Let's say you have just bought your favorite NHL team. You are of course a hockey fan with opinions and for the first time you can have your opinions be heard by the GM, coaches, and players. You are the one who now signs the paychecks after all...
What would you do first? What changes would you make? Who would you keep around?
I have worked with and gotten to know several owners in my time covering this great sport...Owners are often the most interesting, and most impactful, yet least covered part of an NHL team. What the owner says matters...and yet some people out there feel it shouldn't....which has always baffled me.
The traditionalist out there wants the owners to hire good hockey people and just get out of the way...Let those who REALLY know what it takes to build a team and run a team take charge. And some owners follow that way of thinking. Some are very good at being transparent I should say...because every owner has final say...some just are very good at masking their involvement...
We all know the owner hires the GM, the GM hires the coach, and the coach and GM pick the players...right?
I know countless deals, trades and signings, that have been driven by owners...some very directly and others, more commonly, by the owner saying, "I want to be aggressive or we need to sell tickets or let's not get involved with this deadline or free agency period this time around."
Some are saying the Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon wants a figure head GM only and to be part of the player decisions...like this has never happened before?
And is there really anything wrong with that? Sure Dundon may not have the experience making hockey player decisions, and Ron Francis has way more, but at the end of the day Dundon wanted the team to be more aggressive and Francis didn't...SO they did it Francis' way and have yet to make the playoffs...
Why? Because, and no one wants to say this, there are MANY out there with valid hockey opinions and either it works or it doesn't. There are a few superstar GM's, but even the best will admit the amount of variables and luck that can mess with results.
So as an owner, what would you do? Your team isn't making the playoffs and it's making moves...most of these owners have run successful businesses....and to them this business has stagnated.
So you can't blame Dundon...even if he didn't play the game or hasn't been an NHL exec before...
It is his team..and all of would probably do the same thing!
What say you?
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— Michael Augello (@MikeInBuffalo) August 2, 2017