Chicago Blackhawks president John McDonough.
John Konstantaras/Chicago News Cooperative
John McDonough left the Cubs to go to the Blackhawks, and there he turned a moribund franchise into just what the Cubs would like to be.
John McDonough believes he remembers when he first started hearing “What’s next?” queries.
Game officials were rummaging in the net for the puck Patrick Kane slipped past Flyers goaltender Michael Leighton on a Wednesday night in Philadelphia six weeks ago. Had young Kane scored a Stanley Cup-winning goal for the Blackhawks?
The puck’s presence in the corner of net confirmed that he had, although the officials and the goal judge missed it at first. So the red light never went on, never acknowledged the completion of the Hawks’ stunning transformation from moribund, sad-sack stragglers to N.H.L. champions. Giddy Chicago has not stopped celebrating. The party continues this weekend with Hawks Fest at the downtown Hilton.
What’s next? McDonough, the team president and convention creator, will be toasted (again) as the overseer of that transformation, in marked contrast to last year, when the previous week’s demotion of general manager Dale Tallon had party-goers in a surly mood. Tallon, the roster’s architect, was a Hawks lifer. McDonough was the target of the fans’ ire, booed “for probably the first time in my life,” he said. “That was a very tough decision. But I made it clear that it was my decision, and whatever direction this franchise was headed in moving forward, it was on me.”
Winning a Stanley Cup soothed the hardest feelings. But even as the treasure was touring Chicago watering holes, the Hawks began reshaping their cup-winning roster, tacitly affirming that Tallon didn’t understand the salary cap, and why he had to go.
“In a perfect world, you’d like to try it again with the same group,” McDonough said. “But a hard salary cap is not a perfect world.”
What’s next? Charismatic goal-scorers Dustin Byfuglien and Kris Versteeg and a line or two full of useful contributors will not be part of the cup defense, so one of the league’s youngest teams will be even younger.
“I don’t mind it when the waters are stirred a little,” McDonough said. “It means there’s something going on.”
Such as ordering Stanley Cup rings for everyone in the organization, ambassadors to interns. “I’m staying out of that,” McDonough said. “I don’t have a rich history with rings.”
Not after 24 jewelry-free years with the Cubs.
McDonough’s spacious United Center office affords him a nice view of the Chicago skyline. The city is in his soul, so he’s in a good place. The closest he has come to a “Holy, um, Cow” moment was on his day with the cup. He took it home to his Edison Park neighborhood for a parade, and the joy on the faces of the people he’d grown up with validated his decision to leave the Cubs for the Blackhawks in November 2007.
He rolled the dice, giving up the presidency of a popular franchise he had helped shape to take over the city’s most forlorn one. “A career counselor would not have advised it, but I had to reinvent myself,” McDonough said.
On June 13 the Hawks took the cup to Wrigley Field for Game.3 of the Cubs-Sox series. Until Ted Lilly and Gavin Floyd combined for 15 no-hit innings, McDonough was the star. Former colleagues lined up for handshakes and hugs. Hawks Captain Jonathan Toews was assigned ceremonial first-ball duties, but he deferred to McDonough, recognizing 24 years of distinguished service.
“That was my life,” McDonough said quietly.
As he stood on the mound, McDonough represented the shifting sands beneath two franchises that have defined his career. Bad, sad and irrelevant four years ago, the Hawks have become what the Cubs would like to be: champions, yes, but also a classy, smooth-running operation, exuding competence and confidence. Tom Ricketts had to notice.
McDonough gets it. He’s a sports guy, and he knows what selling sports entails. He wasn’t a hockey guy, so he hired Scotty Bowman, the best hockey guy on the planet. Joel Quenneville is the Hawks’ coach because of Bowman’s influence.
As the Cubs prepare to hire yet another manager, who is Tom Ricketts’s Scotty Bowman? Who is his John McDonough? The noodle guy?
What’s next, John McDonough? He has heard talk that he’s in line to succeed Gary Bettman as National Hockey League commissioner, on the premise that his operational savvy could elevate an entire league the way it has the Blackhawks. McDonough dismisses the talk as “speculation.”
“It’s flattering, but there isn’t any substance to it,” he said.
McDonough knows Ricketts and figures he would have heard from him if the Cubs owner had any interest. He isn’t waiting by the phone.
“Rocky Wirtz is a very generous owner, a great owner, and I love working for him. We know who we are, and we know where we were. We won a Stanley Cup, but we aren’t finished.”
“I can’t imagine doing anything else,” he added. “I still want to see that red light come on.”
