I would probably say to hire :
Gerard Gallant as HC
promote Norm Maciver to GM (for those who dont know he is the current assistant gm, a lot of people think hes been wanting to get his shot once bowman is gone, plus I think Kelley enjoys being scouting head)
Monty as assistant coach or keep brookbank

I’d love to get gallant! I agree on maciver mainly because I genuinely don’t know who’s better on the market. I don’t want Shero and honestly I’d never allow Kelley to be GM. ACs are all about who Gallant would want.

I'm a admitted Bowman defender, but I'm losing more and more faith in his abilities to get us back to the Cup. I'm not at the fire stage yet...because to me that means Toews/Kane/Keith will likely go soon. A new GM is going to want his own imprint on the team. I 1,000% want to keep Mark Kelley in some capacity. If he wants to stay a scout. GREAT! He's been outstanding.

Can i ask: would it be terrible if we found great value for Kane and toews and just traded them to trigger a full rebuild? I understand loyalty and wanting to finish here, but these contracts are hard to function under anymore. Never mind that Kane easily earns his, it doesn’t change the fact that the team isn’t good enough around him. The team, unfortunately, needs to find a way to move on and rise up again.

If a full rebuild means getting rid of Kane, toews, and even Keith, I wouldn’t hate it as long as it was done the right way.

I mean... The brain answer is no it wouldn't be the worst thing, but in this case...I want statues of those guys at the UC. Actually, I'd prefer 1 statue with Q included because that's just so...hockey. Full team game full team effort...so maybe I'm ok with it. BUT it would have to be a CRAZY good trade. Not just shedding Seabs. I mean Kane to BUF (with retention because we're giving up anyway) for Cozens, the 1st, Ukko...I mean multiple of their BEST prospects.

***EDIT*** for the record though, I still don't want to trade those guys. Just admitting it's not the end of the world.

The thing is we just aren't going to get good value from them at this point. Nobody is going to pay full price for Kane or Toews anymore because all the GMs are weak and believe too much in their prospects enough to say "**** it lets just win it all this year." SO if we were able to get a return of multiple top prospects and a pick then I wouldnt be too mad about it. But I really do think depending on how the draft and offseason goes, we are in a position to atleast contend for the wildcard next year. Assuming Debrincat returns to his form, Saad stays productive, Toews plays like he has this year, Strome picks it up a little, Kubalik improves a little, we got some help coming in Mitchell, which isnt the biggest thing itself, but itll allow for an actual 2nd pairing instead of 2 guys in over their heads which will make a big difference.

I’ve posted about this yesterday in a comment section but my personal belief is that last season was a Debrincat anomaly and this season and his rookie season are more true to form. 25 goals a season and 50-60 points should be expected from him, 20-35-55 should be average for Strome, and same goes for Kubalik, I think he’s gonna be a 25-20-45 kind of guy. So I don’t want to bank on “rebound” years because I think what we’re seeing is their true selves.

Notably, the PP is garbage. Which is why everyone’s numbers are down. So who knows if next year the PP is even league average these guys score more points and maybe some more standings points too.

I’ll simply say this: that’s what we said about this year. Suffice to say, with all do respect, this team is in no way a playoff team. Now, you throw Mitchell into the picture next season. He’s a good player, hopefully what we need. However, the truth still remains that this team will largely be the same because of the salary cap and (spoiler alert!) big contracts from Kane, toews, and seabrook (when he comes back, cuz guys, let’s be honest, our luck lately says he’s coming back). Then, you add in the fact that our goaltending situation is screwed, were in trouble. Stan set this team back a ways on Monday, and between awful return and a crippling salary cap for another 4 years (seabrook finally expires), it isn’t looking pretty in Chicago.

Hate to say it again, because I think I did the first time you said this, but I have to agree with all points. I will say that it might be different if we got a “real” coach to teach these guys, but that doesn’t change the fact that Stan would still be around as well.