The Chicago Blackhawks have brought back Norm Maciver, hiring him as the team’s new associate general manager. He will oversee the entire scouting department and report directly to general manager Kyle Davidson. Davidson had this to say on the hire:
Bringing in Norm is the first of many hires we plan to make as we restructure our hockey operations. I think it is important in this new hockey operations department to balance really strong knowledge in hockey with new and innovative thinking. Norm brings that institutional knowledge and is one of the best talent evaluators in the business-pushing the boundaries on new methods and techniques that we need here at the Blackhawks. Norm has been a big help to me throughout my career personally, but he also isn’t afraid to share his opinion and that is something that I respect most about him. He’s a great first step in building this out.
Maciver was previously with the team for a decade, before leaving in 2019 and then spending the last year with the Seattle Kraken as director of player personnel. He served in various roles for the Blackhawks, including assistant GM for eight seasons prior to his departure.
While it was obvious that Davidson would reshape the front office now that his interim tag was removed, some will see this as sort of a step backward toward the previous management group. At the time he left the Blackhawks however, Scott Powers of The Athletic wrote that Maciver had been “cut out of the inner circle by [Stan] Bowman and Al MacIssac” as they argued over whether or not to start a rebuild or continue to try and surround Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane with enough talent for another Stanley Cup run. With Davidson promising that the team is now undergoing that rebuild, it does make sense that he would bring back the executive that pushed for it in the first place.
The Blackhawks have a lot of work to do in order to turn around their franchise, including its reputation off the ice. Importantly, though he was with the team at the time of the Brad Aldrich sexual assault situation, Maciver was not in the infamous meeting of top executives where the initial report was discussed, nor did his name appear even a single time in the 107-page Jenner & Block report from October.