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A Possibly Exhaustive Analysis of the Hiring of Darcy Regier |
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Darcy Regier has been hired by the Coyotes to be their new assistant GM. This can only be seen as positive news, as Regier was, as recently as last year, the longest serving GM in the NHL, having (mostly) successfully managed the Sabres from 1997-2013.
Operating with zero budget, presiding over a bankruptcy and dealing with a market that is not a preferred destination among NHL players, Regier did what he could with limited resources and tons of headaches, so he should fit in nicely to an eerily similar situation in Phoenix.
During his tenure in Buffalo, Regier drafted Ryan Miller, Derek Roy, Jason Pomminville, Tyler Myers and Thomas Vanek. Not bad, considering he picked inside the top ten just once in 13 years.
In 1999, the Sabres lost to the Stars in the Cup Final, and the Sabres had several years in the mid 2000s where they iced teams lead by Miller, Briere and Drury and were one of the best teams in hockey, culminating in the 2007 President's Trophy. The Sabres also made four Eastern Conference Final appearances on Regier's watch.
Handcuffed by being forced trade or let walk as UFAs the likes of Dominick Hasek, Brian Campbell, Chris Drury and Daniel Briere, Darcy Regier is uniquely qualified to run the Coyotes, a position he may eventually ascend to, as he may now be in the strange position of being more qualified and successful than his boss, Don Maloney.
In some ways, this is a strange hire, and in some ways, it makes perfect sense.
It is strange in that a look at their records and careers shows that Regier is likely the superior GM to Maloney. It is strange that Maloney would hire a guy likely to usurp him. It's common practice to hire younger executives that you can "groom" for the job, but Maloney and Regier are the same age. Given his record of career success, it's also strange that Regier would settle for an assistant job and not hold out for his own team to run.
The move, however, does make sense if you realize that Maloney is first and foremost a quality person who would likely never care about any of that stuff. Darcy Regier has experience running a team that had similar problems and financial restrictions to the Coyotes and that he used to be Maloney's assistant back in the 90s when Maloney ran the Islanders. That makes him uniquely qualified to work for the Coyotes and since the two are great friends, it is only logical that they will work together to compliment each other skills and weaknesses- you simply cannot have too many quality hockey minds on one team.
Also, you have respect Maloney's determination to surround himself with quality people. A lot of guys would be hesitant to sign an assistant who is more a peer than an underling. A lot of guys wouldn't put the team ahead of their ego the way Maloney has done here, in the sense that he may have potentially just hired a guy who is better at his job than he is. A guy who could potentially replace him.
This, however, is what makes Maloney a good GM, and a quality person - most people in this situation would replace Brad Treliving with a yes man with no chance of taking their job. The optics may look a little strange, but there is no doubt that by hiring his friend and fellow career NHL executive Darcy Regier the Coyotes are better for it.
There could be a "too many cooks in the kitchen" problem here, but I severely doubt it, since the two have worked together before and are obviously friends. I would expect that this move helps the Coyotes going forward in every possible way that it could and there would not be a single negative.
Normally I wouldn't be too wrapped up in who is the assistant GM, because what do you really know about what that job entails ?, and in most cases the AGM is a guy you've never heard of and know little about. This is different because if the Coyotes had of hired Regir as their GM, I don't think anyone would have batted an eye. The fact that they can bring him in to work in conjunction with Maloney is a great move with basically no drawbacks.
I would say I am about as happy as I can be about a move that doesn't involve players and is probably interesting only to the very hardcore of hockey fans. I look forward to seeing the Coyotes improve further under Regier. The franchise is entering a very interesting time, as OEL leads a whole bunch of high potential young players into what seems to be a new era in the team's evolution after two seasons out of the playoffs and the exits of nearly a third of the team this off-season.
More tomorrow on that, thanks for reading.
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