Scotty Bowman: Why Jonathan Toews Would Be Perfect For The Avalanche

And why I agree with him

The NHL trade deadline is still more than a month away. But because the NHL trade deadline has become such an important part of any online hockey site’s revenue stream we’re already starting to be bombarded with daily “trade chatter” clickbait headlines, and they’re only going to happen with more frequency every day until March 3rd.

For many hockey online sites, the NHL trade deadline has become the equivalent of Black Friday and/or Christmas time to retailers. That, and NHL free-agency day. As someone who has worked at such sites before, I can say with authority that about a third to half or more of a site’s yearly traffic totals come from the trade deadline/free agency. For whatever reason, hockey fans love trade rumors. No matter how wild, no matter how fabricated they might be, many fans just can’t enough of ‘em.

When I worked for Sports Illustrated for a couple of years (2011-13), I did a deep-dive look into how one particular site that dealt almost exclusively in hockey trade rumors was killing it, traffic-wise. You can check it out here.

I have no problem with how people make a living in the sports media business. I may not like some sites or how they go about their business getting traffic, but if you can get it and make money, my hat’s off to you. And I’m not some self-righteous innocent on the topic. I’ve written plenty of stories with clickbait headlines and knew exactly what I was doing. We all fall short of Edward R. Murrow Journalism Sanctuary. At some point, we all dip our toes into the unclean but profitable waters of clickbait.

OK, so about that headline up above. I don’t think it’s “clickbait.” I mean, I certainly hope you clicked on it and are still reading to this point. But I don’t think it’s a “sensationalized” headline at all.

I still talk regularly (humblebrag) with Hall of Fame, icon, living legend Scotty Bowman, and TRUST ME when I tell you how sharp he still is, at age 89. Quick story: I called Scotty a couple years ago for some story I was doing on the first guy ever drafted in the NHL, when the draft first started in 1963. Not only could Scotty tell me all about that guy (Garry Monahan), but he then proceeded to rattle off the first 8-10 guys who went, in order, in that first round. And he also told me where they all played their junior hockey. He would have had no time to look it up on google and keep talking to me. He did it right off the top of his head, and it was ALL correct.

Scotty watches hockey every single night, and he until recently was still employed by the Chicago Blackhawks as an adviser/scout. I can’t get Scotty to tell me whether he’s still working for some NHL team in some capacity, but if not, woe to those teams. He has a brilliant hockey mind still. He is up on everything still.

So, I asked him on Saturday: Would Jonathan Toews, in the last year of his deal in Chicago and probably on the way to another team by March 3, be a good fit as a potential 2C trade acquisition by the Colorado Avalanche? Here’s what he told me: