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

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

I love watching the guy with super high morals who said he’d spit on people get this upset.

Yeah, completely comparable.

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

 

[Canovin]

Imo we don't need Buch. We need that 2nd line RD. But meh. Maybe they will just put Broberg there and it will work out

Broberg and Kemp/J Brown might surprise us this season. If Nurse and Kane can regain form, that's huge for us.

 

[Mr Positive]

It's just a bad look after everyone made fun of the virtanen PTO last year. Then Bowman this year. Who is it next year that gets to "put in the work" and have a PTO in 25 26? Mike Mcleod?

I've come to defend this Bowman hire but I must admit that what you say could happen. Our team went through this exact scandal before with Keith, and Bowman has done more to reconcile than Keith did. The team knows that the negative heat will dissipate and that McDavid and the rest of the core are okay with these kind of moves.

But when it comes to McLeod or Hart, they would have to clear up their legal problem first. I have to admit that I fear that even if the case is tossed out, our team will try these guys. As long as it isn't a guilty verdict, the Oilers will absorb the heat. It is a bummer

Although the difference here is that Hart and McLeod are more like Aldrich in this metaphor, rather than Bowman. Our team would not consider hiring Ulritch. With the tarnished people we target, like Keith, Kane and Bowman, the more you dig, the less bad they really seem. So maybe this is the line and that we will not target these guys who potentially were the actual abusers. Then again, the Habs did take Mallioux

 

[Canovin]

I've come to defend this Bowman hire but I must admit that what you say could happen. Our team went through this exact scandal before with Keith, and Bowman has done more to reconcile than Keith did. The team knows that the negative heat will dissipate and that McDavid and the rest of the core are okay with these kind of moves.

But when it comes to McLeod or Hart, they would have to clear up their legal problem first. I have to admit that I fear that even if the case is tossed out, our team will try these guys. As long as it isn't a guilty verdict, the Oilers will absorb the heat. It is a bummer

Although the difference here is that Hart and McLeod are more like Ulritch in this metaphor, rather than Bowman. Our team would not consider hiring Ulritch. With the tarnished people we target, like Keith, Kane and Bowman, the more you dig, the less bad they really seem. So maybe this is the line and that we will not target these guys who potentially were the actual abusers. Then again, the Habs did take Mallioux

Oilers won't touch Hart or McLeod. And let's say those guys were found not guilty, they won't be playing until 2026 at the earliest. That's 3 years of not playing at a high level.

 

[Skolman]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1816254061865492837

 

[SupremeTeam16]

The effort he put in is a good first step but it all seems so dishonest to me. I mean how long did Bowman work with Kennedy? A bit longer than 2 years? That's enough nowadays for a rape enabler? He should have the greatness to step back and not let his ego tell him: ''I want to work in the NHL again, I want to work with young people.'' But I guess money and social position meant more. 2 years lol, that's like a speedrun back to GM'ing.

Kennedy also profited greatly from Bowman's name so it went both ways Imo.

I hope he won't f*** up again.

Do you feel the same about the other enablers as you do towards Bowman?

The skating coach, team councillor, Cheveldayoff, MacIsaac, Blunk all knew, some of them even knew the details of the assault. Just like Bowman all of them knew that Aldrich was still in his position and still with the team. They all stayed silent just as Bowman did but for some reason they aren’t culpable as well? Bowman for his part has has actually worked with groups like Respect Group and has worked with Beach, and he’s tried to do things to atone and to educate himself and learn from his mistake. What have any of the others done?

The other thing I think about is what did Beach want at the time? After the team did nothing it doesn’t sound like he revisited with the team, went directly to management himself or to HR or outside the organization. Did he want this all getting dragged out in the open while his team was in the Cup finals, and even afterwards did he want the situation becoming public or did he also want it to quietly go away? What if he didn’t want this all coming out into the public and the team opened an investigation and fired Aldrich, everything would have came out.


I think it’s interesting that it boils down to Bowman is a piece of crap because he knew about the incident and didn’t speak up at the time or after Aldrich’s exit but all the other people who knew and said nothing don’t seem to be getting the same treatment. The guy is getting absolutely shredded even though he’s worked to make amends meanwhile it seems like other who knew and were involved haven’t done as much or anything and yet aren’t held to the same level of scrutiny.

 

[CookiesAndMilk]

Explain how he is a rape enabler? His boss said he'd take care of it.

His approach seemed lazy and disinterested to me. He reported to his boss and was told this will be taken care of, so far so good. But in his position, shouldn't he at least ask his boss how the whole thing went down and what the next steps are/were? Making sure some quality management process is integrated, so this shit does not happen again?

That's why I don't trust this guy. 2 years of working with Kennedy? Probably even had contact with the Oilers org before the 2 years were over. He was already thinking about GM'ing again while “redeeming” himself? f***ing clown.

Second chances for people who deserve them. Not for people to turn a blind eye to a problem, then do some redeeming and go back to it as if nothing happened.

As I mentioned, I've seen some shit because of my work and topics like this really get me going. I know that I take a pretty hardcore stance on this.

 

[North Cole]

Do you feel the same about the other enablers as you do towards Bowman?

The skating coach, team councillor, Cheveldayoff, MacIsaac, Blunk all knew, some of them even knew the details of the assault. Just like Bowman all of them knew that Aldrich was still in his position and still with the team. They all stayed silent just as Bowman did but for some reason they aren’t culpable as well? Bowman for his part has has actually worked with groups like Respect Group and has worked with Beach, and he’s tried to do things to atone and to educate himself and learn from his mistake. What have any of the others done?

The other thing I think about is what did Beach want at the time? After the team did nothing it doesn’t sound like he revisited with the team, went directly to management himself or to HR or outside the organization. Did he want this all getting dragged out in the open while his team was in the Cup finals, and even afterwards did he want the situation becoming public or did he also want it to quietly go away? What if he didn’t want this all coming out into the public and the team opened an investigation and fired Aldrich, everything would have came out.


I think it’s interesting that it boils down to Bowman is a piece of crap because he knew about the incident and didn’t speak up at the time or after Aldrich’s exit but all the other people who knew and said nothing don’t seem to be getting the same treatment. The guy is getting absolutely shredded even though he’s worked to make amends meanwhile it seems like other who knew and were involved haven’t done as much or anything and yet aren’t held to the same level of scrutiny.

This seems like a red herring. Him and the Oilers are getting roasted because he's the only one of the big three culprits back working already. The NHL got heavy smoke for reinstating them, so if you think Q or McIssac will not get roasted if they get hired, I don't know what to say.

There was a big investigation that largely cleared a lot of other people, so I'm not sure why they all would get the same treatment. They did not "all" stay silent, many of them told the people they were supposed to tell.

At the end of the day it comes down to responsibility. Lots of people want to be rich and successful, but you have to accept that comes with caveats if you choose that life. If you want to be a skating coach and make 80K a year, you can have a good enough life. If you want to be a head coach and make 2M a year, you can have a fantastic life that very few can even aspire to. Likewise when you're a GM making 3M a year or a team president making who knows how much. But when you're at the top, you get paid that much with an expectation that you have your shit together in every aspect. Outside of situations like a Jeff Bezos paying his brother 5m a year to play Minecraft in some figurehead role, your ability to deal with bullshit needs to increase exponentially everytime another zero hits the end of your salary. If you can't, you're in the wrong business and it's only a matter of time before you get run over.

I'm of the opinion that all three should have been permanently left on the side of the road by the NHL, but I'm hopeful McIssac is toxic enough waste that no one will hire him.

 

[CookiesAndMilk]

Do you feel the same about the other enablers as you do towards Bowman?

The skating coach, team councillor, Cheveldayoff, MacIsaac, Blunk all knew, some of them even knew the details of the assault. Just like Bowman all of them knew that Aldrich was still in his position and still with the team. They all stayed silent just as Bowman did but for some reason they aren’t culpable as well? Bowman for his part has has actually worked with groups like Respect Group and has worked with Beach, and he’s tried to do things to atone and to educate himself and learn from his mistake. What have any of the others done?

The other thing I think about is what did Beach want at the time? After the team did nothing it doesn’t sound like he revisited with the team, went directly to management himself or to HR or outside the organization. Did he want this all getting dragged out in the open while his team was in the Cup finals, and even afterwards did he want the situation becoming public or did he also want it to quietly go away? What if he didn’t want this all coming out into the public and the team opened an investigation and fired Aldrich, everything would have came out.


I think it’s interesting that it boils down to Bowman is a piece of crap because he knew about the incident and didn’t speak up at the time or after Aldrich’s exit but all the other people who knew and said nothing don’t seem to be getting the same treatment. The guy is getting absolutely shredded even though he’s worked to make amends meanwhile it seems like other who knew and were involved haven’t done as much or anything and yet aren’t held to the same level of scrutiny.

Yes, I do actually feel the same about all of them. If they get another job in the NHL you will see me in these threads again and I will state the same opinion. People have to understand, victims of SA are living under immense pressure, feeling shame and guilt even if they didn't do anything. If you're somewhat in the spotlight you're even more pressured and probably ask yourself "what should i do" "where can i go" "who will believe me" "who will help me".

Iirc the others (MacIsaac, Q) didn't get an endorsement like Bowman so there's at least a positive thing. But thinking that endorsement changes anything that happened is, in my opinion, just delusional.

All the people you mentioned are the lowest of low, human scum who looked away while a kid was molested and exploited. They should never be able to work in the NHL again, same goes for Bowman. Good thing he worked with Respect Group but as I said multiple times, that's the bare minimum he should have done.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

His approach seemed lazy and disinterested to me. He reported to his boss and was told this will be taken care of, so far so good. But in his position, shouldn't he at least ask his boss how the whole thing went down and what the next steps are/were? Making sure some quality management process is integrated, so this shit does not happen again?

That's why I don't trust this guy. 2 years of working with Kennedy? Probably even had contact with the Oilers org before the 2 years were over. He was already thinking about GM'ing again while “redeeming” himself? f***ing clown.

Second chances for people who deserve them. Not for people to turn a blind eye to a problem, then do some redeeming and go back to it as if nothing happened.

As I mentioned, I've seen some shit because of my work and topics like this really get me going. I know that I take a pretty hardcore stance on this.

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

 

[Canovin]

Yes, I do actually feel the same about all of them. If they get another job in the NHL you will see me in these threads again and I will state the same opinion. People have to understand, victims of SA are living under immense pressure, feeling shame and guilt even if they didn't do anything. If you're somewhat in the spotlight you're even more pressured and probably ask yourself "what should i do" "where can i go" "who will believe me" "who will help me".

Iirc the others (MacIsaac, Q) didn't get an endorsement like Bowman so there's at least a positive thing. But thinking that endorsement changes anything that happened is, in my opinion, just delusional.

All the people you mentioned are the lowest of low, human scum who looked away while a kid was molested and exploited. They should never be able to work in the NHL again, same goes for Bowman. Good thing he worked with Respect Group but as I said multiple times, that's the bare minimum he should have done.

The whole organization from top to bottom most likely knew about it. Guys like Kane are still playing.

 

[CookiesAndMilk]

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

Assuming is the correct word. Why not inquire and be proactive? During a whole playoff run you can't tell me one doesn't have 5min to ask your president and CEO how they went ahead with the issue?

 

[K1984]

It's funny. People who say they will not support the Oilers are turning into a minority lately due to the amount of people who have actually educated themselves on the situation. Same thing happened with Evander Kane and his allegations, which as soon as people educated themselves, saw it's Kane's ex-wife who's the issue. This is why I said before, people need to come at this with a LEVEL HEADED approach. Not an inflated ego.

I truly wonder how many people panicking actually bothered to understand the story and Bowman's role in all of it. He wasn't part of any active cover up, he played no role in referring Aldrich to other organizations, it isn't even clear that he was fully aware of the nature of the allegations or what happened beyond "he tried to get him into bed." His boss told him he would handle it, his boss didn't handle it, and Bowman was guilty of not following that up diligently enough. That's it.

It's really unfortunate that a lot of people simply aren't willing to stop, take a breath, and actually understand the facts before going off the deep end. Maybe the worst of it, as has been demonstrated here by a few people, that even if they learn things that they didn't know before, they dismiss them because they so fully entrenched their position that they would look silly to back track.

 

[CookiesAndMilk]

The whole organization from top to bottom most likely knew about it. Guys like Kane are still playing.

Makes it even worse Imo. That means success came before a human being which is more than sad and says a lot in general about how pro sports is handling this stuff.

Btw, I wasn't and I am still not a happy camper when we got Kane and wouldn't be happy if we get anyone from that Blackhawks team.

 

[McWeber]

I'm not totally surprised by how much outrage there is over this hire but I thought the bulk of the more sensitive bleeding heart Oiler fans stopped following the team after we signed Kane. Hopefully Bowman does well and can add to his ring collection while GM in Edmonton.

 

[CookiesAndMilk]

His boss told him he would handle it, his boss didn't handle it, and Bowman was guilty of not following that up diligently enough. That's it.

In other words, he didn't give a f*** anymore and turned a blind eye to it. That's a huge failure and not just "that's it". That's what I criticize the most about his behavior.

Edit: I don't think I'm entrenched. I know my position of zero tolerance and I think it's the right way to question why he didn't follow up.

 

[K1984]

In other words, he didn't give a f*** anymore and turned a blind eye to it. That's a huge failure and not just "that's it". That's what I criticize the most about his behavior.

Or maybe it's possible that he didn't fully know the nature of the issue, was told that it would be handled by his superior, mistakenly thought it was being dealt with, then was guilty of not checking back. It's possible for human beings to make mistakes.

 

[Canovin]

Makes it even worse Imo. That means success came before a human being which is more than sad and says a lot in general about how pro sports is handling this stuff.

Btw, I wasn't and I am still not a happy camper when we got Kane and wouldn't be happy if we get anyone from that Blackhawks team.

Bowman cared enough to bring it up to his boss. Whether his boss did something about it is another story

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

Assuming is the correct word. Why not inquire and be proactive? During a whole playoff run you can't tell me one doesn't have 5min to ask your president and CEO how they went ahead with the issue?

yes he should have...again it was a mistake he made as a rookie GM...he said yesterday he should have done more

a lot of people in the organization should have done more...but the President, John McDonaugh...wielded a ton of power

 

[frag2]

I truly wonder how many people panicking actually bothered to understand the story and Bowman's role in all of it. He wasn't part of any active cover up, he played no role in referring Aldrich to other organizations, it isn't even clear that he was fully aware of the nature of the allegations or what happened beyond "he tried to get him into bed." His boss told him he would handle it, his boss didn't handle it, and Bowman was guilty of not following that up diligently enough. That's it.

It's really unfortunate that a lot of people simply aren't willing to stop, take a breath, and actually understand the facts before going off the deep end. Maybe the worst of it, as has been demonstrated here by a few people, that even if they learn things that they didn't know before, they dismiss them because they so fully entrenched their position that they would look silly to back track.

This. Many companies process complaints/reports the exact same way. Go to upper/HR and then let them handle the investigation. If they need more info, they'll come find you.

So many posters here saying they will quit the team, no longer follow blah blah
No you wont. You'll come back the moment they are winning [or for some people, losing...you know who you are]

I dont like the hire but it is what it is.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Virtanen and Bowman were found not guilty.

Mike Mcleod might be the guy who picked up the girl. There's a difference

Bowman was not charged or tried with any crime. He was told by his superiors that the situation would be taken care of and was then silent assuming it would be. That is not enabling rape as one person here put it or a criminal offence. It was a serious mistake nonetheless.

 

[onetweasy]

Hate the hire. Fractured the fan base instantly, creates a negative environment for every city our players go into next year dealing with the media and so on and so on.

But you just have to laugh at hiring the GM who signed the Seth Jones contract which led to the Nurse contract.

 

[CookiesAndMilk]

Or maybe it's possible that he didn't fully know the nature of the issue, was told that it would be handled by his superior, mistakenly thought it was being dealt with, then was guilty of not checking back. It's possible for human beings to make mistakes.

Most likely he didn't know all. That is not the problem. You don't inquire about every small problem but that was a huge thing and he didn't feel the need to inquire?

 

[Stauf4Prez]

His approach seemed lazy and disinterested to me. He reported to his boss and was told this will be taken care of, so far so good. But in his position, shouldn't he at least ask his boss how the whole thing went down and what the next steps are/were? Making sure some quality management process is integrated, so this shit does not happen again?

That's why I don't trust this guy. 2 years of working with Kennedy? Probably even had contact with the Oilers org before the 2 years were over. He was already thinking about GM'ing again while “redeeming” himself? f***ing clown.

Second chances for people who deserve them. Not for people to turn a blind eye to a problem, then do some redeeming and go back to it as if nothing happened.

As I mentioned, I've seen some shit because of my work and topics like this really get me going. I know that I take a pretty hardcore stance on this.

I understand this is important to you, but take a step back, turn off your computer and breathe for a little. Holy smokes.

 

[CookiesAndMilk]

Bowman cared enough to bring it up to his boss. Whether his boss did something about it is another story

His boss is even bigger sack of shit. I just can't stand silent bystanders. To me they are (almost) the same as the ones who did the crime.

yes he should have...again it was a mistake he made as a rookie GM...he said yesterday he should have done more

a lot of people in the organization should have done more...but the President, John McDonaugh...wielded a ton of power

Has nothing to do with being a rookie GM but with being (or in this case not being) a decent human.