91-year-old has 9 championships as coach, 5 as executive, 3 with son for Blackhawks
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EDMONTON — Scotty Bowman has made many trips to the Stanley Cup Final. But this time, he has come for one game and one reason. His son Stan is the general manager of the Edmonton Oilers.
“He wanted me to watch one game,” Scotty said. “You never know when you’re going to be back at these situations. Traveling’s not easy for anybody. It’s even worse for guys like me.”
Scotty is 91 and lives in Buffalo. He said he doesn’t know if he’ll be able to make it to another game in this series, even if the Oilers are in position to clinch.
But he got a ride to Toronto and caught a flight to Edmonton so he could be here for Game 1 against the Florida Panthers at Rogers Place on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, TNT, truTV, MAX).
“It’s really been a pleasure for me to have him here, just as a fan essentially,” Stan said. “Like, he’s the ultimate hockey fan.”
The Bowmans are the ultimate father-son Stanley Cup story.
They have their names on the Cup 17 times combined, three times together. Scotty won it 14 times — a record nine times as a coach, plus five times as an executive. Stan won it three times as the GM of the Chicago Blackhawks with Scotty as a senior advisor.
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But it goes deeper than that.
When Scotty won the Cup the first time, with the Montreal Canadiens on May 10, 1973, he and his wife, Suella, were expecting a child. They decided if they had a son, he’d be named Stanley.
Stan arrived June 28, 1973.
He grew up going to the rink, watching his dad work and listening to him break down the game.
“He’s like a walking encyclopedia of just so many things,” Stan said. “His memory is incredible for the detail of the game, so that’s something that I’ve enjoyed my whole life, and I’ve been fortunate.”
But Stan took his own path. He had a different demeanor than his dad — more calm and analytical — and knew from a young age he wouldn’t coach. He studied finance and computers at Notre Dame, took a consulting job with Arthur Andersen in Chicago, and worked in process engineering, helping companies become more efficient.
He got into hockey by writing a letter to Blackhawks executive Bob Pulford, becoming a special assistant to GM Mike Smith in 2001 and using his skills to climb the ladder. It was for the best that father and son didn’t work together — until Stan battled Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Scotty joined Chicago in 2008.
Stan became the Blackhawks GM in 2009, and he and his dad shared Cup wins in 2010, 2013 and 2015. The run ended in 2021-22, when Stan resigned during the season amid the fallout surrounding the investigation of Kyle Beach’s sexual assault claims against a Blackhawks video coach. Scotty left at the end of that season. Stan got back into the NHL when he was reinstated by the League on July 1, 2024, and was hired by Edmonton 23 days later.
Scotty is still a hockey savant, but now he’s just a dad supporting his son.
“He’s watched more hockey than, I think, anybody in this world,” Stan said. “He’s 91, and he still watches every game every night during the regular season and playoffs, and he watched the Memorial Cup the other day. He just loves watching hockey, and I think when you watch that much hockey, you have observations about the game. He certainly has experience of being through so many of these types of situations.
“So, I would say, it’s not like he’s sitting there giving me feedback on every game, but we talk about it, and I learn a lot just through those conversations. It’s not so much specific advice. It’s just a conversation, and then you reflect on what you talked about, and you realize, ‘That’s something maybe I can bring up when I talk to our coaches.’
“So, yeah, I think he’s more of a fan right now than anything, but it’s great to see him interacting with all the media, because I know he enjoys that at this stage of his life.”
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Scotty talked hockey with multiple reporters as Edmonton practiced Tuesday, wearing a coat, a tie and his Order of Hockey in Canada ring.
“It’s a smaller one,” Scotty said with a laugh. “The other ones are all big.”
Asked about this series, Scotty sounded sharp. He pointed out how each team made changes after the Panthers defeated the Oilers in seven games in the Cup Final last season. Each has health, depth, goaltending and confidence.
“I’ve seen all the games that both teams have played, and it’s pretty tight,” Scotty said. “I think that you’ve got a real tough series coming up.”
It will be a big one for the Bowmans.
“Naturally, I’ve been through it a lot,” Scotty said. “But his brothers and sisters and my wife, they get excited. They’ve gone through it before — for some of them, but not all of them. Some are young enough that they weren’t around when I was still in the game. It’s exciting for the family.”
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