Stan Bowman’s official title with the Chicago Blackhawks is Assistant General Manager, Hockey Operations. What falls under that rather large umbrella ranges from assisting GM Dale Tallon with day-to-day activities, to all CBA matters, to the development of the Blackhawks’ prospects in Rockford, to scouting, and even housing Calder Trophy winner, Patrick Kane! Despite Mr. Bowman’s busy schedule, he was generous enough to offer Inside Hockey a few minutes to discuss last season’s success, the draft, and the upcoming free agency period.

REVISITING LAST SEASON

MC: Last season was a year of such successful changes for the organization both on- and off-ice in terms of the rebuilding process. Can you revert back to what the organization was thinking before training camp and how quickly you realized that much of what you had anticipated was actually going to take place?

SB: When you look back to that time frame, the biggest thing is that we had many unanswered questions. We were hopeful going into the year that the young players we had expectations for and whom we were very high on would come through for us. But truthfully, none of us really knew.

Jonathan Toews was only one year removed from being drafted. He had a good season at North Dakota and we hoped he would be able to step in and play, but we didn’t really know. Patrick Kane… similar story there. He had huge success in juniors, but he wasn’t a big guy and you’re never sure if those guys can contribute. We had some other question marks, as well, so we were hopeful with a lot of question marks.

It was pretty evident early in the season that these two kids were going to be pretty special players. Kane maybe was a little bit slow in the pre-season games, but it was obvious from watching him in our scrimmages and as he started to play games in October that he was the real deal and he would be able to keep up.

Heading into last season, it’s different than where we are now. We were hopeful that some of the guys we were counting on to play roles would be able to pull through, and for the most part, that came true. I guess you can’t say everybody did what you expected, otherwise we would have been in the playoffs, but the guys we were questionable about, for the most part, they stepped up and contributed.

MC: Dale Tallon’s mantra has been that the organization is only going to do things that help the team for now and in the long term. Was the organization close to making a move before the trade deadline last year that never materialized?

SB: Nothing in terms of where we would give up some young guys to go for an older player. Truthfully, that never really was on our road map internally here. We were planning on doing it the right way.

We entertained ideas of trades. We did end up trading [Tuomo] Ruutu, who is a young guy, but we got a younger guy [Andrew Ladd] back. We were going to make trades if they made sense, but the so-called rental player that you’re going to grab at the deadline who will push you into the playoffs, we never were close on any of those types of trades.

MC: For some of the prospects who only had a brief stint last year – like Bryan Bickell, Troy Brouwer, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Petri Kontiola, and Jack Skille – as somebody in your position, how difficult is it to tell how far along they are in terms of their development and how close or far they are to maybe hitting their ceiling?

SB: I think maybe the one misconception with the public sometimes is that if these guys don’t play within their first year of turning pro then they’re destined to being a bust.

You have to look at how they performed at their level – the American League. Were they just regular players or were they something special? If they’re regular players in the American League, it’s unlikely they’re going to become special players, or even regular players, in the NHL. They have to demonstrate the ability to be one of the better players in that league.

Then they also have to be given the opportunity, which is maybe the only thing you can hold against those guys. Brouwer had a couple games, and Bickell had a few; Skille may have played the most of those guys listed – none of them were really given a full opportunity to play. We’re not down on them in that regard. They need to be given the opportunity, and they need to earn it. On the flip side, you can’t just say, “You’re going to be a second-line right winger,” and plan for that, and then when that doesn’t work out, you’re stuck. It’s a juggling act.

Obviously, our expectations going into next year are different. We expect to be a good team – certainly a playoff team. Hopefully, a team that is fighting for the top spot, not the eighth spot. Given that, you don’t just want to rely on, “Well, we’re going to have these three guys make our team,” and then we’ll just go from there. If they are not quite ready, then you’re putting your team at a disadvantage. We have to juggle both those scenarios.

The reality is those players are all close. If they were given the opportunity, they may all be able to stick and be NHL players for a while. But we’re not in a big rush with these guys – they’re 22 years old, at the oldest. There’s nothing wrong with a guy playing a couple of years in the minor leagues.

The good teams typically, if you look at the Red Wings with some of their players, don’t rush their guys into the league, including [Henrik] Zetterberg and [Pavel] Datsyuk. People forget they weren’t even close to the NHL when they were 21 years old. I think Datsyuk was 23 when he came over and Zetterberg was around the same age. Their first year or two into the league, they by no means were All-Stars. They were developing slowly and now look where those two players are. I’m not saying our guys are going to turn into them; I’m saying you have to take that into account. They also have developed [Valtteri] Filppula and [Jiri] Hudler – these guys have been in the minors for years. They had good players in front of them, so they had to wait their turn. We would like that to be the case here. We would like to have our guys really learn the pro game, and if that means they’re in the minors an extra year, we don’t look at that as a negative.

MC: Along those lines, everyone refers to the Blackhawks as now being in a rebuilding phase. How far along do you think the organization is in terms of its rebuilding phase as it sits today if you look at it in a spectrum?

SB: To put it simply, last year we were in competition for a playoff spot, which certainly was a good year for us. We would have loved to have snuck in and tried to make a run, but the reality is we were one of those teams in that middle grouping fighting for a spot. Next year we hope to be one of the other teams that sits in that next grouping – whether there are 10 or 12 teams in that grouping, it’s hard to say – the top tier teams who are fighting for home ice. We certainly want to be in the playoffs next year, and I prefer not fighting for the eighth spot; I prefer to be fighting for the third or fourth spot come April. That’s where we are in our life cycle as a team.

We’re obviously not on the top level yet, one of those elite teams that are there every year. We’re certainly moving there. We could arrive there quicker than some people think, depending on how things go.

MC: Regarding Martin Havlat’s health, any word how his rehab is going from his shoulder surgery?

SB: Our trainer spent a few weeks over in the Czech Republic with him during his rehab and made sure he was on schedule. He feels great, and he’s really excited about this year. There’s no reason he won’t be completely ready to go by training camp. Everything is on course and his rehab is going as scheduled and he’s excited by it. I hope for his sake and his own sanity that he can stay healthy because he’s a hell of a player when healthy.

MC: Do you have any word from the trainers and doctors whether he can reach 100% health given what he used to be able to do with his shoulder compared to what he could do now?

SB: He’s going to get a complete clean bill of health when he’s done with his rehab and when he’s ready to start playing. By the time he hits the ice, he’ll be back to normal. That’s the report we received and we hope he stays that way.

THE DRAFT

MC: The Blackhawks held the 11th pick overall and no second-round pick. With that in mind, what was the team’s strategy entering last weekend, and how do you feel it went?

SB: It went very well because the player that we really liked is who we drafted [Kyle Beach]. There were some top players, like [top pick Steven] Stamkos and whatnot, but they weren’t really on our radar because of where we were picking. Where we were, Beach was the guy we had targeted all along and someone we had hoped we would get and we were concerned that he wouldn’t make it that far. To answer the question succinctly, we are thrilled that we have him.

We tried in earnest to get a second-round pick and we contacted a number of teams, but it just didn’t work out, so I guess that was a bit of a disappointment. But we picked a guy in the third round that we had ranked on our board as a first-round talent. We had planned all along if we could somehow get a second pick, he might be one of the guys we could get there. The bottom line is that we drafted two players we were really high on.

MC: Any idea why he could have slipped, or were there just so many defensemen this year?

SB: I think that was part of it. It’s hard to say…the draft works in funny ways. There may have been a few other teams who really wanted him, and when their time came to pick, they might have had a guy like we did in Lalonde who was really high on their list who was still there. We had him as basically a first-round pick and we got him in the third round, so we jumped at it.

It’s impossible to know why he slipped. There aren’t any big red flags with him – he’s a great skater and he has a lot of upside. I’m not quite sure why he fell there, but we don’t really care.

MC: Going to Beach, you just mentioned the term “red flags.” He was a pretty interesting pick regarding his previous injuries or so-called immaturity or attitude problems. When sitting down with him, what convinced you that those issues were more talk than reality?

SB: I think it’s just sitting and talking to the kid. There’s nothing like the issues you read in the paper where he’s a monster.

MC: I especially liked his quote after the draft that he apparently had beaten up a garbage man and had no idea.

SB: Right. Even some of the other things he was accused of, or even did do, were such minor things…I just laugh.

Maybe it’s a testament to hockey players that compared to other sports with guys getting arrested or in trouble with all kinds of off-the-field issues, and this guy pulled a couple pranks or made a couple jokes and now he’s blackballed as having questionable character. He’s nothing like that. It’s comical.

The few things he did get in trouble for or do, we talked about them – a couple of them were overblown, other ones were accurate. He acknowledged that he made a few bad decisions, but they were very minor things. Once we met the kid and spoke to him, he was mature about things and he wasn’t passing blame when blame was there. So we focused more on his talent than on those issues.

MC: How similar is this to last year’s pick of Akim Aliu in the second round?

SB: I guess you could say that it’s similar. Aliu had a few more pronounced incidents. I think the things with Beach are more silly than actual “incidents.” Akim has turned out to be a good pick for us. He spent the end of last season down in Rockford with our guys learning what it’s like at the pro level. It was a great experience for him; he’s come a long way in a short amount of time. He’s everything we thought he would be, and he didn’t really have any off-the-ice type issues last year. I think it was a worthwhile pick where we got him.

MC: Especially early in the first round of this draft, several teams moved up or down or traded for established players. Was the organization looking into any of those avenues, given that you didn’t really know if Beach was going to fall to you?

SB: That’s kind of why we waited to see. If Beach weren’t there, we likely would have traded down. We had a few options on the table with teams calling us, wanting our pick. As the round kept progressing and he still was on the board, we just waited. We had inquired to a couple of teams about possibly moving up, but the price didn’t really warrant it for us. We ended up getting Beach where we did, so in the end it worked out well for us.

MC: Is there any expectation as to when fans could possibly see Kyle Beach at the United Center?

SB: Dale [Tallon] was pretty open about the fact that we’re going to give him a chance. We’re going to bring him into our prospects camp, and then after that we’ll bring him to training camp.

We’re not going to say he can’t play. We’re going to let him dictate that for us, as with those other guys – like Skille and Brouwer who have a couple years on him. They’re older, they’ve played in the American League – they’re just more developed. But if he is better than them, he’s better than them. It doesn’t really make much difference to us who the guys are. We’ve been pretty consistent that we’re going to give people a chance. If Kyle Beach is better than them and deserves to be on our team, then he will be there.

FREE AGENCY

MC: From the chatter around the league, do you feel that players have become more interested in playing for the Blackhawks due to the on- and off-ice changes that have been so successful?

SB: I think so. I think the word is out there that things are different here – not only on the ice, but also off the ice. If you were to take an informal poll around the league, I think Chicago is a destination for people now if maybe it wasn’t in the past. Our team clearly is on the rise; we missed the playoffs by a couple points. We proved that we could play with anybody…I think we had the best record against Detroit of any team in the league and they won the Cup.

If you look at the combination of the players we currently have and relative to their youth, we’re going in the right direction. We have a lot of core guys who are young, and the city itself is a great place to play. If you’re looking around the NHL at the 30 teams, you have to think it’s in the top couple in terms of cities to live in. From the feedback we’ve received, it’s been real positive.

MC: How many players are the ‘Hawks looking to add via free agency beginning on Tuesday?

SB: That’s a little bit hard to answer because there’s only so much money to go around. If you get a real top-end guy commanding big dollars, then you may be looking at just one or two guys. If you go the other route, you may end up with two or three guys.

The reality is that we don’t need a huge quantity of free agents this year, unlike in previous years when we had five spots to fill. If you look at our team the last game or two of the year, the vast majority of those guys are going to be back and we know where they fit. Upfront we don’t have a lot of holes, and I think it’s clear we need a top defenseman. We’ve been open about that. There aren’t a lot of big holes to fill.

MC: If you end up getting a top guy and there’s another hole you want to fill, is the organization comfortable going the trade route to fill any spots that may remain open?

SB: Sure, we’re open to the trade market. We’re talking to people all the time about potential trades, and we have a few things. There’s a lot of chatter now after the draft leading into free agency. We aren’t going to hesitate to do that.

The way it worked last summer, and I expect it will be the same way this year, the first 10 days of free agency are when all of the top-notch guys get scooped up. Then there’s almost like a cooling off period where everyone kind of takes a breath and says, “I don’t have much money left.” And then in August there’s a very good chance that you have some pretty good players still available who missed out on that initial frenzy. Teams don’t all hold back, so you can actually end up getting a pretty good player in August. Just because we don’t get three guys July 1st doesn’t mean we’re not going to sign free agents. They may trickle in later.

MC: You had previously mentioned the young core in place with the ‘Hawks. As that core came together over the last few years, there were veteran leaders brought in. Does the organization feel that the young core of leadership is established enough to the point where maybe those older veterans aren’t quite as necessary?

SB: I think so. I think we’re certainly going to look this July for veterans who have that leadership. But to get a guy for only that reason, I think we’ve in some ways – not moved beyond that – but we have some players who are really developing on their own here. [Patrick] Sharp is not an old guy, but he isn’t a kid anymore either. Even [Duncan] Keith and [Brent] Seabrook, they’ve had three years in the league. They’re young but they have displayed the ability to learn from guys like [Martin] Lapointe and [Kevin and Craig] Adams, so I’m confident with the group we have here.

Thanks again to Mr. Bowman for generously offering his time! Hopefully Inside Hockey can touch base with him again closer to the start of the season.