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General Manager Candidates: Who is on the 'Short List'? |
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Today on the Athletic, veteran hockey journalist Pierre Lebrun wrote that the Flyers list of potential general manager candidates has been whittled down to four. According to Lebrun, former longtime Minnesota Wild general manager Chuck Fletcher is the apparent front-runner.
Lebrun said others in field of candidates may include current Buffalo Sabres assistant general manager Steve Greeley, current Columbus Blue Jackets assistant GM Bill Zito, former Toronto Maple Leafs executive Mark Hunter and former Carolina Hurricanes general manager and hockey operations manager (as well as Hockey Hall of Fame inductee as a player) Ron Francis.
Any of these men are viable candidates. Fletcher, the son of longtime hockey executive Cliff Fletcher, and Zito are two prospective names with a lot of similarities in their potential not only to direct hockey ops strategy and contractual interactions with agents but also to speak the language of the corporate side. That would, no doubt, be appealing to Comcast Spectacor.
Fletcher is a Harvard graduate. Zito is a Yale graduate.
Fletcher is a former agent. Many years ago, he worked for Don Meehan's high-powered Newport Sports Management group. Zito is a former agent who headed his own agency; at the time he switched from the player representation side to the NHL team executive side, his group had the 6th-largest client base (include longtime Flyers defenseman Kimmo Timonen among other ex-Flyers).
In the past, Fletcher worked for Hockey Canada as a sales and marketing coordinator. More recently, Zito worked with USA Hockey, as an assistant GM of teams that won two bronze medals. Behind the scenes it was Zito who convinced Patrick Kane to play for Team USA at the 2018 World Championships; no small feat. Kane took tournament MVP honors for the bronze medalists.
Both Fletcher and Zito have experience in the amateur scouting/player development realm. Fletcher was Director of Hockey Operations, assistant general manager, and vice president of Amateur Scouting/Player Development for the Anaheim Ducks from 2002–06. Zito currently works heavily as the right hand man to Columbus general manager Jarmo Kekäläinen (who is widely regarded as as elite-caliber amateur scouting mind) among his duties.
Of the two, Fletcher has more extensive NHL front office experience. He was an assistant GM to Bob Clarke during the Florida Panthers' first season (1993-94) and stayed on in that post until 2002 when he went to Anaheim. Fletcher then spent three years as Pittsburgh Penguins assistant general manager Ray Shero. He finally got his opportunity to become an NHL general manager when he became the Wild's head GM (hired on May 21, 2009 and dismissed on April 23 of this year).
Zito stayed on the agent side of the business for much longer than Fletcher but reportedly always had interest in eventually "changing sides" to the team executive side. He was handpicked by Columbus team president John Davidson and general manager Kekäläinen for the assistant GM role. Zito was involved in the process that brought Artemi Panarin to the Blue Jackets. He was also appointed general manager of the AHL's Cleveland Monsters, building the team that won the Calder Cup in 2015-16 and set a league record for playoff winning percentage that season. Many of the team's players and coaches are now in the NHL.
The other candidates that Lebrun named all have their own pedigrees that would make them viable candidates. For example, Francis' name would carry the most instantly recognizable cache among even casual hockey followers. Greeley is another bright guy who is well versed on both the old-school and analytics-based approaches.
Appearing on Jason Myrtetus' podcast yesterday, Paul Holmgren said that he wants someone who will incorporate well-reasoned long-term strategy (which was certainly a strength of Ron Hextall) along with a boldness to make moves geared toward sparking the current team as well as embracing areas such as analytics. Those latter two areas were not strengths of Hexy's, or least not big parts of his focus. I do not know how strong Fletcher is on the analytics end, but I know that Zito is well-versed in that facet as is Greeley.
Whomever the Flyers decide upon -- and all of these candidates are strong enough to deserve short-list consideration -- it needs to be done soon. It is untenable and unfair for Dave Hakstol to be left twisting in the wind and the struggling team to have to deal with the constant bombardment of GM-related questions if the process drags on for very long.
Lebrun is very well-connected, so if he says Fletcher is the apparent front-runner that is likely the case. However, before that decision gets finalized (if that is, indeed, how the Flyers are leaning), I would just hope that all of the names he listed get their opportunity to interview in person with Homer and David Scott to lay out their vision for taking the team forward as well as to highlight their credentials in a more personal way than the resume-like on-paper stuff I cited above.
That's where things like passion, personality and likelihood of having strong working relations not only within hockey ops but also across the entire brand (C-levels, marketing, PR, sales, etc) as well as the public, the media, the Alumni, corporate sponsors and others come into a clearer light. If Fletcher is viewed as the front runner on the resume side and checks all of these boxes as well, then it would be a wise choice. If someone else checks all or most of the boxes, go that way. Just don't have the outcome predetermined within two days of the decision to let Hexy go.
Each and every candidate will take the team in a little bit of a different direction, according to his vision. So each and every vision should be discussed thoroughly and the one with the clearest vision that is specific to this current roster and farm system should get the job.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
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