It is very easy to look back to 2+ years ago and make theses seemingly right decisions. I do have moments where I have doubted some of Chicago's moves but the fact of the matter is that hindsight is 20/20. Moves need to be made and it is a very difficult thing to do. Seabrook fell off and it wasn't a slow decline. Almost over night he became half the player he once was.

Also it is hard to make trades when teams know that you are in tight with the cap and looking to dump salary. Bickell would still be on the team albeit with LTIR relief once his MS came to light. One thing your team also fails to consider is the 6+ million of Hossa's contract.

It is unfortunate that the Hawks have been struggling this year. They will likely miss playoffs but I believe a lot of that is due to the Crawford injury not the team itself.

This is obviously easy to do when you know how everything turned out.
BUUUUUUTTTTT, the Seabrook extension was horrendous in any way you look at it. Even at the time of the signing, a full year before it went into effect, it was a garbage signing and most people could see that. Stan Blowman gave into Seabrook's outrageous requests because he had a full NMC on the final year of his last contract. Stan thought it would be better to give Seabrook the outrageous deal instead of letting him walk at free agency. I personally have never been a huge fan of Seabrook and would have easily let him walk if that's the contract he was asking for. Stan signed him to an "elite defenseman" contract. Turns out its the worst contract in the NHL, and its not even close.

The Patrick Sharp trade was okay for the most part. I will say that Stan anticipated Daley being a multi-year 2nd pairing staple for the Hawks and that just didn't pan out. What I have noticed over the years is that Stan doesn't know defense. AT ALL. It also seems that he completely fails to consult and coordinate with his head coach about these players that he is bringing in. Q shouldn't have the final say but he should have a pretty big influence in these trades especially if Bowman planned on having Q coach for the foreseeable future. SEE THE NIKLAS HJALMARSSON TRADE

The Hammer-Murphy trade is absolute trash any way you look at it. You don't trade your CLEAR #2 defenseman with reasonable cap hit for a somewhat unknown fit even if it is for somewhat longer cap security. AND in a year where you only have 2-3 confirmed NHL defenseman on your roster. Not to mention that Q flipped s*** after he found out proving that he had LITERALLY no say or knowledge about the possible trade.

I can't blame Bowman for the Bickell trade. He did what he had to do for the most part. If Bickell had been properly diagnosed the Hawks would still have Teravainen.

IMO nearly all of the major trades and a lot of major signings Stan has even made in his career have been fairly awful. Except the Hossa signing. Stan is very good at taking advantage of small trades and signings. The ones that seem meaningless for the most part but end up with a solid NHLers. Some that come to mind from recently are the clendening-forsling, Panarin signing, Morin-Panik, TVR signing, Oesterle signing, Duclair-Panik

I agree 100% with your comment. the seabrook extension was bad from the start, the Daley trade should have worked out better... after all, he was coming off a career year with 16 goals and 38 points in 16 games. same opinions on the HJALMARSSON trade. bickell trade was just unfortunate for the hawks that he was misdiagnosed. if hawks had known they could've threw him on LTIR, they would've kept teemu.

I will say this about bowmen. Pre Summer 2015 id say he was the best GM in the NHL. if you look after the 2010, 2013, and the 2015 cups... hes been able to trade away key supporting cast players and build around their core of guys. he was able to ship out/lose some great players throughout the years yet make great draft picks, trades, and FA pickups to keep his team a contender. guys like Campbell, laad, brower, big buff, versteeg, and Niemi were all either traded or left unsigned after their first cup. after 2013 they lost guys like frolik, stalberg, handzus, leddy, bolland, etc... after 2015 he lost the likes of saad, sharp, Richards, etc... every team has turnover no doubt. thats the effects of a salary cup era. but what bowman was able to do from 2010-2015 was incredible. the amount of turnover between guys is crazy. HOWEVER... his last couple seasons hes made questionable moves/ signings that have no doubt negatively impacted the team.