Chicago Blackhawks should be wary of a Stan Bowman extension

The Chicago Blackhawks are apparently going to give Stan Bowman a contract extension but they should really think twice about it.

The Chicago Blackhawks are reportedly going to give their general manager Stan Bowman a contract extension. The 45-year-old GM has two years left on his current contract that he signed in 2016. He will have been the Blackhawks GM for ten years on July 14th. He has had quite the ride as Blackhawks GM, but they should be wary of giving him a contract extension this far away from his current deal being over.

The Blackhawks have won the Stanley Cup three times during his tenure with the team. Their former GM Dale Tallon had set a foundation for Stan to build on with draft picks like Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane and a free agent signing like Marian Hossa. Stan built on that and they were one of the elite teams in the NHL for a while.

However, lately, Stan Bowman has made some very questionable decisions. They were swept in the first round by the Nashville Predators in the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs and since then there have been some changes that are ones that look silly today. Stan traded away Artemi Panarin to re-acquire Brandon Saad on draft day that following summer. He also let guys like Vinnie Hinostroza and Teuvo Terravainen go just to get rid of bad contracts. The team has made some questionable draft picks in the last few seasons as well.

Stan has made two really smart trades in the last 12 months too. He traded Nick Schmaltz to Arizona in exchange for Dylan Strome. Since then Strome has really reached his potential and asserted himself as the team’s second line center behind Toews. He also traded Gustav Forsling and Anton Forsberg for Calvin de Haan. de Haan is a really good defensive defenseman and he is pretty much exactly what they need.

This makes it tough for the Blackhawks but they should really think about waiting to extend him. If this team misses the playoffs for the third year in a row with Toews and Kane playing as well as they did last year then he should be gone. The Panarin trade is unforgivable but it hasn’t been all bad since but it also hasn’t been all good since then either.  I would stay away from extending him if there’s a chance he gets fired within that time frame.

He might have an extended life as the GM with the draft pick of Kirby Dach third overall. He passed on future number one defenseman Bowen Byram in favor of Dach and there are some that don’t like the pick. He might now be able to see out what happens with that move. His tenure also seemed to be extended a little bit after firing legendary coach Joel Quenneville and brought in Jeremy Colliton to replace him.  It will really be interesting to see if these reports are true and whether or not the Blackhawks regret it someday.