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Hurricanes GM Search ... it's Don Waddell (5/8)

Re: Hurricanes GM Search ... dedicated thread

StormChaserBH said:
but there's a way to do things and a way not to.
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That must be part of "the code" that exists but doesn't exist. For all we know, Dundon or his people called Francis and said, hey Legend, you know its time to part ways, right? And Francis agreed. Then Dundon (or his people) asked whether Francis wanted it to go down in any particular way and Francis, being the low-key guy that he is, said no, just announce that the contract has been terminated. That's just one of a million ways this could've worked behind the scenes. I have not a single fact that suggests that Francis feels disrespected in the slightest by this and therefore I'm not going to get indignant on his behalf.
 
Re: Hurricanes GM Search ... dedicated thread

If this GM search continues on for another couple of weeks I'm going to try to contact Waddell and Dundon and ask for an interview for either the coaching or GM position.

As a GM, I've been a Whalers/Canes fan for as long as I've followed hockey. I've spent the last 30 years coming up with great trade ideas that would have won this franchise at least a half dozen Cups by now if only they had listened to me. I know the right kids to call up and when, when to waive a guy and send him down to the minors. Who to buyout, who to pursue as UFAs. I'm not afraid to poach RFAs (better lock up your kids fellow GMs, I will be hunting).

As a coach, well, I know how to put together lines that make sense. I will never bury a rookie to play an old stiff like Lee Stempniak instead. I understand that Derek Ryan is a good 4th liner/penalty killer who should never ever be allowed to play with Jeff Skinner or on the PP. I know when to give a starting goalie the hook (goalies wouldn't like me). Back in the day I probably 'coached' over 1000 games of Strat-O-Matic hockey, so I have coaching experience at the NHL level. I'm not afraid to delegate the actual running of practices to the assistants and umm...yeah....well I can't skate, but what coach needs to skate during a hockey game?

Anyone know where to send resumes to for the GM and coaching position? Heck if Dundon really wants to get innovative, why not make this message board the GM? :smilewinkgrin:
 
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Re: Hurricanes GM Search ... dedicated thread

Well you don't fire your coach on the road and have him call a cab and find his own way home even if that's what he wants. Actually you should probably wait until the team gets home just in case he gets mad and says he's not going back with the team and calls himself a cab because even though that wasn't your decision as the team, the optics are terrible. I don't think the RF deal is anything like that. They decided he wasn't going to be GM - they spent a few months considering options and decided he didn't want, or they didn't want a different role for him. I'm sure he was disappointed - in not staying on as GM. I don't think there's really much of a code. It's just business and spin for the most part these days.

No sense in us getting angry at each other about our thoughts on if what is happening now is bad or ok, or good. There is some good - change is happening and it needed to happen. We'd all like for this to be a smooth process and it doesn't seem to be. We will all be happy when we have a good GM in place that gives us confidence that the decisions that matter to us are in good hands - or really, I don't think we really even care about having a GM in place as long as the decisions that matter are made well and we see success on the ice. At the moment, there's not a lot to inspire any confidence, but then there's not a lot of meat to evaluate at this point. So, other than changes, there's not any evidence that there's anything good happening. Other than the 2nd pick - that is good. Do we stay in that slot for the subsequent rounds in the draft?
 
Re: Hurricanes GM Search ... dedicated thread

Sorry, I'm not crying for Francis. He wasn't tarred and feathered. He wasn't publicly humiliated. He was released a year after he should have been fired!
 
Re: Hurricanes GM Search ... dedicated thread

cmon3 said:
Other than the 2nd pick - that is good. Do we stay in that slot for the subsequent rounds in the draft?
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No, I believe the draft lottery only covers the first round...all teams slide back into the regular rotation for rounds 2, 3, 4, 5, etc...

So the second rounder reverts back to the 42nd overall pick I believe.
 
Re: Hurricanes GM Search ... dedicated thread

Optics and words matter to us fans. Saying RF was reassigned because of stylistic differences stinks of total BS. Why not just come out and be honest with your customers. Tell us why you did it and what you are looking for in a replacement. Time to man up Tom.
 
Re: Hurricanes GM Search ... dedicated thread

I moved all the Rick Dudley stuff to a new thread.
 
Re: Hurricanes GM Search ... dedicated thread

JFG said:
Optics and words matter to us fans. Saying RF was reassigned because of stylistic differences stinks of total BS. Why not just come out and be honest with your customers. Tell us why you did it and what you are looking for in a replacement. Time to man up Tom.
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Only if there's not other information. It seems like TD was not expecting to make a GM move when he "promoted" RF, and it seems like his preference was to move RF into another role and keep him on. It also seems like that did not work out that for whatever reason. I don't think Dundon would have moved him to another role knowing he was going to fire him - what's the upside to that? There is none and there's no financial angle either - why pay a guy for several months if your plan is to let him go.
 
Re: Hurricanes GM Search ... dedicated thread

andyt said:
Nieuwendyk contributed what during his years of collecting a paycheck?
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Supposedly he did quality control on our pro scouting. So he would have signed off on any pro player acquisitions, at least least advised on them. We didn't exactly over tax the guy with our ZERO player for player trades at the NHL level. But he was clearly part of the group that looked at Scott Darling and thought he could be a starter. So, there's that.
 
Re: Hurricanes GM Search ... dedicated thread

CarolinaPen said:
I am really liking Aaron Ward right now. He has been defending the organization against typical Canadian media for a couple days. Great exchange here:

https://twitter.com/mirtle/status/991030590852841472?s=19
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I absolutely hate that Twitter has become the defacto public square for sports and politics. You get reasoned, thoughtful opinions freely mixed with absolute idiocy and everything carries the same weight to the casual observer.
 
Re: Hurricanes GM Search ... dedicated thread

To summarize ... my own flashpoint yesterday was that we went from Francis prepping the club for the draft (not perfect, but at least a grown up was in control) to nobody doing it. As I understand it, Waddell has done next to nothing on the personnel side since he got here, and that had not changed under Dundon. So, even the presumed remaining leader of the draft effort was going to be an old GM who hadn't had his hand in the personnel game for basically a decade. Yeah. I don't care so much how that LOOKS as I do about how badly that was going to WORK.

When they hired Dudley, the club put out my own personal dumpster fire. Short term, I care a heck of a lot more about getting this draft right than I do about whatever it is the owner is trying to do with his front office. That crap can sort itself out, so long as it doesn't get in the way of being actually prepared to draft a good crop. You only get a No 2 overall very so often and you CANNOT afford to be cavalier with that stuff. Now. Next time maybe make those two announcements in closer proximity, yeah? Or just hold off on firing Francis until you've finalized the deal with his replacement. Then you avoid useless 24 hour comment periods.

One other thought ... can you even imagine how much crap Dundon would be taking from the media if he was in virtually any other NHL market? Instead, his personal media "horde" is that lapdog dolt Chip Alexander and Luke DeCock weighing in once a month or so. That's it. Everybody else in the local press corps is either a glorified amateur or a total sycophant. You think the Canadian press is being hard on him now. Imagine what it would be like if this was all happening in a Canadian or Original Six market. Ooof.
 
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Re: Hurricanes GM Search ... dedicated thread

The local media is way more into ACC sports. That's because of the size of the local ACC fan bases and in the case of the N&O , I expect the ACC articles are what gets the clicks.

But even for ACC teams the local media does not get very rough on teams/ADs/coaches/players. If a coach is doing badly they might say something like "well, it might be time for a change" It's way more low key here than in a major market.
 
Re: Hurricanes GM Search ... dedicated thread

Paulie Walnuts said:
The local media is way more into ACC sports. That's because of the size of the local ACC fan bases and in the case of the N&O , I expect the ACC articles are what gets the clicks.

But even for ACC teams the local media does not get very rough on teams/ADs/coaches/players. If a coach is doing badly they might say something like "well, it might be time for a change" It's way more low key here than in a major market.
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Thing of it is, we ARE a major market ... especially when it comes to ACC sports ... but the local media is still stuck in this weird time lapse when it comes to sports.
 
Re: Hurricanes GM Search ... dedicated thread

TheBigKahuna said:
Jeff O'Neill is firmly in the Canes/Dundon is terrible for the NHL camp. He's been a spout of idiocy for years though, so I expect nothing less.
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O'Neill needs to lay off the beer and chicken wings in retirement, especially when TV adds 10 pounds as it is...
 
Re: Hurricanes GM Search ... dedicated thread

jeffbear said:
Thing of it is, we ARE a major market ... especially when it comes to ACC sports ... but the local media is still stuck in this weird time lapse when it comes to sports.
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Yep. We're the 25th ranked TV market, and will probably pass Pittsburgh this year, only about 8,000 behind them. We're bigger than other cities that have multiple major league franchises; Baltimore, Nashville, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, New Orleans, etc.
 
Re: Hurricanes GM Search ... dedicated thread

how many major markets only have a part time guy as the beat writer for their major league teams? And yes, there is a columnist who writes about the Canes among other topics.

How many reporters do Toronto/Montreal have ? Probably a dozen guys in each city that cover the NHL? Or New York with 3 major papers?

I think the 3 local ACC teams each have a full time N&O beat writer , or they did recently.

It's not just a time warp , it's a big lack of money to pay reporters .
 
Re: Hurricanes GM Search ... dedicated thread

CanadaCanes said:
O'Neill needs to lay off the beer and chicken wings in retirement, especially when TV adds 10 pounds as it is...
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Jeff is decent enough as an analyst, but he's got that smoldering angst thing on blast way too much of the time to actually be enjoyable.
 
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