(Chicago) Former Chicago Blackhawks forwards Eddie Olczyk, Marian Hossa and Patrick Sharp will help the team find a general manager.
Posted yesterday at 7:40 p.m.
Blackhawks president Danny Wirtz said Olczyk, Hossa and Sharp “are respected hockey minds.”
Mike Forde, chairman of Sportsology and a former head of English soccer club Chelsea FC, will also help the team with research.
“In addition to other advisers, we will use their expertise and forward-thinking strategy in our quest to find a new chief executive,” Wirtz said Monday in a statement.
The Hawks will start interviewing this week.
Wirtz, the son of owner Rocky Wirtz, announced Wednesday that the team plans to call in candidates “not only from the hockey world, but also from outside.”
Acting general manager Kyle Davidson is in the running for the permanent position.
Davidson was promoted to the interim role when longtime chief executive Stan Bowman stepped down in October, following a report from an outside law firm.
The report found the organization mishandled allegations that an assistant coach sexually assaulted Kyle Beach on the sidelines of the team’s 2010 Stanley Cup win.
The report also played a role in the departure of Al MacIsaac, another of the Blackhawks’ most senior hockey executives.
The NHL also fined the team $2 million for “the organization’s inadequate internal procedures and insufficient and untimely response.”
Sharp and Hossa have been important cogs in the last three Stanley Cup-winning Blackhawks, in 2010, 2013 and 2015. Olczyk, 55, started and ended his career with the Blackhawks, scoring 77 of his 342 goals with training. He had 322 regular season games with the Blackhawks.