5 things we heard from Norm Maciver, the Chicago Blackhawks associate GM, including his thoughts on tanking for draft picks

Chicago Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson can claim ex-Hawk Al Secord, former Vancouver Canuck Todd Bertuzzi and the late “Jeopardy” host Alex Trebek.

Associate GM Norm Maciver can boast of the NHL’s Staal brothers — Eric, Marc and Jordan — and Paul Shaffer, David Letterman’s lovable band leader and foil.

“He says Sudbury’s better than Thunder Bay,” Maciver told the Tribune about their respective Ontario hometowns. “I tease (him that) Thunder Bay’s better, whether it’s hockey players, celebrities, anything. We give it to each other.”

Giving it to each other forms the basis of the relationship between Davidson, an outspoken go-getter, and the reserved and cerebral Maciver, whom the Hawks rehired March 9.

“There was perhaps some disappointment (among Hawks fans) when I just brought in someone that I’d had a previous relationship with,” Davidson said in April, “but that previous relationship allows him to say basically whatever the heck he wants. He’s going to be very honest, very open, and tell me if he thinks I’m barking up the wrong tree and what I need to hear.

“There’s no feeling-out process for that. Right out of the gate, he’s going to give me the honest truth, and that’s what I want.”

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Maciver said the two have been close since May 2012, when then-Hawks GM Stan Bowman named Maciver assistant GM.

“At that time, most of my kids were in high school so my wife and kids stayed back in Minnesota, so I was here by myself,” Maciver said. “Kyle was single at the time, so we kind of bonded.

“We can say anything to each other. Neither of us are going to take offense to it. He’s going to challenge me and I challenge him, and that’s how it’s always been for us, even when he was in a position below me in years past.”

Now Davidson is the boss and the architect of an organizational overhaul, and Maciver is one of his biggest hires.

Maciver talked more about the rebuild — “It’s a very challenging situation we’re in right now” — in an interview with the Tribune on Monday. Here are five topics he addressed.

When Bowman shook up the hockey operations hierarchy in summer 2020, he demoted Maciver from assistant GM to vice president of player personnel and promoted Davidson from assistant to the general manager to assistant GM overseeing hockey administration.

Maciver didn’t want to get into his relationship with Bowman or the job change, but he ultimately left to become the expansion Seattle Kraken’s director of player personnel.

He returned to Chicago just short of a full season with the Kraken. Davidson was the biggest reason, he said, “but also that opportunity to have more of an expanded role than I had in Seattle.”

Davidson assured Maciver he would have a major voice in making over the team.

“He has a different background than myself, much like (player development coach) Brian Campbell,” Davidson said. “They’re (former) players, and Norm has been an assistant coach, he’s been in development, he’s been in scouting, he’s been in management, so he’s got this great depth of experience that I don’t have myself. So that’s a great resource.”

Davidson fired vice president of amateur scouting Mark Kelley and assistant GM of pro evaluation Ryan Stewart during the season, and now the amateur and pro scouting directors and the director of player personnel report to Maciver.

Maciver kept his department “status quo” until the end of the season, and he’s not looking to clean house but rather change the scouts’ priorities.

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“There are certain things that are huge red flags for us that maybe in the past might not have been deemed red flags,” he said. “The competitive nature of players’ speed and size weren’t emphasized as much. There was definitely a priority toward skill in the past.

“It worked. We got three Stanley Cups out of it,” but Maciver said it would be folly to try to replicate those circumstances.

“Having (Duncan) Keith in place and then being able to draft (Jonathan) Toews and (Patrick) Kane in back-to-back years, I don’t know if something like that will ever happen (again),” Maciver said. “We’re going to have to have an approach where we build this through the type of players we draft.

“Obviously we’d like to be able to play faster than we’ve been able to play, a little bit more tenacious maybe. … One of the biggest issues over the years is keeping the puck out of our net, so defensively we need to get a lot better.”

The names may be the same, but Maciver said their new positions include the power to carry out their own vision — echoing sentiments Davidson expressed in April.

“This is definitely a fresh start for both of us,” Maciver said.

The hiring of former Cubs executive Jeff Greenberg shows Davidson’s willingness to deviate from hockey norms. That outside-the-box mindset bleeds into everyday conversations between Davidson and Maciver.

“We’re both huge sports fans, so we’ll be watching ‘Inside the NBA’ and I’ll get a text message (from Davidson): ‘Did you see what Charles (Barkley) said last night?’” Maciver said. “We also study what’s made those (non-NHL) teams so successful. … There could be a golf tournament or World Series or Super Bowl, whatever it is, just constantly (sharing) little tidbits someone sees.”

Davidson’s imperative has been to collect high draft picks and prospects, and that’s usually done through the long slog of losing — and losing badly.

However, the Hawks won’t have a first-round pick this year unless they land one of the top two picks in the lottery or the conditional pick they received from the Minnesota Wild for Marc-André Fleury upgrades. And Maciver said you can’t bank on losing as a strategy.

“Look, coaches, players, they’re competitive people and we’re competitive. You can’t try to manufacture losses,” he said. “We obviously have to be strategic in what we’re doing, but we’re not out there trying to lose. We’re trying to be the best team we can (be) under the current environment … for the fans.”

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Strome and Kubalik are restricted free agents with arbitration rights. Maciver kept his cards close to the vest.

“(Davidson) and I and Brian Campbell, we’ll be the ones making those decisions,” Maciver said.

With Lankinen an unrestricted free agent, the Hawks don’t have a goalie under contract.

“Once we get a little more clarity as to what happens May 10 with the lottery situation, that’s going to clear up a lot of things for us,” Maciver said. “We definitely need to rebuild the pipeline and we do that through draft choices. … And then we have to spend our money very wisely.”

Maciver indicated he would prefer to keep salary-cap room to take on a bad contract from a desperate team, “similar to 2016 where we have to move assets to help your own cap situation.”

In summer 2016, the Hawks faced a $3.07 million salary-cap overage and had to part with Teuvo Teravainen to get Bryan Bickell’s $4 million contract off the books.

“So we’re just going to take it all in and evaluate it,” Maciver said.