When Scotty Bowman is the E.F. Hutton of the NHL.
When Bowman talks people listen.
Bowman's name has been inscribed on Lord Stanley's Cup 14 different times with four different NHL teams: Montreal Canadiens, Detroit Red Wings, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Chicago Blackhawks. Bowman won 1,244 NHL games, was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder in 1991, and is the only man to coach three teams to the Stanley Cup.
Today, is still very much active in the NHL and serves as a senior adviser with the Blackhawks, the team his son Stan Bowman is the general manager for.
From 1979 until 1987, Bowman was the head coach and general manager of the Buffalo Sabres. He won 210 career regular season games, plus 18 playoff games.
Bowman can per form a master class on how to properly draft, coach, and develop star NHL defensemen.
In Montreal, Bowman had Larry Robinson, Serge Savard, and Guy Lapointe. In Pittsburgh, he coached Paul Coffey. Then, he had Nik Lidstrom in Detroit.
Bowman has always had a knack of knowing how to coach defensemen to the Hockey Hall of Fame. That's why he is the GOAT.
When he arrived in Buffalo in 1979, Bowman saw a gaping hole on the blue line. He immediately began the search for solutions to his problem. Bowman needed a puck moving D who played with pace and skill to get the biscuit to his forwards.
In 1982, Bowman drafted Phil Houlsey sixth overall. At 18 years of age, Housley exceeded all expectations and scored 19 goals and 47 assists for 66 points in his rookie NHL season. Housley didn't spend one minute in the AHL because Bowman knew he had a great one in "Wowie" when he drafted him. In 1982, it was unheard of to throw 18 year old defensemen to the wolves by allowing them to compete against 30-something forwards. The previling opinion at that time was young kids had to learn the NHL game by riding the buses in the American League for 3-4 seasons before getting elevated to the show.
Bowman ignored his peers and threw Houlsey straight from the frying pan and into the fire. He did so because he knew in his heart that the St. Paul, Minnesota native was more than capable of playing at the NHL level.
Housley became an immediate household name in the NHL. He was a one man breakout machine who used all 200 feet of white canvas to paint his abstract creations. Houlsey's creativity and god given abilities energized a Sabres fan base that was badly in need of a savior. Watching Housley create plays for Gilbert Perrault, Mike Foligno, Dave Andreychuk, Paul Cyr and his other Sabres teammates was fun to watch.
Flash forward to Friday September 7, 2018.
With Housley in the house watching eagerly like all of us in attendance, Bowman was on hand at Harborcenter to witness Rasmus Dahlin, the first overall pick of the Buffalo Sabres at the 2018 NHL Draft. Dahlin razzle dazzled the sell out crowd as he scored two goals and added an assist in a Buffalo's 6-4 win against the New Jersey Devils.
Bowman was very imoressed with Dahlin's performance.
Dahlin didn't disappoint as he led the Sabres to victory.
NHL.com's Mike Morreale spoke with Bowman about the Swedish superstar.
"(Rasmus Dahlin) just needs to grow with the League and the Sabres, but this guy can defend and jump in on offense," Bowman said. "He's going to be a dynamic player."
Bowman knows a thing or two about coaching and developing great players. He's not one to throw out platitudes and pump the tires of kids who are not deserving of his praise.
Bowman loves what he see in Dahlin's game.
"His skating is so complete; he can go forwards, backwards and sideways so well and he has a good core," Bowman said of the Buffalo Sabres rookie defenseman after watching him at the Prospects Challenge. "He's got good size and strength and you can see he really likes to go.
"It's a different game now from when I was coaching. There are some defensemen who just move the puck up, and there's a sprinkling of guys who can lug it, and he's one of those guys. It's like (Ottawa Senators defenseman) Erik Karlsson and (Boston Bruins defenseman) Charlie McAvoy; those are special players."
Bowman, the winningest coach in NHL history, was asked by Morreale if a comparison could be made between Dahlin (6'3", 185 lbs.) and fellow Swede defensive star Nik Lidstrom.
"Lidstrom was a different kind of player because Nick wasn't a puck-carrier, he moved the puck," said Bowman, who coached Lidstrom for nine seasons with the Detroit Red Wings (1993-2002). "The similarities are they have no difficulty making passes when they're in tight and it's always on the stick. So when (Rasmus Dahlin) gets the puck, there's a good chance Buffalo is going to keep it. That's the way we used to track Lidstrom; whenever he got the puck, very seldom did he make a play where the other team got it, so it was all about possession. (Rasmus Dahlin) likes to go and join the rush."
Bowman said the excitement and anticipation of Dahlin's long-awaited debut in a Sabres sweater against the New Jersey Devils on Friday reminded him of a similar debut 50+ years ago at Boston Garden. Back then, a fresh faced phenom called Bobby Orr was playing for Bruins-sponsored Oshawa of the Ontario Hockey Association against the Montreal Jr. Canadiens, who were coached then by Scotty Bowman.
"The Bruins hosted a junior-hockey series to showcase Bobby Orr to the fans," Bowman said. "We went to Boston to play and they had 8,000 to 10,000 fans there. This is good for Buffalo because they missed out on winning the NHL Draft Lottery a few times."
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