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HockeyFan989

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Forum: Armchair-GM16 oct. 2021 à 22 h 33
Sujet: The Most Painful Part
From CBJ’s perspective, they were going to ride out Werenski until he told them he wanted out. I.e. he wouldn’t have been available this past offseason absent a big overpay. If he really did follow through on the “I want to go home to DET” rumors, he would have been a TDL or off-season move.

And I get it when it comes to the general frustration of front-office league makeup. On one end, you will never see an outright job posting on these positions because the qualifications to handle them go far beyond what anyone in these boards can fathom. It’s easy to post ACGM’s and play MMQB, so to speak, it’s much more difficult to handle the personalities and bureaucracy behind the scenes - quite similar to being a politician, except it isn’t a matter of just casting single votes.

These GM jobs are so exclusive because there is only 32 of them in the world, and owners want people with the experience already; so, either people who have worked NHL front offices already, or former players. And when they make these hires, money drives everything - I think we often overestimate the amount of involvement team owners have. Unless you are, say, the Jerry Jones’ of the world, most of them just want to hire someone who will take the reins on the team, and until the bottom-line starts hurting, or they otherwise feel pressure mounting to the point of being unable to ignore it, most will let it ride. Coming from a CBJ fan, this has largely been how the team has been run, for better (Jarmo and JD) and worse (basically every other front office hire ever).

That being said, it’s difficult for me to really accord whatever is going on in CHI’s office. Bowman creates a dynasty and, as is inevitable, it ended due to age and expense. He finally makes the right move, admits to a rebuild, but then pivots to a bunch of win-now trades (Jones, Flower, releasing an affordable and productive Suter). Perhaps it’s because of, shall we say, attention off-ice with the Blackhawks, but it felt like Bowman swung hard for the fence on moves that, by his estimation, will either (a) lead to wins and make him look like a genius; or, (b) be the next guy’s problem.

Maybe CHI ownership has an astounding amount of faith in Bowman, or maybe they are doing the whole “3D chess” thing we often joke about. But if I were ownership, I would have reined in some of these moves. Then again, like I said above, most of these guys may very well just not be as involved in team construction as a bunch of Very Online hockey nerds like us.

And, FWIW, most of these critiques are not just CHI, but could apply to many other teams at one time or another.




Sorry for the short novel. Damn, I didn’t realize I had written this much.