DETROIT — The Blackhawks’ search for a permanent general manager has entered the action stage.
Interviews with candidates for the GM position will begin this week, and the chosen candidate will be hired and in place before the NHL trade deadline of March 21, Hawks CEO Danny Wirtz said as part of a sweeping update provided Wednesday.
“We are looking to hire the best strategic mind who can build and develop a hockey operations leadership team that will be best-in-class across professional sports,” Wirtz said in a statement.
“This new leader will create a team environment that brings the best experts together to guide decision-making on the future of the Blackhawks while ensuring they share in the overall organizational goals of consistently competing at a championship level. And without question, he or she must be someone who exhibits our organizational values.”
Interim general manager Kyle Davidson is a candidate for the permanent role and will retain full acting GM duties in the meantime, Wirtz said. Whether or not he gets this job, many in the organization expect him to retain a very significant leadership role.
But what won’t happen, as many had also speculated, is a hockey operations president being hired above Davidson or whoever is hired for this position. The GM will report directly to Wirtz, ruling out an overseeing, intermediary president role a la Jaime Faulkner on the business side.
Wednesday’s update comes after six weeks of undergoing a “discovery and research process that explored all functions and structure” of hockey operations, Wirtz said, which “revealed an incredible amount of in-house talent while also highlighting areas for growth and opportunities to become more competitive.”
The products of that process and the organization’s new long-term vision will be shared at a town-hall meeting with fans and media next week.
Meanwhile, Wirtz, Faulkner and an “advisory committee…comprised of leaders across the sports industry” will conduct and oversee the GM interviewing process. The Hawks hired prominent sports consultant Mike Forde and sought input from Cubs president Jed Hoyer in December, Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reported then.
This story will be updated.