I devoted much of yesterday’s blog to giving credit to Corey Crawford—and suggesting he has reached, legitimately, the top of echelon of NHL goalies.
Results are hard to argue with and since the beginning of last season Crawford has been one of the league’s best goalies in a lot of statistical metrics—and certainly another Stanley Cup is hard to argue with.
Well, it’s time perhaps to also give someone else his due—another guy who I once felt had “flaws.…
And that would be Blackhawk GM Stan Bowman.
Bowman’s tenure and track record have been a subject of debate on this blog for years. Sometime around the summer of 2014, I wrote a couple of long and detailed blogs, one tracing the origins of all the Hawks’ key players to three different GMs over the previous 12 years, and the other showing what the Blackhawks have to show for their cap-caused talent sell-offs in 2010 and 2011. Both concluded that Bowman deserved some credit, but not a great deal.
But now, one year, and another Stanley Cup won and celebrated, and another summer sell-off concluded, nine games into a new season full of adversity and uncertainty, you have to give Bowman his due.
Sure, at the end of the day Mike Smith found Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook and Corey Crawford, and Dale Tallon found Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane and Niklas Hjalmarsson.
But Bowman has kept this beast alive—and thriving. What is most remarkable is some of his long bets on project players (at best) are paying off.
Will they continue to? Valid question. The season is just nine games old. Viktor Svedberg, Trevor van Riemsdyk and David Rundblad could all change back into pumpkins at any time.
But right now, Bowman’s bets on these players are paying off big time.
Sure the Hawks miss Keith who is out 4-6 weeks with knee surgery. And the coaching staff is adjusting the system to compensate defensively.
But when you look at the “pedigrees… of these three young players, you can see the remarkable combination of scouting, player development and patience now in place within the Blackhawk organization.
It’s a system that’s been built around and under Bowman—and it works.
Svedberg and van Riemsdyk were undrafted. Rundblad was a first round pick, but then bounced through three organizations before landing in Chicago last year.
It was this same talent development system that drafted and developed Brandon Saad and Andrew Shaw. And many of Bowman’s veteran acquisitions in complementary roles have paid off—to the tune of two Cups in the last three seasons.
Sure, Bowman inherited a great team in 2009-10, and he’s had the luxury of some on the job training, but he’s grown into the job quite well.
Again, tough challenges lie ahead while Keith is out and even after as the Hawks try to assimiliate a lot of new faces—while wearing the Stanley Cup Champion target on their backs in every building they play in. There will be some downs to go with the ups.
But this organization and its GM, like its #1 goalie, is at the top of its game and dialed in right now.
Don’t bet against these guys.
I’ll have a Jets preview tomorrow.