John McDonough is making his rounds on a recent morning.

The Blackhawks have officially opened MB Ice Arena, which will be used as a team practice facility and a community rink, and it’s a proud day for the organization. A lot of time, thought, resources and finances were put into making the building a reality.

McDonough is in the media room which overlooks the Blackhawks’ practice ice. He stops and reminisces about his Cubs days with one group of reporters. He heads over to another section of the room and is jokingly told the chairs are too low and a portion of the ice can’t be seen. He laughs about it, but later tells a media relations assistant to see that something is done about it.

He walks elsewhere in the room and interacts with team employees and compliments them in front of others. He has a way of making people feel valued. Minutes later, he’s down at ice level, smiling, shaking hands and taking pictures. As Blackhawks president, McDonough wears many hats and often does so all at once.

In the first part of our conversation, McDonough discussed a lot about his early days with the Blackhawks and how the franchise was restored. In the second part, the future of the organization is the focal point of our talk.

The Athletic: What’s been interesting to me about the Blackhawks’ resurgence is casual fans have transformed into passionate and knowledgeable ones over the years. They’re not just fans of the Blackhawks, but hockey and have become more opinionated and interested about things beyond the wins and losses. Being someone who has grown up in Chicago, what’s the evolution been like from your perspective?

John McDonough: Well, I grew up a generation at least before you. I was younger when [Bobby] Hull, [Stan] Mikita and [Tony] Esposito played. They played a big role in the landscape here in sports. But to see what’s happened in the last 10 years, Illinois is now talking about a Division I program, a new D-I program here, I think there’s 50, 60 players who are now playing Division I hockey. I think there’s a bit of a romance with this franchise that this isn’t your parents’ Chicago Blackhawks. There’s young people that gave us another chance when maybe we didn’t connect with a lot of these young guys. And their kids will hopefully become Blackhawks fans.

But we don’t take the 400-and-some sellouts in a row or pretty strong ratings and partnerships and alliances with WGN TV and WGN Radio and six outdoor games, we don’t take any of this for granted. We are not entitled to another win, another rating point, another fan. And I think it’s that constant hunger that we have. We don’t talk about that. That happened. When you win, a lot of things have to go your way. It’s bounces and carroms and posts and ghosts and skill.

But the reason that we won three Stanley Cups is because of the players and it’s because of the coaching staff and it’s because of the hockey operations group providing them with the talent. I play a micro-fractional role in all of this. My job is to weave all of this together. They get all the credit. They get all the credit — those guys who do it on the ice, and the players that we acquire that add to our success.

From 1997 to 2007, we had five general managers and seven head coaches in 10 years. And one of the things that I preached to [Blackhawks chairman Rocky Wirtz] or we talked about — you got to have continuity. You can’t have a different system and a different playbook and a different blueprint and different bodies in 14 months. There’s no chance. You have to have a philosophy. You have to have a system. You got to let that seep in. You’ve got to give these people an opportunity.

I mean, I was around a lot of managers with the Cubs, a lot of managers with the Cubs, and a lot of regimes. And what we were striving for here was continuity, but not continuity for continuity sake. That continuity tethered to success and hiring the right people. [Coach Joel Quenneville] was the right hire, in my opinion. [General manager Stan Bowman] was the right hire. We’re all flawed. We all make mistakes. We all make big mistakes. We all have bumps. We all have challenges. We all battle. But they, in my opinion, were the right people at the right time. Joel was the right guy to coach this team. Stan was the right guy to take the baton from Dale [Tallon], who had given him a really good product, a solid foundation of good players. But Stan was the guy to take it from there.

So, the continuity has been important. You’ve had one president for 10 years. You’ve had the same owner for the same period of time. You’ve had one coach for nine years, one GM for nine years. [Executive vice president Jay Blunk] has been here almost 10 years. Chris Werner, our ticket guy, has been here nine years.

But now, change is going to happen. I preached that — change — from Day 1. Change is going to happen, you know? It’s imminent. This business, it evolves. And at some point, somebody said, “OK, someone else is going to do that.” It’s going to happen to all of us.

But we don’t ever sit back and admire. I’m a big believer if you stop for a microsecond, if you stop for a second to admire what you’ve achieved you stopped and it’s impossible to get going again.

And the one thing is the role of president, my job is to kind of stay in the background. Little different than from what it was with the Cubs. My job is to make sure I absorb all of the blame for things, as I should, and distribute all the praise, which I should to all these bright people. And when we go through tough situations, which we have, trigger healthy conversations. Don’t be afraid to go to that place that no one wants to talk about. Like, “OK, shit, god, do we want to talk about that.” Well, I’m the guy that wants to talk about that. You got to bring people into it because we can’t be afraid of anything here, of any subject because we’re still getting momentum. To me, in some ways, I believe this journey is still in the early stages.

The Blackhawks have won three Stanley Cups in John McDonough’s 10 years with the organization. (Geoff Burke/USA TODAY Sports)

TA: I feel one of the obstacles for hockey is a racial divide. It’s not a sport that has a lot of diversity for an assortment of reasons. I know the organization has done a lot with the CPS, Hockey on Your Block, broadcasting games in Spanish and such. There seems to be a real opportunity to present the game to even more people of different backgrounds with the community rink. Going forward to do you see more of an evolution there as well?

McDonough: Huge initiative, it’s one of the top priorities that we have here — growing the game and making sure everybody has an opportunity to learn the game, to see the game, to participate in the game. There’s no hurdles. There’s no obstacles. There’s nothing but opportunity.

And the credit goes to Rocky. The credit for that facility goes to Rocky. The initial conversations were about the possibility of having a one-sheet practice facility. I said this before publicly, but Rocky’s vision was this was also going to be primarily a community facility. We were going to open the doors to everybody to learn about the game. Oh, by the way, it’s going to be a practice facility for the Chicago Blackhawks, and it’s going to be a state of the art model facility that’s going to be open about 20 hours a day, but it’s for everybody. It’s all-inclusive. And all that credit goes to Rocky.

TA: You talked about marketing the players. Hockey players are a lot different than players in other sports where they’re a very reserved group. They’re not usually active on social media. They don’t openly express their political views. I know the NHL would like players to be more active on social media platforms. Is that the next step for hockey where they get to openly express themselves more and allow more people to see who they really are?

McDonough: I think right now they’re in a pretty good place. Hockey players are very, very unique when it comes to … They respect the game. I think they have a forum to express their personal opinions if that’s what they desire. Every one of them is on Twitter. They have the ability to say what they want to say. But I think it’s kind of place and time for all of them.

We see obviously what’s going on in sports. We spend a lot of time with our players with media trainers. We have a mental skills coach. We spend a lot of time, we really prioritize their lives away from the rink and make sure they have a good relationship with the media. They remember the media people’s names. They don’t wear their hats backward. It’s a pretty good relationship. They understand the importance of where we need to get. But I think they’ve ample opportunities to say what they want to say.

TA: As we’ve seen in society, not everything that was acceptable in the past is acceptable today. You’ve always done a good job of keeping a positive relationship with the Native American community. Is that important going forward as the next generation comes and there continues to be a dialogue and continues to be an open forum for that?

McDonough: Jay Blunk has been a beacon for that, and we’ve worked closely, especially Jay and [vice president of marketing] Pete Hassen have worked very closely with the Native American community. We’ve gone to a lot of their events. There have been some changes recently in the hierarchy there. We had someone come in a couple of weeks ago. We want to make sure we understand that we’re respectful, that how we’re articulating our position is accurate. We give them a forum to articulate it as well. But it’s critical that they’re appropriately represented.

TA: The way you enjoy this job, is that still the same after a decade?

McDonough: Yeah. Someone (laughs) recently, I think it was someone at my daughter’s wedding, said something about, “How long do you want to do this?” It just made me feel like, “OK, well, they’re asking that question because I’ve been in Chicago sports for 38 years.” Yeah, the fire’s raging, man. I love it. But I’m not as … There might have been a period of my career where I was more of a cyclone, just a strong, powerful … I think it had been in an article that someone wrote they said – this when I came over to the Blackhawks – that the depiction was a bulldozer on steroids, and I don’t know if they were wrong or right 10 years ago. But the passion couldn’t be greater.

You’ve got to make sure your owner’s in a good position. That he understands what you’re trying to accomplish. That you always try to put him in a good position, and that’s not hard to do because he’s Rocky Wirtz and he’s brilliant.

But you’ve also got to be a politician. We’ve got relationships with the Bulls. We have a very good relationship with the joint venture group here with Jerry Reinsdorf and the United Center group. We have a very good relationship with the mayor. We have a good relationship with the other teams in the town – with the White Sox, the Bears. I went to high school with the McCaskeys. They all went to Notre Dame in Niles. George was in school when I was there, and then Ed was in school and another brother was when I wasn’t there. So, it’s part politician as well. Showing up to things is very, very important.

But the passion is as strong as ever. It might not appear externally as intense as maybe as it was 10 years ago. But, yeah, the fire is raging.

I want to see these people succeed. I want good things to happen to them. But they also need to understand that I’m going to give them plenty of room. I’m going to give them plenty of room to do their jobs and go above and beyond plus. But I want to make sure they understand my expectations for the turnout. Now we’re going to fall short at times. It’s not always going to work out. Not every trade, not every acquisition, not every idea, not every business decision is going to be the right decision. But I like our chances because of the way we operate. In a kind of synergistic way that we operate, we’re going to get as close as we can to the right answer more often than not.

But, yeah, the intensity is there. I probably value sleep more than I ever did before. I have a grandchild now and another one on the way. Fitness is really important to me, try as hard as I can to take care of myself. You know I came from a grind where it was [162] regular-season games, but there’s something about hockey, there’s a certain energy from these games. It’s very powerful the energy that it consumes. But I love it.

I’m very fortunate. I’m very lucky, and I would emphasize lucky. I was a bad student and a bad athlete that had a good break. I got a good break from two people, well, three – Lee Stern, Jim Finks and Rocky Wirtz. You know along the way Andy McKenna and Pat Ryan and some of these other people who have just given me opportunities along the way, maybe saw something that … Dennis FitzSimons from the Tribune Company … I’ve had a chance to work with the greatest of the great people in both sports. Scotty Bowman, I have a very good relationship with him. Found out that is the most curious person I’ve ever met. I’m on my second answer; he’s on his 10th question. He kind of parses out what he wants to hear and he goes to another question. You know, but having the chance to work on a daily basis with Harry Caray, Lou Piniella, Don Zimmer, Joe Girardi and just on and on and on and on, players, you know, Ryne Sandberg and Rick Sutcliffe and Greg Maddux and Andre Dawson and Mark Grace and Sammy [Sosa] … Just all these people who have done great things, worked very closely with them. You know you’ve got to do the best you can to have good relationships. Not every day is easy. But long before I came here, I was in sports before I came to the Blackhawks for 27 years before I came here. So, I started pretty young. You can do the math. I started in my mid-20s.

TA: For the next decade, it’ll still be Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews for a while still, but does it excite you to guide this organization through the time after them and seeing what’s next for this franchise?

McDonough: I know exactly what you’re saying. It’s very exciting because of the anticipation, and a lot of it comes from how much faith I have in Mark Kelley, our vice president of amateur scouting, and Ryan Stewart, our pro scout, and Barry Smith and our development people. Very, very excited for the future. Getting back to what I said before, whatever you think is going to happen like in your mind’s eye, I’ll bet this is how it’s going to roll out. Well, I’ll bet 10 years ago they didn’t think this was going to roll out. We just have to really, really, really pay attention.

I love drafting 30th. Now I would love to draft 31st. That would be ideal every year. That’s not realistic. But getting those guys at 24 or 25 or 26 and hopefully we’re in that higher range every year, that’s really inspiring. Seeing something … Mark Eaton, I want to make sure our player development is included in that … But that our scouts might see something different that other scouts didn’t see, didn’t see. Whether it’s Brandon Saad or it’s Andrew Shaw or whether it’s Alex DeBrincat or whatever it might be, that our guys see some intangibles that the other guys didn’t see.

It’s an interesting game. There was a lot of fighting when I started. It was a heavy game. It was very, very physical, and there has been a complete transformation right before our eyes. It’s speed. It’s skill. Your fourth-line guys have speed and skill. It’s a beautiful game. It’s a fast game. I’m glad that it’s gone the direction it has.

TA: There’s a lot of talk about which players get their numbers retired in the future. I know there’s been a push for Steve Larmer in the past. What’s the process you go through to determine those type of decisions?

McDonough: You know we talk about that from time to time. The alumni and former players are a priority here. So when we came here and we brought back Bobby and Stan and Tony and ultimately recognized [Denis Savard’s] contributions, it didn’t stop there. It didn’t stop there. We have a number of players who are working for the organization. Brian Campbell is now working for the organization. Adam Burish is working for the organization. Jamal Mayers is working for the organization. We bring these players back. We brought Steve Larmer back. We brought Eddie Belfour back. [We brought] Al Secord back. Making sure that these players who maybe didn’t necessarily get the recognition they deserved.

But we’ve had a lot of conversations on making sure we make the right decisions on … I was with the Cubs when we retired Ron Santo’s number, obviously before he went into the Hall of Fame. And I was there when we retired Ryne Sandberg’s number. [Ernie] Banks, I think had been retired before I got there, and I think I was there when we retired Billy Williams’ number. You know it’s primarily reserved for, for the most part Hall of Famers, for the most part. But we talk about it every year which players we believe should get the number retired, so it’s a good discussion. There’s a lot of people involved in it. And probably in due time.

TA: Anything else you’d like to add?

McDonough: I think that’s great. I’ve enjoyed it.

(Top photo: Bill Smith/NHLI via Getty Images)