Chicago Blackhawks: Stan Bowman deserves credit for Kendall Coyne Schofield hire

Chicago Blackhawks General Manager Stan Bowman has done something right for once.

Sometimes, you just have to give credit where credit is due and that is the case for Chicago Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman, who announced a historic hiring in the form of Kendall Coyne Schofield on Monday.

Coyne Schofield, who is one of the most decorated players in the history of Women’s Hockey, was hired as the first female Player Development Coach in franchise history for the Blackhawks.

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It was both a significant moment for Chicago and for the NHL in general, given that Coyne Schofield will play a key role in the Blackhawks Front Office.

Among Coyne Schofield’s main responsibilities will be assisting the coaching staff in Rockford with the IceHogs, the AHL affiliate of the Blackhawks, while also assessing and scouting potential prospects for the organization.

She will also combine the role with her work as a Youth Hockey Growth Specialist, which focuses on grassroots youth hockey programs and clinics, the implementation of girls hockey programming and her all-girls program, the Golden Coynes.

This is a full-time role but Coyne Schofield will also continue playing, with making the 2022 Winter Olympics team for the USA one of her main aims.

However, born in Palos Heights, Illinois, it must be a dream come true for Coyne Schofield to work for the franchise she grew up watching and idolizing, so it really is a feel-good story.

And Stan Bowman, who isn’t the most popular figure among Chicago fans to say the least, deserves credit for this hiring even if his overall handling of the franchise leaves a lot of questions.

He’s brought in someone who knows the area, knows the team, is passionate about the franchise and is someone who will demand respect due to her achievements on the ice, which includes a Gold Medal at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, Silver at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, six first-place finishes with the USA at the IIHF World Championships and she was also named the 2015-16 Patty Kazmaier Award, given to the top NCAA Female Collegiate Player.

What an incredible resume.

Seeing Coyne Schofield appointed to a Front Office role with the Chicago Blackhawks will also help to inspire thousands of young girls to get into the sport of hockey, with the 28-year-old an absolutely exemplary role model for so many.

I mean, who can forget the 2019 Honda All-Star Weekend in San Jose when Coyne Schofield became the first woman to participate in the event, wowing hockey fans with her performance in the Fastest Skater Competition, clocking in at 14.326 seconds.

Coyne Schofield has broken barriers wherever she’s gone, including being part of the first-ever all-woman broadcast in NHL history for NBC for a regular season game between the Chicago Blackhawks and the St. Louis Blues in March.

She is simply a trailblazer and her continued work with the Chicago Blackhawks should only help to inspire the new generation while attracting a new wave of fans to the sport we all love, which is critical.

Hockey is known to be a bit of a closed shop and it has been plagued by “lad culture,” appearing as a sport that isn’t always for everyone.

However, the NHL has made big steps in recent years with Dawn Braid making history after being announced as a Skating Coach for the Arizona Coyotes in 2016, before former U.S. Olympic Team Captain Cammi Granato was hired as the league’s first female pro scout by the Seattle Kraken and Emily Engel-Natzke was named as the Video Coach for the Hershey Bears in the AHL, making her the first female coach in the history of the Washington Capitals franchise.

Coyne Schofield now joins that inspiring list and the 28-year-old will be a huge asset to the Chicago Blackhawks organization.

Therefore, Stan Bowman should receive some praise for what was a truly historic and perhaps culture-changing hire in the NHL on a day where he also hired Erik Condra as a Player Development Coach and Juan Gonzalez as the Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Rockford IceHogs.

So, while many Chicago fans will still jump on to Twitter to vent at Bowman and the job he has done recently, they should at least cut him some slack when it comes to the outstanding hiring of Kendall Coyne Schofield to the Blackhawks Front Office.