Gerry Moddejonge

Newly named Edmonton Oilers general manager Stan Bowman's first day on the job will likely go down as one of his most difficult. Article content

The Edmonton Oilers announced their new general manager on Wednesday, bringing in former Chicago Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman. Make that disgraced former Blackhawks GM.

Article content The job of a general manager is all about calculated risk. Article content

Advertisement 1 Share this Story : Edmonton Oilers' hiring of new GM Stan Bowman is a calculated risk Edmonton Oilers' hiring of new GM Stan Bowman is a calculated risk Author of the article: Article content The job of a general manager is all about calculated risk. Advertisement 2 Article content Edmonton Oilers' hiring of new GM Stan Bowman is a calculated risk Back to video And the Edmonton Oilers made the job of hiring a general manager a risky calculation when they brought in Stan Bowman to fill the big chair vacated by Ken Holland this off-season. If you don't know Bowman's background by now then you haven't been paying attention to all the speculation this summer that he was going to wind up in Edmonton. And sure enough, once his suspension was lifted over the mismanagement of the 2010 Kyle Beach sexual assault with the Chicago Blackhawks, Bowman would be named the new Oilers GM. Whether he should have been or not, there is no denying Bowman's impressive Stanley Cup-studded resume, which includes three championships in a span of six seasons. It's the very thing that motivated the Oilers in their attempt to push this hiring through their concerned fan base, hoping the culture of winning Bowman brings will help push an Oilers squad that's currently on the cusp right over the brink. Advertisement 3 Article content And not just next season, but for years to come. Because, let's face it, the championship window for Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl isn't getting any bigger with each passing year. And in that sense, the Oilers are a desperate organization. Maybe not desperate in the same sense of a down-and-out bottom dweller in the standings might look to bring a winning GM with a sordid history into the fold to help turn things around quickly. The difference here is the Oilers are about as far as it gets from scraping the bottom of the standings barrel, having come up one win shy of winning it all last year. Never mind one win, if the last goal in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final went their way instead of the way of the Florida Panthers, then things would have been different. Advertisement 4 Article content And you don't get that close without having team chemistry in spades. You know, those intangibles that keeps everyone working in the same direction and fighting for the person beside them. The locker-room glue that holds it all together through thick and thin. The thing that you can't always buy even with New York Yankees money. Just ask the New York Yankees … Now, it's true the Oilers are no strangers to giving people a second chance. Evander Kane and Corey Perry have both ended up being reclamation projects that made an impact on the roster. And it's not like Bowman will be a daily fixture inside the physical dressing room at Rogers Place. But as one of the top figureheads in Oilers hockey operations, who works alongside CEO Jeff Jackson in all decisions, big and small, to be made on Darryl Katz's team, Bowman will contribute to shaping the culture of the team going forward. Advertisement 5 Article content Both the culture of winning and losing, as well as the more overarching culture of how players are treated, from superstars to role-players. And that might have as much of an effect on the end product as anything else he ends up doing on the job. But for now, Bowman's been reinstated, he's been hired and he's addressed his pressing personal issues. The only thing for him to do now is to get back to the business of hockey. Up first is the duty of focusing on the future of the roster. While things look promising at the moment, there are only so many prospects pouring through the pipeline. “Looking back on my time in Chicago, I think you learn some things from that,” Bowman said. “There are challenges in the sport with the salary cap, but everyone's dealing with the same challenge and I think it's always better when you've got these impact players. They give you such a head start on it. Advertisement 6 Article content “I think the supporting cast is what's important. You have to be able to find players that can come in, whether it's young players or free agents. I think that's going to be a focus for the organization. It's something I felt was the strength of our group in Chicago, whether it's European free agents, college free agents, CHL (Canadian Hockey League) free agents.” The talent is out there, it's just a matter of identifying which pieces would fit best into the Oilers puzzle — both on the ice and within the team's all-important culture. “The draft is an important element as well. Even if you don't have first- and second-round picks because you're using those to improve your team, if you do it right, you can find players throughout the draft,” Bowman said. “You have to be able to find players to support your core group. We've got a great core group here, and the key thing over the coming years is to make sure we have players that can come in, whether it's young players or lower-priced players, but still make an impact on the roster.” E-mail: [email protected] On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge Article content Share this article in your social network Share this Story : Edmonton Oilers' hiring of new GM Stan Bowman is a calculated risk Comments Join the Conversation Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information. Latest National Stories News Near Elliot Lake Featured Local Savings

College linemate of Celebrini, son of retired defenseman to participate in 3rd development camp

Larry Thompson, the former owner of the Thompson Construction Group and a long-time season ticket holder, will be taking over, according to TSN football insider Dave Naylor.

Sure the Edmonton Elks are getting a new private owner, but will it just be a different standup comic delivering the same old punchline?

Advertisement 1 Share this Story : MODDEJONGE: Could we see a return Edmonton Eskimos under new Elks ownership? MODDEJONGE: Could we see a return Edmonton Eskimos under new Elks ownership? Author of the article: Article content Sure the Edmonton Elks are getting a new private owner, but will it just be a different standup comic delivering the same old punchline? Advertisement 2 Article content MODDEJONGE: Could we see a return Edmonton Eskimos under new Elks ownership? Back to video The club has become nothing short of a joke since undergoing the name change and dropping the old Eskimos moniker in July 2020, both on the field and off. Barely winning. Barely anyone showing up anymore. Every decision a bad one that only seemed to compound the problem. Too many old white guys making up its fan base (yes, tragically, they actually complained about that at one point). The punchline came when the Elks — in a display so far removed from the glory days of the Edmonton Eskimos winning five championships in a row it might as well have happened in another universe — failed to win in front of their home fans in a drought that spanned a nigh-unthinkable 1,415 days between victories at Commonwealth Stadium. Most everyone who has the gumption to still call themselves Elks fans out in public would like to forget how that set a new North American professional sports record of 22 straight home losses. Twenty of them happened right after the rebranding, leading to talk of a curse that lasted three years. Advertisement 3 Article content But the jokes didn't end there. For the past two seasons, the Elks have stumbled out of the gates to horrendously laughable starts of 0-9 and 0-7, leading to snickers behind the scenes at Commonwealth Stadium that Rick LeLacheur — who joined as interim president and CEO after his predecessor, Victor Cui, mysteriously vanished last summer amid a cloud of secrecy and gag orders — might as well change his name to Rick Loss-Assured. The only question left aside from how much did the Elks lose by, was have they finally hit rock bottom? Article content Now with news breaking this week of the community-owned club switching to private ownership for the first time in its 75-year existence, as local construction magnate Larry Thompson stepped forward to buy his long-loved club that is now but a shadow of its former self, his No. 1 priority has to be attracting fans back to the stands. Advertisement 4 Article content And that means distancing himself from the mess things have become under the Edmonton Elks banner. Let's face it, another losing season stuck spinning their tires at the bottom of the standings and their fight song will have to be changed to a Gordon Lightfoot spinoff called, The Wreck of the Edmonton Fitzgerald Joking aside, if there was one thing Thompson could do to make an immediate impact while also offering symbolic restitution to the long-time fans that carried this club through all the thick and thin, it would be undoing the rebranding that was forced upon the franchise four years ago. Yes, a return of the Edmonton Eskimos. Whether you agree with it or not, it's a sure shot to pave the way for a return to respectability in the eyes of plenty of Edmontonians who have since steered clear of Commonwealth Stadium. Advertisement 5 Article content Back then, the team's name got lumped in with all the other sports clubs across the continent that drew their inspiration from Native American life, from the amateur to the pro ranks. It had become a mockery, or “cultural appropriation,” to use a term from the time. You have to remember, this was the same summer as the murder of George Floyd, rest his soul, at the hands of the police, which led to riots in the streets and sensitivity surrounding minorities and the pursuit of equality. Fast-forward to today and the socio-political landscape has once again shifted. With Trump Era version 2.0 a potential outcome, there has been a pushback to more traditional views, if you will. Not everything is wrong just because somebody said so on social media. And although there is a segment of the population who will continue to argue the Eskimos name couldn't have been changed soon enough, this is a clear-cut case of majority rules. Advertisement 6 Article content And the majority has spoken. Both with their mouths and their wallets. And while pressure from sponsors is what led the double-E to change the name in the first place, the blowback by the fan base over the seasons to follow has been every bit, if not more severe. The franchise is in a financial tailspin, having announced losses in each of the past five seasons totalling somewhere in the neighbourhood of $22 million. The emergency fund is nearing depletion. The team barely remembers how to win. And by the time they get things turned around on the field, there might very well be no one left in the stands to witness it. Of course, an un-rebranding of the name would, at the same time, open up a whole old can of worms that plagued the club over the past two decades. Whenever they found success that placed them in the national spotlight (you'd have to go all the way back to the 2015 Grey Cup year for the last time that happened), it would reopen the debate and invite a who's who of politicians to gang-tackle the club. Advertisement 7 Article content And for good reason. There is no denying the term Eskimos was thrust upon members of the Inuit community in the spirit of imperialism, and will always carry a dark history. But the flipside has seen the football team proudly wave the Eskimos banner on the way to historic runs and 14 Grey Cup championships. At this point, Thompson & Co. have to weigh both the good and the bad and determine the initial step to take in plotting a course for the dawning of a new era of private ownership, because carrying on business as usual is obviously not the answer. Once an Eskimo, again an Eskimo? And maybe Thompson can look into the City of Champions signs next. E-mail: [email protected] On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don't miss the news you need to know — add and to your bookmarks and You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. | Article content Share this article in your social network Share this Story : MODDEJONGE: Could we see a return Edmonton Eskimos under new Elks ownership? Comments Join the Conversation Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information. Latest National Stories News Near Elliot Lake Featured Local Savings

Notorious gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson once said, “Buy the ticket, take the ride.” Article content

Advertisement 1 Share this Story : MODDEJONGE: Larry Thompson begins Double-E Era of the Edmonton Elks MODDEJONGE: Larry Thompson begins Double-E Era of the Edmonton Elks Author of the article: Article content Notorious gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson once said, “Buy the ticket, take the ride.” Advertisement 2 Article content MODDEJONGE: Larry Thompson begins Double-E Era of the Edmonton Elks Back to video And Edmonton's own Larry Thompson stood in front of a microphone on the field at Commonwealth Stadium on Thursday in the hopes that the Canadian Football League team he just bought will get back to giving people plenty of reasons to buy tickets again. It's no secret the Edmonton Elks — let's just call them the Double-E for now, with more on the name later — has faced more than it's fair share of struggles recently, both on the field and in the stands, where empty seats outnumber occupied ones. And not just by a little. Financially, it's translated to losses as high as $22 million over the past five years since the club made its last playoff appearance. But it hasn't always been like this. There was another five-year period where they almost couldn't lose — and didn't, when it came to the 1978-82 Grey Cups. Advertisement 3 Article content “I've been watching them since I was 12 years old,” Larry Thompson said. “The first game I went to, I fell in love with the team and I've been watching them all my life. They're very dear to my heart and I'm a passionate fan of not only the Elks, but the rest of the teams in the league. “I'm just proud. Proud to be the owner of a CFL team.” And the former construction magnate wants nothing more than to see a return of those glory days, as he held his first public introduction since purchasing the community-owned club for what he called a “confidential” amount. At the same time, as bad as things have been it's not like he could get the team for rock-bottom prices, considering the chief concern of the board of directors was finding an owner with deep pockets who could afford to provide the Double-E with a financial future — something they sorely lacked as the emergency fund dwindled dangerously down. Advertisement 4 Article content As have attendance figures at home games (The actual ones, not the ‘official' numbers that have been announced by the club). “It's a unique setup coming from a community-owned team to a private-sector team,” said Elks interim president and CEO Rick LeLacheur, who oversaw the sale. “It had to be an asset deal, it couldn't be a share deal. We're able to make the investment in the new company going forward and, as of today, we'll be reporting to him. We'll be recommending to him what our business plan is for 2025.” Whether LeLacheur is still on board by then or not. “We've recently started looking for a new president and CEO for the club and we'll continue to do that,” Thompson said. “Rick will be involved in that process of hiring somebody for that position. Advertisement 5 Article content “It's going to have to be somebody that knows their way around the league, for sure. He or she needs to be connected. And they have to be very talented.” Of course, he could just have easily been describing the job requirements for a franchise quarterback, which the team also happens to be in dire need of. But regardless of what pieces get put in place and when, there is one thing that can solve all the team's problems. “That's very simple, we need to bring back our winning ways,” Thompson said. “That means winning football games.” Simple to say, but the Elks have shown it's harder to do, having gone 13-46 since rebranding from the original Edmonton Eskimos moniker Thompson and his fellow lifelong football fans in Edmonton grew up with. Advertisement 6 Article content While Thompson dodged questions of his commitment to the Elks brand, he didn't deny the idea of change. Or a change back, as the case may be. “We will be focusing, just to let you know, in the future on Double-E more,” he said, referring to the club's logo, which survived the rebranding. Cryptic, for sure. Not to mention a point of contention among football fans and non-fans alike that could certainly end up rearing its ugly head, should the topic be invited back up for debate under Thompson's rule. One thing is certain, he's not afraid to put the fans first, given he is coming straight out of the stands, himself, as opposed to the ivory tower the previous board of directors governed from. “We're in an entertainment business. So we need to entertain fans to get them back in the seats,” Thompson said. “Because when they come here, they've got to have fun, and if they don't, they ain't going to come here. Advertisement 7 Article content “And our fans are extremely important to the club.” As obvious as that idea is, it might have been the most important thing Thompson could have said on Day 1 of the Double-E Era. His Double-E. E-mail: [email protected] On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don't miss the news you need to know — add and to your bookmarks and You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: | Article content Share this article in your social network Share this Story : MODDEJONGE: Larry Thompson begins Double-E Era of the Edmonton Elks Comments Join the Conversation Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information. Latest National Stories News Near Elliot Lake Featured Local Savings