Glad to see Jarmo getting a job with the Jackets. Guy definitely has an eye for talent in young players. Wonder if he'll roll a grenade into it and blow it up so he has a clean slate.
First European GM, right?
There's undoubtedly a bit of a barrier for a European to make it as a GM or as a coach -- but given the relative balance we currently have on the player side its a bit odd with like 60 NA's, and what, 55 Canadians, as coaches and GM's in this league.
At both positions there are some guys out there that just aint that impressive given -- litterary -- the amount of money they make. Almost amature hour like at times.
I am not 100% on this either, but I believe Jarmo's kid is the Forign Minister for Finland (I've heard that he is a son of a scout in the NHL like a year ago, and I think it was Jarmo).
Yeah, good points. Hopefully Jarmo exercises the patience with these prospects that Howson simply could not. The way they've used Johnansen is horrendous. Kid has potential through the roof and they stuck him in the NHL before he was ready, and then bounced him in and out of the press box. Dumb.
Yeah, and I've heard numerous players comment on this side of the NHL over the years. A GM in the NHL isn't judged by his results, he is judged on the story he can sell.
We have these young players coming up,
we are trying to build this type of team bla bla bla. And then if the results don't come they've painted themselves into a corner and can't deviate from their "story". A vet with 5 years left is given up for a kid who at best in three years can become as good as the vet and most likely never will amount to anything. Then the players sit there in the room wondering what on earth was wrong with their teammate who could have played like until 2018, if not longer, and why their GM created a hole in the lineup that prevents them from keep building on what they've built the last couple of years.
I heard a former Swedish NHLer pretty recently being asked about the success of Detroit and NJD and he said something like:
Its not that hard to do what Detroit and NJD are doing, in the NHL there are 20+ teams every year who doesn't even try to be as good as possible, they've tried to build a good team 5 years down the line the last 30 years, NJD and Detroit isn't year after year among the best of 30 teams, they are year after year among the best of 8-10 teams, the rest doesn't even try to be good. I don't remember who it was who said it (Josef Boumedienne? or someone like that), but its kind of funny because there's definitely some truth to it.
And its kind of funny, because once a team like that that has built towards peaking in 5 years time for 15 years actually try's to peak -- they have no clue what they are doing because they've never done it before and often screw everything up instantly.
