Bowman steps down as Blackhawks adviser, wants to stay in hockey
88-year-old worked 14 years in role, is NHL's all-time winningest coach
If the most successful coach in League history isn't waiting for his phone to ring, the tireless 88-year-old said he is eager to stay in the game. And he hasn't lost a step.
Bowman has quietly left the employ of the Chicago Blackhawks, for whom he has been senior adviser of hockey operations since July 2008, making the announcement himself on his Twitter account Tuesday.
"I am no longer working for the Chicago Blackhawks as of July 1 as I decided it was time to move on. Still love the game and would like to stay involved," he tweeted.
Bowman has 14 Stanley Cup championships to his name, including an NHL-record nine as a coach. He won five with his hometown Montreal Canadiens, in 1973 and 1976-79, then in 1992 with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and with the Detroit Red Wings in 1997, 1998 and 2002. He's added five more titles in various front-office capacities with the Penguins (1991), Red Wings (1998) and Blackhawks (2010, 2013, 2015).
© Getty Images
His own playing career cut short by injury, the native of Montreal-district Verdun turned in the mid-1950s to scouting, then coaching. He would become the most successful coach in NHL history, winning a record 1,244 times in his 2,141 regular-season games between 1967-68 and 2001-02, with 223 victories in 353 Stanley Cup Playoff games.
Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1991 as a Builder, Bowman has been in or around the NHL for 65 years; he inventories 18 with Montreal, 15 with Detroit, 14 with Chicago, eight with the Buffalo Sabres, four with the St. Louis Blues, three with Pittsburgh and three more in broadcast booths as an analyst.
His contract with the Blackhawks was to expire June 30, so after much soul-searching and discussion with his wife, Suella, and his family, he decided a change was in order.
"It was time to move on," Bowman said Tuesday from his summertime home in East Amherst, New York. "I called (Blackhawks) owner Rocky Wirtz first, then (general manager) Kyle Davidson a few days before my contract was to end. Kyle asked whether I'd reconsider, but I called him back and told him it was a family decision."
Bowman admitted, "it was a really difficult year for the family." His son, Stan, was removed as Blackhawks president of hockey operations and general manager last October following an independent investigation of Kyle Beach's allegations of sexual assault by then-assistant coach Brad Aldrich in 2010. Beach was drafted by Chicago in 2008 and played for its American Hockey League affiliate until 2014.
It was with Stan in fragile health 14 years ago that Bowman decided to accept the offer of Dale Tallon, then-Blackhawks GM, to leave the Red Wings and join his son in Chicago.
"Stan was in tough shape (with Hodgkin lymphoma), a cancerous tumour in the sternum, another in the neck," Bowman said. "I was an adviser with Detroit in 2008 and we'd just won the Cup. I'd stayed on with the Red Wings after our 2002 Cup win, my last as a coach, (then-owner) Mike Ilitch having given me a lifetime contract after coaching. I stayed on six more years as an adviser with hockey operations, a nice gig.
"But Stan had two boys, about 2 and 5 at the time, as he battled cancer, and Dale asked Detroit for permission to talk to me to join Chicago as a senior adviser and also to work with Stan (then Tallon's assistant). At first I didn't want to do it, but my family asked me to think about it. I called Mike (Ilitch) and he was so good. He said, 'Scotty, I'd hate to lose you, but family always comes first. You'll always be a member of the Red Wings family.'"
© Getty Images
Bowman signed with the Blackhawks, just months before his son's cancer returned. Stan succeeded Tallon as their GM in July 2009.
"Stan had to do a stem-cell transplant, he was in a tent for 20 days which took his immune system down to zero," he said. "It was very dangerous, but the doctors knew what they were doing. He recovered completely. That was 13 years ago, and he never talks about it. I had a good stay with Chicago, but I didn't feel comfortable there this year. Stan had to resign. It was a tough year, but I still earned my keep."
As he's done for years, perched in a press gallery seat at Amalie Arena in Tampa "68 miles door-to-door from my place in Siesta Key (Florida) to a nice parking place at the arena," Bowman scribbled notes and bird-dogged games for the Blackhawks. He communicated with then-coach Derek King but more frequently with Anders Sorensen, coach of the team's AHL affiliate in Rockford, happy to share his wisdom.
Bowman was and expects he will continue to remain happiest in the company of hockey people. He missed just six Lightning home games last season, arriving early to chew the fat with visiting scouts, reporters and broadcasters before the game and rubbing elbows with them during intermissions.
He loves that a seatmate in the media gallery is Boston Bruins scout Adam Creighton.
"I drafted him for Buffalo," Bowman said with a laugh, having selected Creighton in the first round (No. 11) of the 1983 NHL Draft.
"It's a good lifestyle for me. I'm pretty sure I can get a press pass again next year. (Lightning GM) Julien BriseBois takes good care of me. I have a yearly credential, it's what I like to do. A lot of people from colleges call me, a friend of a friend. The game has changed so much, it's so fast. I try to keep up with it. When I started coaching, I was alone behind the bench."
Twenty years ago, Bowman was considering stepping back from hockey, his Red Wings on their way to winning the Stanley Cup in 2002.
"During the Salt Lake [City] Olympic break, at a training camp we had in Orlando, it hit me: 'When am I going to get out?' This would be my last kick at the can," he said. "That we were able to win the Cup in 2002 at home, and I was able to put my skates on and take it for a little spin, that was very special.
"I've been asked why I skated so slowly, and I tell people that they'd thrown confetti on the ice and I didn't want to trip with the Cup."
It was a perfect way for Bowman to step away from coaching, his ninth championship one better than his idol, Toe Blake, who won eight with the Canadiens in the 1950s and '60s.
"I always admired that Toe won his last game in 1968, against me coaching St. Louis, beating us four straight for his eighth Cup," Bowman said. "I always felt, how often are you lucky enough to win your last game? More often than not, you lose and you're fired."
Having left one Detroit job in 2002 on his own terms, Bowman does so two decades later with Chicago.
But this hockey lifer is not retiring. He's merely catching his breath before he sets off on his next challenge.
