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JR to resign!

jeffbear said:
Yup. I've said that several times and I completely agree. There's no way in heck Francis signs up to be anybody's puppet. If he takes this job, it will be to actually do the job. Not sure how I feel about his readiness level, but one thing I know for sure is that he'll be his own man. In fact, if Ronnie turns down the opportunity, it might be a big old red flag because it might mean that President and Owner really just want a rubber stamp in the GM's office. That would be a bigger problem IMO than hiring a green GM.
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I think that one of the more astute comments I read about the possible changing of the guard on Edwards Mill.
 
As a lifelong fan of Ronnie, I should be happy for this impending change. But i gotta say i'm a tad worried, because his short history of evaluating talent (Paradis, Welch) has not been spectacular. That might be unfair, but even without all that he is untested and unproven. But a change in the GM's office at this point is necessary, so here we go.
 
brassbonanza said:
As a lifelong fan of Ronnie, I should be happy for this impending change. But i gotta say i'm a tad worried, because his short history of evaluating talent (Paradis, Welch) has not been spectacular. That might be unfair, but even without all that he is untested and unproven. But a change in the GM's office at this point is necessary, so here we go.
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+1 There needs to be a change, but RF scares the heck out of me.

T
 
Yeah ... I think we all have a general trepidation about Francis as an evaluator of talent, but let's be realistic here. The General Manager is the head of a group of people who are in charge of evaluating talent. Right now, Francis is the one running the player develpment and scouting input while Rutherford makes the big picture decisions. If Ronnie does take this job, then he's going to need a serious player personnel guy to be his number 2 man. Not Wesley or Brind'Amour or some other old Canes hand. It will be crucial for this club ... in my opinion ... to go find a serious player personnel guy to give Francis the best info possible. Left to me, I'd say we need to go raid somebody out of an NHL front office that's been through a rebuild and thus has experience with the mess facing Carolina's front office. There are plenty of teams that have done a decent job rebooting their big clubs of late ... St Louis, Colorado, Ottawa and Dallas spring immediately to mind. Not saying those clubs are great or anything, but they've gone through major roster shifts and come out the other side. Chicago's front office got picked to pieces after they won the Cup the first time, as did Boston's in the last two years. St Louis is still playing out the momentum that John Davidson built so they're kind of out of the picture. But surely there's some third banana personnel guy with some ideas beating around under-appreciated somewhere else.
 
Also ... let's give Francis some credit for his input on Lindholm, who looks like a very useful NHL player.

In fact, our prospect list right now looks WAY better than it has in a long, long time. We keep worrying about the failures without recognizing that McGinn, Tolchinsky, et al comprise a very promising group, especially when you add in the very young guys already in the NHL.
 
And don't forget that RF is not the one coaching these guys once they're in our system. It could be that the cause of some of those failures may be in the coaching staff (JD, Mo, Muller etc.). Not to mention the ones who were plucked in some of JR's trades.
 
James ... I think it's vital to bring in a player personnel executive from outside the organization and I think it would be absolutely helpful if that guy had an eye for players with some size. Dallas has done a good job of blending in vets and kids and getting bigger without getting slower in the process. Of course, they've got Bob Gainey working as a consultant and Mark Recchi holding down the player development title. Maybe Rex might like a step up the ladder? Dunno.

Some other options ... maybe Pierre Dorion or Randy Lee from Ottawa who have done a good job stocking that program. Timmy Taylor has done good work for the Blues for the last 3-4 years in their P/P dept. and Brad Smith in Colorado has done great work there.
 
James ... I think it's vital to bring in a player personnel executive from outside the organization and I think it would be absolutely helpful if that guy had an eye for players with some size. Dallas has done a good job of blending in vets and kids and getting bigger without getting slower in the process. Of course, they've got Bob Gainey working as a consultant and Mark Recchi holding down the player development title. Maybe Rex might like a step up the ladder? Dunno.

Some other options ... maybe Pierre Dorion or Randy Lee from Ottawa who have done a good job stocking that program. Timmy Taylor has done good work for the Blues for the last 3-4 years in their P/P dept. and Brad Smith in Colorado has done great work there.
 
Here's the slippery thing about RF stepping into the GM chair or any new GM. If PK is tightening the purse strings and we're talking about a rebuild, we are going to end up with Dallas' Joe Nieuwendyke situation. The owner is tired of spending money, is making the necessary changes in management and then hog ties the new guy with budget limits and the table gets set for failure because you're forced to either stay out of free agency or part with assets to get budget flexibility.
 
Hmmmm. Would love to pry Evason out of Dallas, as coach. I think he's pretty good.
As for player personel, the number 2 guy for an assuming future RF gm, well, again, anybody worthy from the Dallas brass?
 
JamesNorthern said:
Hmmmm. Would love to pry Evason out of Dallas, as coach. I think he's pretty good.
As for player personel, the number 2 guy for an assuming future RF gm, well, again, anybody worthy from the Dallas brass?
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Yeah ... I mentioned Recchi above. Dallas has Bob Gainey working as a consultant with the GM and the whole personnel operation has his imprint on it, despite the budget issues. Mark Recchi has been training as their player personnel guy and their player development program has been really strong. Rex is the kind of guy that might appeal to Ronnie as a second banana, I think.
 
Regarding the Edmonton problems, if I were Eakins, it would have taken the entire bench to hold me back from strangling Hall right there on the bench. And at the next practice he would have been puking his guts up. As a head coach, I would NEVER tolerate that childish behavior or disrespect.
 
JamesNorthern said:
Hmmmm. Would love to pry Evason out of Dallas, as coach. I think he's pretty good.
As for player personel, the number 2 guy for an assuming future RF gm, well, again, anybody worthy from the Dallas brass?
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Evason's actually in Milwaukee now, as the head coach for the Admirals (Preds affiliate). He's had a good track record here - he'd be a great pickup.
 
... and why Francis up == Muller out? Are there known issues between the two, or just "want to hire your own guy" thing? And wouldn't that be the same no matter who gets the job?

So many questions.... more interesting than how we managed to lose yet ANOTHER game to Columbus.
 
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