend a book called (appropriately) "Boys will be Boys" written by a guy called Jeff Pearlman. Its the story of the Dallas Cowboys under Jimmy Johnston and Jerry Jones but it really is about pro sports in general. Some of the stuff will shock you (and I don't shock too easily). The Cowboys' Hall of Fame receiver from the 1990's got special attention in the book. So did the team owner who clearly set the wrong example. By the time you are done reading it you wonder if Caligula would be right at home with these guys.

Anyway, I don't know if Bowman deserves another chance or not but this situation certainly reminds me of the Eskimos and the Eric Tillman fiasco. Fans said "don't do this" but the team did it anyway. And once its done its difficult to back up on.

 

[belair]

Yeah, completely comparable.

So explain why this hiring excites you? Even if you put the "morality" aside he's still a bad GM.

I don't see why anyone would get excited about front office hires in the first place. There's nothing you know about these people or how they go about their job.

This guy doesn't even get to bring in his own coaches or scouts.

 

[McDNicks17]

People on reddit acting like Bowman was the rapist himself. Crazy

They want to do a boycott of a national broadcast and think that all the seats will be empty haha.

They’re a different breed over there.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

I don't see why anyone would get excited about front office hires in the first place. There's nothing you know about these people or how they go about their job.

This guy doesn't even get to bring in his own coaches or scouts.

There's an entire body of work in Chicago for us to observe. There's a reason they're such a poor team at the moment and Bowman is one reason for it.

 

[Canovin]

I don't see why anyone would get excited about front office hires in the first place. There's nothing you know about these people or how they go about their job.

This guy doesn't even get to bring in his own coaches or scouts.

That's not true. Bowman is allowed to bring in his dad

 

[K1984]

They want to do a boycott of a national broadcast and think that all the seats will be empty haha.

They’re a different breed over there.

I've learned that Reddit is generally the home of reactionary emotional sanctimony.

I got accosted there for making a thread about how I hate the City of Edmonton's new garbage system because they pick up the large garbage too infrequently, which doesn't work for people with pets and small kids.

"SOUNDS LIKE YOU NEED TO RECYCLE MORE OR PRODUCE LESS WASTE!!" was the general, dickish response. Probably easier done from the comfort of mom's basement, but not for the rest of us.

 

[belair]

There's an entire body of work in Chicago for us to observe. There's a reason they're such a poor team at the moment and Bowman is one reason for it.

The reason Chicago is poor now is because they won three Stanley Cups in a short period of time. There are no franchises that avoid that downturn caused by a lack of quality futures spent maintaining a competitive roster.

 

[Salvaged Ship]

I don't think Panarin was a cap move, it was a "need to shake up the core" panic move after getting swept in the first round despite finishing 1st in the Conference.

At the time I remember something along the lines of the "core" telling him that they missed Saad and needed to get him back. I could be wrong as this is purely on memory, but I'm pretty sure this was a "right the ship" attempt more than anything, which is probably worse.

If that was the case I agree, it was worse! And I can’t believe Kane wanted Saad back over Panarin, didn’t he win the Hart passing the puck over to Panarin that season?

 

[belair]

That's not true. Bowman is allowed to bring in his dad

That's a bad thing?

 

[foshizzle]

yes of course he should have, it was a mistake and he paid for it

but when the President and CEO says "I'll take care of it" you assume he did...then you focus on the team's playoff run

lol- he didn’t pay jack shit for it. The kid that was sexually assaulted after did.

Even with Kyle Beach- Stan stayed silent for 10 years until it was leaked. He’s a smart enough man to know being “fired” isn’t the avenue that needed to be pursued here. Silence is complicity

 

[TopShelfGloveSide]

I've learned that Reddit is generally the home of reactionary emotional sanctimony.

I got accosted there for making a thread about how I hate the City of Edmonton's new garbage system because they pick up the large garbage too infrequently, which doesn't work for people with pets and small kids.

"SOUNDS LIKE YOU NEED TO RECYCLE MORE OR PRODUCE LESS WASTE!!" was the general, dickish response. Probably easier done from the comfort of mom's basement, but not for the rest of us.

lol easy for them to say until they have a family. Before they know it they will be the ones bitching about garbage can space and property tax.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

The reason Chicago is poor now is because they won three Stanley Cups in a short period of time. There are no franchises that avoid that downturn caused by a lack of quality futures spent maintaining a competitive roster.

Weird how most of the other teams that won a Cup during the 2010s are still relatively competitive and yet Chicago went into the shitter.

Bowman made a series of bad trades that helped the downward spiral.

 

[Salvaged Ship]

The reason Chicago is poor now is because they won three Stanley Cups in a short period of time. There are no franchises that avoid that downturn caused by a lack of quality futures spent maintaining a competitive roster.

Many teams have stayed competitive and contending after winning cups, at least not drop to an NHL bottom feeder. Boston, Pittsburgh, Tampa, even LA. He drove them from a cup winning franchise to the Buffalo Sabres. You can say its better than staying mediocre but building a team by tanking and draft picks is such a long term process and crap shoot with picking 18 year olds.Ask Buffalo and Arizona (Utah) how that has worked for them. His moves forced them into this. They lucked out with Bedard but they are many years away from contending, and that’s if most of their draft picks reach high levels.

 

[K1984]

lol easy for them to say until they have a family. Before they know it they will be the ones bitching about garbage can space and property tax.

For sure, it will be some stump speech about how the city doesn't care about families or some manufactured bullshit to play victim.

Currently my black can gets about 50% full with purely diapers by about day 5 after pickup. Getting lectured about putting food waste in the green bin won't help that.

 

[foshizzle]

Again, people make mistakes. With the benefit of hindsight and a view from 10,000 feet you're absolutely right. I'm sure he would probably agree with you himself.

I've never made a mistake on a matter like this, but there have been plenty of times in my career where something bad has happened and I thought "f*** I'm an idiot for not checking back on that." Didn't mean I didn't care. Didn't mean I was naive about the nature of the problem or the risks. Just meant I f***ed something up because I made a mistake.

If Stan Bowman was the singular perfect human being on the planet that is incapable of error, then sure, ban him forever. He's human, and he f***ed up and there is no doubt he knows it.

His “mistake” caused a life long impact on a teenaged kid. This isn’t an “error” that resulted in a traffic violation- this resulted in another victim. Tell me how you would feel if your kid was molested by someone who was known to be a sexual predator by the Oilers and found a job at your kids school. I’m sure you would be completely cool if that person who hid it for 10 years was just like “sorry, my bad”

 

[SupremeTeam16]

After sleeping on it and seeing the visceral reactions I am more and more scratching my head at why Jackson went down this road. He must really feel Bowman is worth the trouble or underestimated the blowback.

I find myself confused as well, Jackson is way too smart to believe the team wouldn’t face considerable backlash and how he’s commented on how the front office will run and how decisions will be made, it seems like while maybe there’s some traits he values in Bowman he likely could of found another similar candidate without the baggage. Its why I don’t think Bowman’s past GM track record is all that relevant because Jackson is going to have the final say on player personnel, trades and signings so really it’s his judgement that matters and going off what he’s done so far I’m confident the team will be making good moves.

It’s why the decision to deal with the headache of hiring Bowman is perplexing and I’ve come up with two possible reasons for it. The first is to use the opportunity to spin a negative into a positive, once they quell the initial backlash I wouldn’t be surprised to see them doing more work in this space, rolling out awareness initiatives, maybe work through the community foundation, maybe a 50/50 in support of victims of abuse. Working with stakeholders in this space and taking steps to raise awareness, visibility and be a leader. Spin it as hiring someone else would have been the easy thing to do but Bowman’s hiring gives them an opportunity to confront and bring awareness to a difficult subject. Bowman’s mistake and subsequent work to educate himself and the sharing of his experiences could help others make better decisions in the future if they find themselves in a similar position.

The second reason is using the public hate as motivation. Jackson likely knew the hiring would come with a lot of hate directed towards the team and that can be extremely motivating. That outside noise tends to galvanize an us vs the world mentality and really when people are hating on you there’s no better feeling then throwing success in their faces,it can be a really powerful tool. Thats one of the reasons I love Michael Jordan, the guy would invent slights and situations to use as motivation, what if this is just a version of that on Jackson’s part. Floyd Mayweather is another one of these athletes who loved making people hate him just so he could use that as motivation to win.

 

[K1984]

His “mistake” caused a life long impact on a teenaged kid. This isn’t an “error” that resulted in a traffic violation- this resulted in another victim. Tell me how you would feel if your kid was molested by someone who was known to be a sexual predator by the Oilers and found a job at your kids school. I’m sure you would be completely cool if that person who hid it for 10 years was just like “sorry, my bad”

Yep, fully aware that some mistakes are more consequential than others. Thanks though.

 

[foshizzle]

Ah thanks, I missed that. I wonder how that rumour got started. Good to know that no one did that

It was in the original law suit. I think the term was a recommendation- though I don’t recall it being verbal or written. Eventually it was removed because they couldn’t find concrete evidence

Yep, fully aware that some mistakes are more consequential than others. Thanks though.

I don’t think you are because you seem to feel this is just a “mistake” like forgetting your wallet at home while driving to 7-11