Some big news to share today with the Penguins front office

The Penguins have relieved Assistant General Manager Jason Karmanos of his duties.

During this interim period, Director of Hockey Research, Sam Ventura, will assume Karmanos’ duties and Erik Heasley, Manager of Hockey Operations, has been named Interim GM of the @WBSPenguins.

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) October 26, 2020

It feels like weird timing to make this move considering the team just went through the entire free agency and draft process. It also sees the departure of one of the original members of Jim Rutherford’s front office. Karmanos came over with Rutherford from Carolina and has been part of Rutherford’s team the past six seasons.

Rutherford’s brief explanation of the reason

We would like to thank Jason Karmanos for his contributions to the organization over the past six years. I have been evaluating our hockey operations department, and this is the first part of the process to re-organize our group.”

For now congratulations are in order for Sam Ventura who is receiving a temporary(?) promotion to take over the roles Karmanos was responsible for. On the surface I think this is a good move. Sam is incredibly bright and comes with an approach using objective data. He is also a strong communicator. We know communication can be a barrier even if the information is good. Sam won’t have that problem. Every front office needs somebody attacking decisions from this angle. Those that don’t will be left behind. I can only assume by moving Mr. Ventura up the organizational depth chart that these kinds of things will be given more of a priority. I can’t speak to how or what Karmanos valued, but the moves in recent years haven’t been overwhelmingly great and given he was the one fired he appears to be the fall guy.

With Sam Ventura’s promotion being labeled an interim period I am pretty sure the name Jason Botterill will pop up. Personally, I’d rather see what Sam has to offer. Botterill’s tenure with Buffalo was derailed by the Pegula’s interference in the Ryan O’Reilly trade, but at the same time he also dropped the ball on some other major issues, mainly not trading away Rasmus Ristolainen. His tenure was defined by inaction. Also, if I were Botterill I would sit back and keep collecting those Pegula checks knowing how much it would bother them to spend money on someone not working for them anymore.

Ultimately, Jim Rutherford is responsible for the final decisions on the roster. He can surround himself with smart people, but he has to decide on if he values the input or not.

Congratulations and good luck, Sam.

Thanks for reading!

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