Chicago Blackhawks hire longtime Cubs exec Greenberg as associate GM

CHICAGO - The Chicago Blackhawks completed their leadership team, hiring longtime Chicago Cubs executive Jeff Greenberg as associate general manager under new GM Kyle Davidson on Thursday.

The Blackhawks said Greenberg will be responsible for "overseeing the strategic systems and processes that will fuel" the team’s hockey operations. He will "establish and optimize a modern, continually evolving approach using systems, technology, data and talent."

Greenberg, whose start date is May 9, rounds out what the team called the "core brain trust." The Blackhawks brought back longtime executive Norm Maciver as an associate GM to oversee the scouting operation last month after a stint as director of player personnel for the Seattle Kraken.

Greenberg interviewed for the general manager job before the organization decided last month to go with Davidson rather than someone outside the organization. Davidson served as interim GM following Stan Bowman’s resignation in October in the wake of a report by an outside law firm that found the organization mishandled allegations that an assistant coach sexually assaulted a player during the team’s Stanley Cup run in 2010.

"Our journey is just beginning as we build a next-generation foundation for this team, and that starts with a focus on modernizing and improving the Hockey Operations infrastructure in our front office," Davidson said in a statement. "We will only get back to being best-in-class on the ice if we are working with best-in-class information and ideas behind the scenes."

Greenberg was promoted to Cubs assistant general manager in 2020. He joined the franchise in 2012 as a baseball operations intern. He also served as director of pro scouting and baseball operations under Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer and played a role in the Cubs winning their first World Series championship in 108 years in 2016.

Greenberg previously worked for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Pittsburgh Pirates front offices as well as for Major League Baseball in labor relations. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2008 and Columbia Law School in 2011.

Though he has worked in baseball, Greenberg, who grew up in Pittsburgh, played hockey through college.

"What I’ve learned about the Blackhawks is they’re serious about using this rebuilding period to not only set this franchise up to be the best in hockey, but the best in all of sports moving forward," he said. "There couldn’t be a more exciting time to get in on the ground floor of this journey and pursue every possible solution to put this team back on the path to winning hockey."

The Blackhawks, who won three Stanley Cups from 2010 to 2015, missed the playoffs for the second straight year. They finish the season at Buffalo on Friday.