The Edmonton Oilers made a horrible decision by hiring Stan Bowman

The Edmonton Oilers just had a run to the Stanley Cup Final. They erased a 3-0 series deficit to the Florida Panthers to force Game 7. Unfortunately for them, they were defeated in the winner-take-all match. 

Since the off-season began, they became an even better team. They have added even more scoring, and some depth on defense, and will be bringing back some of the game’s best players. 

On Wednesday, however, they made a decision that they might regret one day. Edmonton has hired Stan Bowman as their new General Manager. This is a terrible decision for a variety of reasons. 

Bowman and the Chicago Blackhawks split in 2021 as he was banned by the NHL following an investigation into the team leadership’s handling of sexual assault. On July 1st, Bowman was reinstated into the league. The same story goes for Joel Quenneville who remains jobless. 

It is very nice that Bowman has been taking the time to better himself following his dismissal. It seems like he understands the issues and is interested in helping others going forward.

With that said, he didn’t need to be handed a GM job within a month of being reinstated. It’s a bad look for the Oilers and the league. 

The Edmonton Oilers made a very strange decision with their new GM

From a hockey point of view, it also makes no sense. Bowman was mostly bad at his job with the Chicago Blackhawks. He was there for a few Stanley Cups but the road the coattails of a few GMs that came before him.

He inherited a core of Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Brent Seabrook, Duncan Keith, and Corey Crawford amongst others. 

If anything, he helped break that team down 3-4 years prematurely. For example, Bowman made three trades involving Brandon Saad and lost all three. Most famously, the one where he acquired him back in exchange for Artemi Panarin will haunt the Hawks for a long time. 

With Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid needing extensions soon, this is scary to think about with Bowman in charge. They could win the Stanley Cup in 2024-25 as they are so deep but beyond that is cloudy with him at the helm. 

Things have been going so well for the Oilers over the last handful of years. It seems they have been slowly but surely building to be where they are right now and are so close to the top of the mountain. It makes you wonder why they’d make such a bad hire like this at this point.