Lethbridge, AB – Lethbridge Hurricanes President Brian McNaughton announced at a news conference today, Canes GM Roy Stasiuk will be relieved of his duties as General Manager effective immediately.
“We had high expectations for this season with a strong key group of 89-born players and coming off last season’s Eastern Conference Championship. The Board of Directors felt that as a team we did not meet our expectations and are now looking to move in another direction.” said McNaughton “As an organization, we will continue with our mandate to develop and prepare elite level hockey players for the next level. We respect Roy’s abilities in the pursuit of this vision as our General Manager and wish him the best of luck in all of his future endeavors.”
Stasiuk began his tenure as the General Manager of the Lethbridge Hurricanes in November of 2005 and the 2009-2010 season was to be his 20th in the WHL, Stasiuk has enjoyed several successes at the major junior level including two WHL championships in the 1999-2000 and 2001-2002 seasons and a Memorial Cup championship in 2002 as the Assistant GM of the Kootenay Ice. Most notably, he helped in building the Hurricanes 2008 Eastern Conference Championship team and the first Lethbridge teams to win back to back first round WHL playoff series’ in over 18 seasons.
“First of all I would like to thank everybody with the Lethbridge Hurricanes organization. Everybody meant well, I have had the opportunity to work with some tremendous staff, both on the administration and business side and certainly the hockey operations.” said Stasiuk “I feel bad about the coaching transaction last week but that is the nature of this business and I am part of that as well. I wouldn’t change anything for the world, it has been a great group to work with and I mean that from the Board of Directors to the trainers; to the stick boys; to the players. It has been a privilege and an honor.”
Here is the audio for the press conference:
Bryan McNaughton:
http://www.box.net/shared/c3duy5yknv
Roy Stasiuk:
http://www.box.net/shared/c3ap7a9vlp
Thanks,
Pat
The views expressed on this blog are those of the moderator and contributors and are not endorsed by 94.1 CJOC or the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
Geez what a gong show. I think McNaughton needs to be the next one to go!
ReplyDeleteWell the board is batting 500 when it come to thier performance. Maybe it's time to take a real good look at people interested in purchasing this team, "community owned" maybe needs to be reviewed!
ReplyDeleteWhat a GONG SHOW this entire year and post season has been for the Lethbridge Hurricanes! We gave away draft picks, we traded one of our best players away (Fadden) for a man that played (at times) as if he were made of glass, and for a guy that refused to come here altogether. We under achieved all year, we wasted the INCREDIBLE scoring talent we had on this team this year by teaching the keep-away-power-play, then we capped it all off by firing the coach that got us to the league championship, then firing the GM that bugged the hell out of him all year.
ReplyDeleteAs much as I hate to think about it, without a coach or a GM or a plan for the future (other than a new arena with NO fans to put in it), the Hurricanes may be entering a very long playoff draught :-(
It sorta looks like the 'Canes are setting up for a Habscheid Coach/GM move?
ReplyDeleteSDC in the 306
This is a horrible situation for fans. As suggested in the Herald today if we as fans are dissatisfied we should cancel our season tickets. What does the board care if this is done? They probably would not even hear about it. They lose no money or sleep if people do not come to the games. We as fans have little recourse when it comes to voicing our displeasure. A private owner would care about money out of his pocket, and maybe having an arena where you could have supper. Just because the community does not own the team does not mean that instruments could not be set in place during a sale to ensure the Canes stay in Lethbridge. I am tired of being the joke of the league. It would be nice to see a game with professional production and marketing (outside the radio broadcast of course). Put our eastern conference title into perspective, lightning in a bottle folks. Even after we made the finals and were pegged to be a top team the next season players refused to come here from non-playoff teams. That really says something. When players would rather not play at all than play for the Canes something is very wrong. Change may come slow but Canes fans must unite and voice our displeasure. This includes ticket buyers and corporate sponsors alike. I do not wish the team to go belly up but a message must be sent, even if it falls on deaf ears. Give the board members one last free leather jacket and let’s get this team running like it wants to win and make money. Oddly enough those two things are closely related. The team now does not care about making money so how are we supposed to win? I’m just kinda sad that Vic did not trade Dwight King to Tri City for a 6th round pick on his way out. He deserves much better next year than the situation he will inherit. That would have been the best trade he ever made. Thanks for giving up this years first pick and getting Rainers for Fadden. You may have gotten us to the finals one year but you have set this organization back 4 years. It is sad to think of the optimism I had prior to last year to where I am less than 1 year later. That is all the ranting I have for now.
ReplyDeleteSku in the 420
I worked with Roy indirectly, and I can tell you he is intimidating, however one of the friendliest people. He's the type of guy who demands a lot and I think that is the only way you will ever have a successful hockey club. All the best to Roy and I really hope the team can really build towards a rescpectfully feared hockey club.
ReplyDelete