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Former Blue Jackets GM Scott Howson is now a scout for the Oilers

Scott Howson

Twitter is currently awash in snark after word surfaced that former Columbus Blue Jackets GM Scott Howson is now connected to the Edmonton Oilers organization. TSN’s Bob McKenzie reports that he’ll act as a scout for the rest of this season.

One can only imagine the nearly limitless “blind leading the blind"-type jokes that will surface from this development.

Really, though, it’s common for teams to bring in former general managers, even if it’s just a short-term gig.

The most recent example came when the Anaheim Ducks brought former GM Brian Burke back as an interim scout after he was fired by the Toronto Maple Leafs.

For some, this presents what would be (on paper) a nightmare scenario of Howson possibly taking over for current GM Steve Tambellini at some point. In that situation, Howson would be more like Burke’s successor Dave Nonis, instead.

Those negative types might be reading a little too much into this situation by imagining that scenario, yet it really shows that things haven’t progressed for the Oilers like many had hoped.