Well, today is deadline day for the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
The team's Board of Directors set June 29th as they day to hire a new General Manager. They originally wanted the person in place by the NHL Draft which was this past weekend, but for some reason that deadline was pushed to today.
Right now, the leading candidates are believed to be former NHLers Rich Sutter and Dave Barr, both of whom also played for the Lethbridge Broncos back in the day. But another name might be in the mix. According to Gregg Drinnan from the Kamloops Daily News, Rich Preston's name is coming up. You can read the story on his blog which is listed on the right side.
If I was a betting man, I would say no announcement will be be made today, although it's deadline day. I'm lead to believe an announcement will take place tomorrow afternoon sometime, however I have yet to confirm that with the Hurricanes organization nor have they sent out a news release yet about a press conference for Tuesday.
Looking at this whole thing from the outside, one would have to think whoever gets the GM job, that person would likely become both GM and coach, for at least the first season anyway. Why? Well for a couple reasons I think. Firstly, given the time of year. How many coaches are available now? With Swift Current and Calgary also looking for coaches the pool to choose from likely isn't that big. Second, for the GM to also coach the club would give that person some insight on both the on-ice and the office dealings of the hockey club, which probably isn't that bad of an idea.
Whether it's Sutter or Barr or someone else, the good thing is for fans in Lethbridge is this whole process if coming to an end and the team can now give the reigns to someone else who can begin building this club for the upcoming season. There isn't a whole lot of time mind you. Players begin arriving for camp during the 3rd week of August. The new GM will have a lot of work to do over July and the first part of August: Hire a coach (that is if he doesn't appoint himself), find an assistant to work with Matt Kabayama, hire a new Director of Scouting, find an assistant GM, talk to and get to know the returning players, learn the list of draft picks, etc. It'll be nice to see the focus though return to the hockey-side of things!
Just my thoughts,
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.
I find it interesting how Kamloops knows more of what is going on in Lethbridge's GM chase than Lethbridge media does? Looking over Rich Preston's statistics, he looks like a good man for both jobs. Hopefully Lethbridge can get on the right track early! And just a thought, maybe Lethbridge should plan on moving ahead without the likes of Sceviour, Boychuk, King, Ashton and if any of them should return that would be bonus instead of sitting on the fence and wondering if they come back or not. Start bulding a team with what you know you can get and have -- it always easier to release than try to build too late.
ReplyDeleteWell I can tell you this. Gregg Drinnan is one of the most respected sports reporters in the WHL and he's got eyes and ears all around the league. It just happened that Preston was talking to a reporter in Regina. Mr. Drinnan also used to work at the Leader-Post a few years ago. I certainly would disagree that Lethrbidge media doesn't know what's going on. If you've been reading this blog, you'll know I've been keeping people very much up to date on what's been going on with the GM thing. In fact, if you've read Gregg's blog, you'd know he's had certain things about the Hurricanes GM situation over the past month or so because it was reporter here and on CJOC radio first.
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ReplyDeleteGreg Drinnan's blog is a wonderful source for rumours. His newspaper work contains unassailable fact. So does Lethbridge's newspaper work. The absence of an online rumour mill does not mean the media is uninformed, it means — as Rob Vanstone's quote says "nothing is concrete yet."
Thanks for your comments Anonymous. I can tell you I never report anything on this blog or on our radio station that is rumour. Never. I report it only if I have confirmed those things to be true. I hope you find this blog to be a good source of Hurricanes info.
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