The Old Boys Club Summons A Biblical Creature
The Edmonton Oilers have once again put themselves in the proverbial public relations blender, making the hiring of Stan Bowman official on Wednesday morning.
In Stan Bowman’s first press conference as a member of the Edmonton Oiler’s front office he timorously stated that he “didn’t want to re-litigate the past”, (referring of course to the 2010 Chicago Blackhawks sexual assault scandal) as if to allude to the crime and punishment being behind him. The news cycle has largely produced images of him and not the victim, Kyle Beach, a remarkable person and hockey player who rather heroically brought this situation to all of our attention. A 20 year old kid in the supervision of the then Chicago Blackhawks general manager was betrayed by those whom he trusted and the real story is Bowman, being a key cog among five others whose inaction enabled the culprit to re-offend is now being granted the exact position he held then with another NHL team. So, in an attempt to do exactly what Bowman would like us not to do, I have refamiliarized myself with the Jenner and Block report as seen here and the details of which are as horrific as they are true.
This decision if viewed through the lens of it being made by Darryl Katz makes perfect sense, as he has a penchant for recycling those whose name carries more water than their actual hockey pedigree. In any other lens you choose to focus your attention through it becomes a very difficult circle to square. Darryl Katz’s office has not responded to me for comment.
Jeff Jackson also famously made his profile on X unreachable the night before the press conference, which was conveniently scheduled the same day that Mark Spector from Sportsnet was hosting his annual charity golf tournament of which members of the usual press core such as Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic , Ryan Rishaug of TSN and of course Spector himself were in attendance and therefore unable to poke and prod the new GM and current CEO.
The issue of Jackson removing himself from the digital public square makes our collective blood boil as the following day he so sycophantically said that he “wasn’t worried about what the fans said.” He also used the word “progressive” when describing the direction he wanted to take this team and how this hire indicated that direction. This makes absolutely no sense, and yet so much sense to the informed all at once.
This organization has summoned a biblical creature, a three headed snake in need of slaying in the court of public appeal and here we are going to break down what forces of evil each head contains. In true Gauntlet Legends fashion we will begin with the easiest difficulty setting and end on the hardest for this quest.
Stan Bowman the Hockey Executive
Stan Bowman’s resume in Katz’s eyes contains only three Stanley Cups and son of Scotty. To the informed hockey fan, other hockey executives, and us mere journalists it is populated by a myriad of poor drafting, trading and development. Every GM no matter how successful is permitted to make mistakes on all three of these fronts, to expect a perfect track record is deeply unrealistic and unfair. But to have a plethora of examples to point too over the course of your entire career should supplant you from the candidacy of a managerial position in the NHL, particularly one like Edmonton’s where so many grave decisions lie ahead in the very near (and imminent) future. That is not the wisdom shared within our dear Old Boys Club. For whatever reason people like Katz gaze at these people the way Pumpkin gazes into Jules Winnfield’s suitcase, hypnotized by the shiny object inside he loses focus of his adversary’s weapon and intentions before being pummeled into submission.
To be fair, this train of thought predates Mr. Katz as he purchased the Edmonton Oilers in July of 2008 and there are no shortage of these reputation based hires before then. It’s also fair to point out that not all of these kinds of hires are the same. Paul Coffey for example - as far as we know - is not a nefarious character, but with no previous professional coaching experience and already an adviser to Katz, he was hired to be the assistant coach this past season. Many, myself included, felt the decision oozed with nepotism and it may have been that. But he also delivered a ton of success and the most cohesive six man defending unit of the McDavid/Draisaitl era with what is a relatively flawed group of personnel.
The point being however is that these positions for most organizations in the NHL are filled based on merit and experience, not reputation or name recognition. This link takes you to the website nhltradetracker.com where you can see every single transaction that he made from 2009-2021 during his tenure as Blackhawks GM. There is very, very few that you can objectively point too and chalk up as a clear double u.
Here are some of the greatest hits.
There are many more examples among the list of transactions that are even worse, but I decided to leave ones such as the Dustin Byfuglien trade off as there were cap implications involving the deal. There are also some among his list that were good such as acquiring Marc Andre-Fleury for Mikael Hakarainen. The Tyler Johnson and a 2nd rounder for Brent Seabrook does not qualify as a win, because at the time Tampa Bay was being squeezed by the salary cap much as the Hawks were when moving Byfuglien. These lists are also very subjective to many, so I invite everyone to read through them and make their own judgement call. But if this ^ is what Oilers players and fans can expect all things considered and based on the actual hockey related resume, then they can all but kiss the aspiration of winning a Stanley Cup goodbye.
Opposing fans, other general managers and owners are licking their chops because it signals to them the downfall of the Oilers. He is inheriting a very strong hand much like the one he inherited in 2009 that he eventually discarded. They view him as at the very least harmless, and definitely not scary.
Stan Bowman the Public Relations Nightmare
The next hurdle the Edmonton Oilers have to clear is the one they are currently triaging as I type this and as you are likely reading. Much akin to the animatronic beast that Jennifer Lopez and Ice Cube escape in the 1997 film Anaconda, a creature feature I must admit is a guilty pleasure. The battle will be long, arduous, and they’ll have to reckon with the fact that they chose to head deep into the Amazon and rescue Jon Voight in the process so more or less having only themselves to blame, but ultimately they will overcome it no worse for wear. A few crew members deaths aside.
The decision to hire this once-disgraced-now-reinstated general manager was always going to be met with backlash, we all knew it and so did they. They indicate as much with their aforementioned decisions to go dark on socials and alleviate themselves as best as they could from the press core by limiting the number of them who would be in attendance at the avail.
It’s not news that in today’s world the 24 hour news cycle has affected peoples willingness to hang with certain sentiments, as no sooner are they upset about the next awful story to come there way. Hockey is a bit different in this respect. “Hockey players have long memories” is an oft repeated euphemism amongst pundits and it’s true. The fans echo this character trait tenfold.
The immediate reaction from Oilers detractors were to the affect of, “well are you shocked? They hire people like Craig MacTavish, Evander Kane and Corey Perry. This is who they are.”
We don’t have time to go into all of those players separate details, but none are alike and I do believe a lot of the criticism of Kane is based on falsehoods. There is no way of elegantly cleaning that up en masse and much like heading into the Amazon hoping you don’t stumble on an anaconda, he has brought a lot of this his way on his own volition.
Corey Perry to my knowledge is an excellent person who made a drunken mistake, admitted he needed some help and got it. If you hate his on-ice antics, fine. But I would caution lobbing character assassinations at people who make mistakes under the influence unless you are a nun. And even then..
Craig MacTavish on the other hand spent nine months in prison for vehicular manslaughter after an accident in Massachusetts with him behind the wheel impaired took the life of a 26 year old woman. He pleaded guilty and served his time, and walked out of prison with a contract to play for the Oilers awaiting his signature. The topic of another article perhaps.
The overarching theme here is that Edmonton has gained itself a reputation for employing people with checkered pasts to say the least. This latest hiring in the eyes of Oilers critics is a drop in the bucket.
The other impact that this has is on the coaching staff and players and how they are perceived by the public. They will have to answer soon enough to reporters about the hire and they are now effectively between a rock and a hard place. Criticize the hire and be lauded by the fans and detractors but in the doghouse of your employers, say nothing and be criticized by those who are trying to disarm the culture of silence, and sing his praises and you’ll be public enemy number one. Why you would put your coaches and players through that distraction when trying to compete for the Stanley Cup is truly unfathomable.
Darryl Katz, Jeff Jackson and Stan Bowman will have to answer these questions the least, and in Katz’s instance not at all if he doesn’t want too.
Stan Bowman the Inactive Bystander
In Paradise Lost, Milton’s personification of Satan takes on the form of a snake, better known as the Serpent Of Eden who among the fallen angels tempts Adam and Eve. In Christian traditions and interpretations of the bible, Egyptology, Islamic and Judaic scripture, serpents repeatedly surface in their respective mythology as evil reincarnate, and almost impossible to defeat. Those who fall victim to temptation are banished to an eternal grave of fiery suffering, an anthropomorphized version of what criminals face in our society, and what we all face to a lesser extent when making poor decisions be it from our parents, teachers, coaches, or bosses as we get older.
This is the final boss the Oilers have to grapple with, the fact that there are real victims from Stan Bowman’s inaction.
Sheldon Kennedy was brought to the press conference and spoke afterwards about the work Stan Bowman and he have done together in his rehabilitative process and I have no doubt that Bowman put a genuine effort into it. I can’t say with great detail what he did or did not do regarding this process, but he does now have the blessing of both Kyle Beach and Sheldon Kennedy, the latter of which being the most prominent voice representing men in hockey who were abused by coaches. In his written endorsement linked here, Kennedy shares his observations of Bowman’s actions to correct for his previous inactions and sincere regret of what he should’ve done. I personally am choosing to believe that Bowman has done the work as he says and will be better moving forward. My general philosophy in life is to give people the benefit of the doubt as it’s been awarded to me many times over. That isn’t the source of people’s frustration with this hiring though.
What people who I think rightly so are so angered over, is that Bowman’s ramifications were with no actual teeth. We sit here today with him holding the most powerful position within a pro sports team save for the owner, the precise position that he held when the abuse took place. At the very least he should be starting at an earlier rung on the ladder to prove himself, the same way parolees prove to their parole officers and their fellow citizens. It feels as though “there are laws for thee but not for me” in the case of the dear Old Boys Club.
The point many of us keep coming back to as well which seems to be the most sinister, is that had it not been for Kyle Beach filing his lawsuit in 2021 it is quite likely none of this would have ever come to pass and Stan Bowman would still be a powerful executive in hockey somewhere, not Chicago as he had ran them into the ground due to his incompetency. It begs the question, are you sorry for what happened, or are you sorry that you got caught? I do believe Bowman to be genuinely remorseful but this is a perfectly legitimate question for the public to ask.
The Jenner And Block Report
The highly publicized report bares details that are hard to digest, some of which so gruesome I will leave up to you the reader to find on your own through the link with advisory of their nature. I also don’t find it to be useful we rehash all of the details as they have already been ad-nauseum. There is one detail however that I think is worth re-engaging with for context.
Brad Aldrich went on to coach at the University of Notre Dame and at Houghton Highschool in Houghton, Michigan. The former of which is where his second known victim enters this story who is referred to in this report as ‘John Doe 2’. John Doe 2 is still currently held to a non-disclosure agreement with the NHL and Chicago Blackhawks so they have not gone public with their identity. His mother however in anonymous fashion gave an interview to Rick Westhead of TSN where she details her experience with her son in the aftermath. I would highly recommend watching, but viewer discretion advised.
There is no hiding from the fact that their inaction led to more suffering and while we all appreciate people deserve second chances, the Oilers have put themselves in a disparaging position for seemingly no good reason. The message it has sent to the public is not one of progressiveness and regarding those who make mistakes as part of the solution (which has merit), but one of tone deafness and without regard for those who no longer want to see these enablers put back into power time and time again. It seems to be a very uncalculated risk for somebody who does not bring a ton of positive experience in hockey asset management.
Jeff Jackson has undone all the goodwill he built up since taking over as interim GM with this hire. In the days after getting within one victory of the Stanley Cup, he made a trade with the Philadelphia Flyers to eventually draft high end prospect Sam O’Reilly. He signed both Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson to team friendly deals optimizing the top six group in such a way that we have not seen in this McDavid and Draisaitl era. And made a trade to acquire Matt Savoie a highly touted forward prospect all the while accumulating some cap flexibility. It was a literal breath of fresh air for Oilers fans to see that kind of creativity that had most saying he should just stay on as the GM.
Stan Bowman is going to be under the microscope and deservedly so, much like Mike Babcock was in his very short tenure with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Any sign of trouble and he will be dropped like a bad habit. I am rather confident that this man would not allow something like the atrocity that happened to Kyle Beach to happen again on his watch, at least not with the same response. He will still have to prove himself to the fans that he has learned a thing or two about hockey since he traded Artemi Panarin for Brandon Saad.
Darryl Katz in my humble evaluation is the perpetuator of the status quo we should all be disgruntled with. This is entirely on brand for him and because of his wealth he will face no direct lines of questioning or scrutiny. He can hide behind the curtain and pull the strings as long as he’s alive. What he has done has real ripple affect on those in his employ and the people who are generating his untold wealth for him are going to have to deal with the blowback. It has put these Oilers in the most precarious situation I have seen in my lifetime, at a time where they least need it as a distraction.
Time will tell if they can exorcise these demons.