Is Stan Bowman the next Oilers GM? If you protest the choice you're a hypocrite.

We just heard last week that as of July 10, former Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman is eligible for reinstatement to work in the NHL. Many Oilers fans are up in arms and threatening a revolt. First of all, I would call the bluff of any Edmontonian who says they are walking away from Oilers fandom. The Oilers in Edmonton are as close to a religion as you can get without actually being a religion. There's no way you can just walk away if you're a passionate fan of the Oilers, or move your allegiances to another team after cheering for the Oilers for most of your life. I remember hearing a lot of fans saying they were going to be done with the Oilers during the decade of darkness and yet I don't recall hearing of a lull in attendance or merch sales during that time, especially once the next high draft pick du jour was drafted.

Second of all - and most importantly, if you disagree with the hiring of Bowman, then you are a complete and total hypocrite, but I don't recall any fan - not one - protesting the signing or trading of controversial players throughout Oilers history. Why is it OK to sign controversial players but not executives? This I do not understand, and it just strikes me as pure hypocrisy. You can come at me on Twitter all you want, I don't care. It's not going to change my mind in calling you out.

After all, let's go through the list of players throughout Oilers history that fans have not had an issue with that have all resurrected their careers playing for the Oilers, two of which are still playing for them now.

Craig MacTavish

Drafted by the Boston Bruins in 1978, Craig MacTavish did what a lot of young NHLers did - he got some money in his pocket and developed a bit of an ego, thinking he was indestructible. He would pay a heavy price for this foolhardy mentality as on a January night in 1984 Mactavish got behind the wheel after drinking, then driving a sports car at a high rate of speed and ended up in a deadly car accident, hitting a 26-year-old woman in a head-on collision. She ended up dying in hospital four days later, and Mactavish was charged with vehicular homicide, then spent the entire 1984-85 season in jail for said vehicular homicide.

As a favor to him, then Bruins GM Harry Sinden asked Mactavish if he wanted out of his contract so he could get a fresh start somewhere else, and Mactavish said yes. Well aware of what had transpired in Boston, then Oilers GM Glen Sather signed Mactavish to give him a fresh start here in Edmonton for the 1985-86 season, and the rest is history. Mactavish would go on to play a pivotal role as a bottom six forward for the remaining cups the Oilers won in 1987 and 1988 and as a top six forward in 1990. He would go on to win another cup with the Rangers in 1994 before journeying around and calling it a career. He would go on to become an assistant coach for the Oilers, then head coach, then GM, then a senior VP under Peter Chiarelli, and a stint in the media for a while. He was most recently an assistant coach for the Blues before being fired in 2023.

I don't recall anyone in the media or any fan having any objection to the hiring of Mactavish at any point along the way, despite the fact that he killed a woman due to his own lethal mistake. Why is Mactavish worthy of a second chance in your eyes but not Bowman? Doesn't make any sense to me.

Petr Klima

A fifth-round pick of the Detroit Red Wings, Petr Klima would go on to defect from his native Czechoslovakia - at the time an Iron Curtain nation under the thumb of the USSR - to North America so he could sign with the Red Wings and play in the NHL. He made an immediate impact on the Wings, becoming a perennial 30 goal scorer for them in the mid-late 80s. Unfortunately, while playing for the Red Wings he also became an alcoholic. This came to a head in the 1988 playoffs when Klima, breaking curfew along with four other teammates, was found in what at the time was a popular Edmonton watering hole called Goose Loonies (the Red Wings were playing the Oilers at the time, and were the visitors). This resulted in Klima being included in the 1989-90 in season trade between Detroit and Edmonton where Jimmy Carson was the key piece going to the Red Wings the other way (Carson was the centerpiece of the Wayne Gretzky trade in the summer of 1988 and found it suffocating playing under the pressure of being tasked with replacing Gretzky on the Oilers). Klima would go on to play a key role in the Oilers top six forward group in their 1990 cup win.

Has anyone objected to having an alcoholic elite scorer playing for the team that won them the Cup that year? I don't anyone speaking up about it. How is Bowman not acceptable but Klima is? By the way, speaking of drug problems, goalie Grant Fuhr was in rehab during the 1990 Stanley Cup run when Bill Ranford won the Conn Smythe trophy for a coke problem.

Evander Kane

Evander Kane's vengeful ex-wife manufactured a story about him that said he was gambling on games when he was a member of the San Jose Sharks, which turned out to be false.

But what wasn't false is during the height of the pandemic, Kane submitted a fake vaccination card to Canadian border authorities in a road game in Vancouver. San Jose subsequently terminated his contract but the NHL determined that was true. Why is Bowman's controversy unacceptable, but lying about your vaccination status and putting the health of everyone on your team in jeopardy is OK? Seems a little arbitrary, don't you think?

Corey Perry

Now we come to another player with alcohol issues, Corey Perry. His contract was terminated by Chicago last November amidst an "alcohol fueled incident" so to speak, and that's about all the specifics we have. Why is it OK for alcoholic players to play for the Oilers but not executives who cover up sexual abuse? Both are egregious errors of judgement that both men have paid the price for. Why is Perry's offence okay and not Bowman's?

Bottom line

I'm not saying that Bowman should or shouldn't be the Oilers GM. But the man's been out of hockey for 2.5 years paying for the egregious mistake that he made all those years ago, just like Kane, Perry, Klima, and Mactavish all paid the price for their crimes. Why is it OK to put the health of your teammates in jeopardy, commit drunken offences, or kill a young woman with your car but not to cover up sexual abuse? Seems a little arbitrary, don't you think?

If you're going to get high and mighty about Bowman working for the Oilers, you're going to have to ask yourself why you're okay with Mactavish, Klima, Kane, and Perry working for the Oilers, but not Bowman. If you want to focus on the coverup, Kane was caught red-handed in his lie too but you don't seem to have a problem with that, so don't use that as an excuse.

And after all, we are talking about a man who was the architect of three Stanley Cup winners in the 2010s, so he is eminently qualified. We just had one of the best GMs of all time working for us in Ken Holland, why not one of the best of the 2010s in Bowman? If this is all you've got, you'll have to think of another justification to me, because whatever objection you have to Bowman you'll have to have with the four players I listed here or you're a complete and total hypocrite. Full stop, plain and simple.