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Checking the Boxes in GM Search |
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As the dust settles following the Paul Fenton dismissal earlier in the week we hear more details about the factors that led up to the decision.
Fenton had turned the Wild organization into one that owner, Craig Leipold, did not want or represent. There was a lack of leadership and for lack of a better word "paranoia" that existed within the Fenton regime.
From his failure to learn or at least familiarize himself with advanced analytics and utilize the key resources that the Wild had in that area became a theme in Fenton's demise. The fact that Fenton had grown a distrust of the media and people within the organization who he believes were leaking information to the media, became a much larger issue with how he conducted himself.
Not all of what Fenton did was bad, as is the case with everyone that has ever walked the planet, however his time came and went and now the Wild must move forward.
Leadership is needed and it begins at the top.
The candidates that we know so far, Ron Hextall and Peter Chiarelli check the experience box for sure. The leadership boxes can be questioned for both though as Hextall was dismissed for eerily similar reasons as was Fenton and Chiarelli ran an Oilers team that operated like a rudderless ship during his tenure.
Today we hear that Montreal assistant GM, Scott Mellanby, is under consideration.
Whoever the new GM is, they need to come in and set the record straight from the start. No towing some line about this is not a rebuild or some other term like that.
The Wild are a team in transition with some good young talent and a lot of veterans that are beginning to fade. The new GM must consider all of the current players as assets and leverage every ounce of team they can get from them.
That means taking guys like Koivu, Staal, Suter, and Parise and getting them to realize that the days of them each being the focal points of the team are in the past. Each serves a useful and key purpose to the club moving forward and their experience can accelerate the development and growth of the Wild's next generation.
The experience and knowledge that each of the Wild veterans bring to the team can be invaluable to the maturation of Ryan Donato, Kevin Fiala, Luke Kunin, Joel Eriksson Ek, Jordan Greenway, Nick Seeler and the next generation of Wild prospects that come through the door.
The old school NHL is changing and the mindset when hiring the next Wild GM must acknowledge that very fact. There are many boxes that must be checked in the selection process and every stone has got to be flipped.
Minnesota Wild Blogger • 
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