NHL Ripped For Quietly Reinstating Key Figures Suspended Over Blackhawks Scandal As Free Agency Dominated Headlines

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NHL fans were treated to a deluge of major developments when free agency officially kicked off on Monday, but the league has caught some heat for seemingly using that flurry of news to distract from a notable development involving a trio of notable names who had previously suspended over a scandal involving the Blackhawks.

If you have an elementary understanding of public relations, you’re likely familiar with the concept of a “Friday news dump,” a strategy that involves releasing information that paints a particular party in a less than stellar light at the end of the workweek in the hopes it will fly under the radar courtesy of people who’ve already turned the bulk of their attention to the weekend.

That approach has become a bit antiquated in a world dominated by the 24/7 news cycle, but it’s still possible to harness the same philosophy by taking advantage of a window where people who’d be interested in the story in question are distracted by other developments in the same sphere.

It sure seems like that was the strategy the NHL adopted on Monday, as there was no shortage of hockey news to keep track of courtesy of the many, many free agency signings that led to teams collectively doling out $1 billion in contract money in a 24-hour period for the first time history.

However, another notable development transpired in the afternoon when the NHL dropped a press release announcing the reinstatement of former Chicago Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman, ex-coach Joel Quenneville, and disgraced executive Al MacIsaac, who were all indefinitely suspended in 2021 in connection to their involvement in the Kyle Beach scandal.

The decision to give teams the green light to hire those men if they so desire was controversial enough on its own, and the NHL certainly didn’t do itself any favors thanks to the many fans who called it out over the timing of the announcement.

I’d like to tell you teams won’t be entertaining the idea of bringing any of the offenders aboard despite their reinstatement, but that would be a lie.

Bowman is already being linked to the vacancy the Oilers have at GM and there’s little doubt Quenneville (a three-time Stanley Cup winner with a 969-572-150 record over the course of his lengthy career) will end up being contacted by teams in need of a new head coach at some point now that he’s eligible to get back behind the bench.