ROSEMONT, Ill. -- General managers and coaches from across the NHL got a unique start on Friday to their final preparations for the 2023-24 season.
With rookie tournaments, training camps and preseason games all looming in the next two weeks, the full complement of NHL coaches and GMs convened at an airport hotel outside of Chicago to discuss the state of the game.
General managers get together at regular intervals but coaches can't attend such meetings during the season. A meeting in September enables them to hear directly from League executives and to offer their input on issues in the game.
"What's different about this meeting was the combination of head coaches and managers, that had never been done before," NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said following a three-hour meeting Friday.
"Based on the dinner we had last night and the opportunity for people to get together, I think everyone in the room thought it was terrific to do it and it's something we'll probably do again."
Meeting in September is easier for most of the constituents involved and there is less conflict with other events. The general managers last met in Nashville during the 2023 Upper Deck NHL Draft, which was June 28-29.
"I think the NHL's on the same page," Arizona Coyotes GM Bill Armstrong said. "It's all good to get together as a group to go over rules, some of the stuff that's new, where the League's moving and all the things we can learn from the past. It's good."
Buffalo Sabres coach Don Granato loved the format.
"Everybody's hearing the message at the same time," he said. "We've done stuff like this on Zoom, and then face -to-face. I have a lot of respect for coaches in this League, they're not easy jobs and everybody's worked hard to get to where they're at. When the puck drops on the season, we're all on different teams but what you feel when you come to these things is we're all in it together."
With this being the first meeting of this scope, much of the time was spent on updating the group on where the League is at as it enters the new season. Opening night is Oct. 10 and among the three games, all broadcast on ESPN, is the potential debut of Connor Bedard for the Chicago Blackhawks against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Bedard was the No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft.
Former Chicago Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman and former coach Joel Quenneville spoke at the meeting. Bowman resigned from his position on Oct. 26, 2021, and Quenneville resigned as coach of the Florida Panthers two days later after an independent investigation of former forward Kyle Beach's allegations of sexual assault by Chicago's then-assistant coach Brad Aldrich in 2010.
Bettman said Bowman and Quenneville came to the meeting voluntarily.
"It gave them an opportunity to tell everybody about their experience and lessons learned," said Bettman, who will make the final decision on if, and when, either of the two can return to the NHL. "I still have to make a judgment as to when or whether it's appropriate for then to be reinstated, so that's not a question I'm prepared to answer right now."
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