Fans banding together to get Stan Bowman fired on his first day as Oilers GM
Fans across the NHL have banded together in an attempt to have Oilers GM Stan Bowman removed from his position at the very start of his tenure in Edmonton.
To the dismay of many fans across the NHL, the Edmonton Oilers announced on Wednesday that Stan Bowman would take over as general manager and executive vice president of hockey operations. Bowman, along with Joel Quenneville, were banned from the NHL in 2021 following the investigation into their time with the Chicago Blackhawks during the 2010 season and the shocking incident involving Kyle Beach and then video coach Brad Aldrich.
On July 1st, the NHL re-instated the duo and as of July 10th, teams were free to meet with the pair for vacant positions.
Oilers fans were hoping that CEO Jeff Jackson, who had been the interim GM after the departure of Ken Holland would take over the role on a full-time basis after a very successful draft and free agent period. Unfortunately, he had no intentions to take on the role full-time and rumours began to swirl that Bowman was the front-runner for the GM job in Edmonton.
After the announcement and introductory press conference, fans from a variety of teams came together and have begun to sign a petition to have Bowman removed from the NHL once again. As of 5PM on July 24th, the petition has already garnered 8,450 signatures. If the petition continues to pick up momentum and gets a substantial amount of signatures, it will be interesting to see how the NHL decides to handle the situation and whether or not they will step in and make a decision for the Oilers.
Bad PR is not something a growing league should want and it will be interesting to see how this all develops. It's interesting to note that last summer, after being hired by the Columbus Blue Jackets, Mike Babcock was exposed for not having changed his ways, with several players claiming that Babcock went through their phones without their expressed permission and consent. It turned out to be a PR nightmare for the league and the Blue Jackets. Before the league or the Blue Jackets could do anything about it, Babcock resigned from his position. Could we see the same from Bowman if this petition reaches tens of thousands of signatures? Time will tell.
Source: Change.org
Change.org Petition
| POLL | ||
JUILLET 25 | 997 ANSWERS Fans banding together to get Stan Bowman fired on his first day as Oilers GM Will Bowman resign from his new position? | ||
| Yes | 281 | 28.2 % |
| No | 716 | 71.8 % |
| List of polls | ||
