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RUMOR
Not terribly much new to report.
One rumor I did hear recently and have not passed on as of yet is the Hawks’ interest in OHL forward Brendan Perlini in the upcoming NHL Draft. Some mock drafts have the big winger going as high as 12th.
THOUGHTS
A source expanded this morning on the Hawk front office, which I will intertwine here with some thoughts and observations I’ve made in the past.
You can’t argue with success.
You want to see a textbook primer for how to turnaround the fortunes of a pro sports franchise? It’s the Chicago Blackhawks over the last 8 years.
Much of the credit for this has to go to Team President John McDonough.
Now anyone who thinks that all the ad campaigns and strategies were McDonough’s “ideas,… is likely mistaken. Still from putting games ion local tv, bringing back Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita and Tony Esposito as ambassadors, and Pat Foley as the voice of the team, to the ad campaigns, events and promotions, McDonough and his people have been the driving force. McDonough knew how to put people in place to succeed at what they do well. And get out of the way.
All that said, without nearly a decade of horrible on-ice product, the Hawks would never have been in position to draft Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane in successive years. It was then GM Dale Tallon who went out and traded essentially Mark Bell for Martin Havlat—when John McDonough didn’t know Havlat from the Papa John’s delivery guy.
And without those moves to start, all the marketing spin in the world wouldn’t have meant squat.
What you hear about McDonough, and sometimes even from his own mouth—like in his now borderline infamous personal Stanley Cup commercial—is that the man has a significant ego, and need for adulation.
And that’s at the root of the scuttlebutt out there with regard to friction between McDonough and his hockey people—well, except for his hand-picked hockey advisor, former Norfolk admiral GM Al McIsaac.
Without question, McDonough was front and center in the ouster of Tallon—a very popular and successful GM. At that time and after, McDonough’s public statements reflected a desire on his part to be involved in hockey decisions to “understand the thought process.…
This is all well and good in most corporate structures. But there’s also a corporate logic that too many chefs spoil the broth. The Blackhawk front office overflows with titles and functionaries—and as compared to other clubs. And unlike many other teams, McDonough, as Team President, had zero hockey background when he came to the Hawks, and really still has minimal hockey chops.
So it can be theorized at least that while he knows how to put a marketing team in place and let it succeed, he might struggle as such with a hockey team—especially if he craves personal credibility in that area.
It would be unfair—and probably stupid— to say that McDonough was responsible for the Hawks being a little too small at forward and weak at center against the LA Kings.
But results speak volumes.
In 2012, from the deadline day acquisition of Johnny Oduya and through the summer, GM Stan Bowman and his staff made some good moves that ultimately resulted in winning a Stanley Cup. Whatever worked then, whether McDonough was involved or not, needs to work again this summer. The Kings got better, a fair amount better, after the Hawks dispatched them in five games in the 2013 Western Conference Finals. The Hawks, while they had to shed some salary last summer, probably still had chances to improve over the last year—and didn’t.
What you hear, especially from insiders, is that the Hawks, as an organization are a bit arrogant—they believe their own press clippings a bit too much. And maybe some of that also comes back to roost with McDonough. The thing to remember is what I said earlier: marketing really won’t matter if the product suffers.
The Hawks were oh so close, and the fatigued and outmanned players did leave everything on the ice in a grueling Game 7 the Kings were arguably a little lucky to have won.
An article in the Hockey News today sums it up perfectly. The Hawks and Kings between them (unless the Rangers pull off a huge upset) will have won 4 of the last 5 Cups, 2 a piece). Dynasty bragging rights are, indeed, on the line.
And the Hawks are still close. But they need to get better. And I’m talking better than adding Sheldon Brookbank and Ben Smith better.
McDonough has one of the greatest hockey minds ever to walk into an NHL arena in Scotty Bowman, a terrific lead scout in Norm McIver and effective executive in the younger Bowman, Stan. If ever there were a time for him to put those people in position to succeed, let them do their jobs, and stay out of the way, now would be it.
Thanks for reading,
JJ