Inside The Penalty Box 08.05.08: Front Office Additions
Posted by Neil Borenstein on 08.05.2008
The Chicago Blackhawks and Edmonton Oilers have added highly regarded names to their front office staffs. In this week’s Inside The Penalty Box, Neil Borenstein looks at Scotty Bowman’s move to senior adviser of hockey operations with the Blackhawks and Steve Tambellini finally achieving general manager status alongside Kevin Lowe in Edmonton.
Plenty of moves were made this summer to enhance their on-ice products. Now, both the Chicago Blackhawks and Edmonton Oilers took their changing ways upstairs, making some big moves to their front office staff heading into the 2008-09 season. In Chicago, family relations were able to force an end to the Scotty Bowman's tenure with the Detroit Red Wings, while Kevin Lowe's promotion to President of Hockey Operations for Rexall sports calls an end to his tenure as Oilers general manager.
Scotty Bowman Heads To Chicago
Scott Bowman Won three Stanley Cups while coaching Detroit
Scotty Bowman's 15-year tenure with the Detroit Red Wings has come to an end. Introduced last Thursday as the new senior adviser of hockey operations with the Chicago Blackhawks, Bowman hopes to work with his son and Blackhawks assistant general manager, Stan Bowman, in making sure an impressive looking team remains on the upswing. Bowman will report to general manager Dale Tallon and serve as "an extra pair of eyes for Tallon, and to share his opinions on everything he sees, beginning in training camp," according to The Chicago-Sun Times.
Bowman's legacy will always be as a head coach. He spent 30 total years behind the bench starting in 1967 with the St. Louis Blues. The Blues made the Stanley Cup Finals in the first three of his four years as coach, getting swept twice by the Montreal Canadiens and once by the Boston Bruins before losing in the first round the next season. In 1971, Bowman joined the Canadiens and guided them to five Stanley Cups during his eight-year tenure, including the final four. He became general manager and also served as head coach with the Buffalo Sabres starting with the 1979-80 campaign and brought them to five straight playoff appearances. Bowman missed the playoffs in 1986 for the only time of his career when the Sabres failed to appear and was behind the bench for 12 of the Sabres' games in 1986-87. He left in 1987 for an analyst position with the CBC. He returned in 1990 as Director of Player Personnel with the Pittsburgh Penguins and moved back behind the bench for the Penguins in 1991-92, helping them repeat as Stanley Cup Champions. He coached the Penguins one more year before heading to Detroit in 1993 and spending his final nine seasons as a head coach with the Red Wings, where he won three Cups. I'd say 30 years of coaching (one of which was only 12 games) with 28 playoff appearances and a record nine total Stanley Cups makes him the best coach in the history of NHL hockey.
Bowman retired after the 2002 season but remained with the team as a special consultant. During his six years, rumors were always being spread about Bowman returning to the bench to fill head coaching vacancies or even accepting high profile front office positions, including the job of President with the Toronto Maple Leafs last summer. The sad fact is he was actually ready to take that job with Toronto until, according to Bowman, Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment President and CEO Richard Peddle took the job off the table because Bowman wanted full control of the team. Yeah, clearly not giving Bowman that power has worked out real well for Toronto.
Now, Chicago will reap the benefits of yet another poor decision from the Maple Leafs. Keeping him in Detroit for one more year allowed the Blackhawks to contract Bowman this summer and give him a new opportunity. In Chicago, Bowman has the ability to help a team that appears ready for vast improvement and be around his son, which is also "a dream come true" for Stan, according to The Daily Herald.
Bowman's hiring is the latest news out of Chicago that should really produce a lot of optimism for a team typically receiving very little. After missing the playoffs by a mere three points last season, the Blackhawks made sure to continue progressing forward. They were aggressive in free agency, signing defenseman Brian Campbell and goaltender Cristobal Huet to eight and five-year deals, respectively. They also named 20-year old Jonathan Toews the franchise's 34th captain, making him the third youngest captain (20 years, 79 days) in NHL history going into just his sophomore campaign. Chicago was also able to land the upcoming season's Winter Classic, which will take place on New Year's Day at Wrigley Field against Bowman's old team – the Red Wings.
All this said, I believe the Blackhawks are still at least a year or two away from being legitimate contenders for the Stanley Cup. But this offseason's flurry of activity to both the on-ice product and the front office should have Chicago returning to the playoffs for the first time in seven years.
Lowe Named President Of Hockey Operations As Tambellini Becomes GM
Kevin Lowe Served as Oilers GM for eight years
After eight years as the general manager of the Edmonton Oilers, Kevin Lowe was removed from his post. He received a promotion to the position of President of Hockey Operations for Rexall sports, which made room at the GM position for one of the most highly regarded executives in the NHL not already in such a role. To fill the spot, the Oilers hired Steve Tambellini, who worked for the Vancouver Canucks over the past 17 years and most recently as its assistant general manager and vice president of hockey operations.
This move doesn't mean Lowe is out of the picture when it comes to transactions. Instead, he should remain very much on board when it comes to important decisions for the team. For Tambellini, the running of the Oilers franchise will be done as a team, and having Lowe as a member of that team was critical to him coming over, according to The Sports Network in Canada.
"This is a management team," Tambellini told TSN. "We're going to work together as a group. I don't want Kevin Lowe going anywhere. He's one of the reasons that I came here. He'll be involved as much as he wants to be involved and I look forward to that."
Lowe is equally excited about bringing Tambellini on board.
"In my estimation, and many people in hockey feel the same way, Steve's the strongest candidate in hockey at the executive level who wasn't a general manager," Lowe said. "It was a real easy choice."
Lowe was one of the hardest working general managers over the past eight seasons and will now have the ability to relax a little bit. He is still slated to be active in the day-to-day operations of the team. But a lot of his responsibilities now shift to Tambellini, who is very deserving of finally achieving the dream of becoming a general manager – a post he was twice looked over for in Vancouver. Lowe and Tambellini have previously worked together in a management capacity at the international level with Team Canada.
This move has also signaled some relief at the league level considering the bad blood that exists between Lowe and Anaheim Ducks general manager Brian Burke. Because of Lowe's previous aggressiveness when going after restricted free agents with lucrative offer sheets, Burke singled Lowe out a reason for players contracts being as out-of-whack as they are just three years after the lockout. Things have cooled since commissioner Gary Bettman intervened. But the rocky relationship had already been exposed. With Lowe still an integral part of the organization, I doubt everything between Burke and the Edmonton organization is water under the bridge. But perhaps some sort of interaction can occur between the two teams with Tambellini, who worked with Burke in Vancouver, handling the communication.
I think the combination of Lowe and Tambellini in Edmonton is going to continue the good work Lowe has already done this offseason to try and turn around a franchise absent from postseason play since it made the Stanley Cup Finals in 2006. Having conducted three trades this summer that brought in veteran defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky, potential 30-goal scorer Erik Cole and youngster Gilbert Brule, the Oilers have been widely regarded as one of the true winners this offseason without having to conduct any substantial moves in free agency.
And that's something Tambellini will have the opportunity to learn from Lowe – how to be creative in bringing talented players to Edmonton, which isn't always the most attractive destination for the most highly touted free agents. That's why Lowe had to seek trades and tender offer sheets that may irritate rival GMs. It was all in the name of doing his job and trying to sport the best team he could in Edmonton regardless of how unpopular it made him. That now finally becomes a responsibility Tambellini can take on.
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Until next week, you have just been Inside The Penalty Box!
