Chicago Blackhawks ownership was the toast of the town last decade. Fast forward to the present and Hawks’ ownership is despised.
The Hawks were revived after Rocky Wirtz took over guiding the franchise after his father Bill Wirtz passed away. Under Bill, the franchise decayed into complete irrelevancy.
Once the old man’s time on Earth ended, Rocky put home games on television and then the team saw legends lead the franchise to three Stanley Cup wins.
Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Marian Hossa, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, and Corey Crawford reached icon status.
Then it all came crashing down in such stunning fashion.
Hossa was forced to retire. Seabrook’s body betrayed him, and he too had to retire. Toews ended up catching long-COVID and another physical ailment and his career was pretty much down. Corey Crawford went through his issues. Keith wanted to end his career closer to home.
Kaner was about the only player of that superstar core to age gracefully and even he wanted nothing to do with a rebuild and was eventually traded away.
Then the Brad Aldrich scandal hit where the team’s brass covered up the video coach’s alleged sexual abuse of former first-round pick Kyle Beach during the 2010 Stanley Cup run. A scandal that will forever taint that championship.
Rocky denied any knowledge of the cover-up led by former team president John McDonough, general manager Stan Bowman, and head coach Joel Quenneville.
Rocky’s tirade to a townhall question in February of 2022 from reporters about the eventual fallout from the Jenner report tainted Wirtz’ images forever. It ruined all the goodwill he built up and he died with a complicated legacy.
His son Danny has taken over control of the team since Rocky’s passing and things have not been going well for him either.
The team has done nothing but lose and fans are growing restless.
It has been so bad that he was rated as one of the five worst owner in the Athletic’s NHL ownership rankings.
They’re not always talked about as much as star players, coaches and GMs. In many cases, they’re not in the limelight, writes @mirtle.
But owners set the tones for their franchises.
And these are the best ones in the NHL, according to our subscribers: https://t.co/7tLl7nKRMq pic.twitter.com/TEDMzE44Vr
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) March 17, 2025
The television revenue stream has taken a major hit with the CHSN rollout going horribly. The Hawks’ new co-owned regional sports network with the Chicago Bulls and White Sox is still not on Comcast’s Xfinity, the largest cable provider in Chicago.
Q&A with Blackhawks chairman Danny Wirtz on CHSN, Comcast carriage, the rebuild, future expectations, the Seth Jones' trade and more ⤵️ https://t.co/O2E0doR8Pc
— Scott Powers (@ByScottPowers) March 17, 2025
Fans not being able to access games has many thinking Danny has taken his grandfather’s refusal to broadcast home games one step further since 50% of the audience cannot watch road games either (a subscription is required to access content linked).
The losing likely reflects the terrible grade.
However, not all of this can be placed at Danny’s feet. This team decayed under Bowman’s watch who refused to embrace the need for a full-scale rebuild, drafted poorly, and made terrible trades.
It is not Danny Wirtz’s fault Bowman infamously traded Artemi Panarin or a whole bunch of draft capital and cap space for Seth Jones.
The refusal to move on from Kane and Toews (or rebuilding around them before father time caught up with them) sooner falls at Rocky’s feet, not his son.
But the sins of the father shall be revisited on the son.
However, the Blackhawks have had plenty of cap space and draft picks the past couple of seasons and current general manager Kyle Davidson will not use it to make a splash move.
Hopefully, that changes this offseason.
If it does and the team starts winning again, expect the Wirtz family Q-rating to go up.
