I don't think this can be a blanket statement indictment. There's some examples where it has worked notably Zito but he had substantive years of progressive pro hockey management experience before getting the gig in Florida. Even then he surrounded himself with a group of senior hockey advisors Rick Dudley, Les Jackson, and Paul Fenton who were vital resources to him. Brian Lawton with agency experience helped build a good foundation in Tampa. I think the Montreal model of deep rebuild is being watched.Jeff Jackson playing GM for a day should put to rest the idea that agents are capable of building a hockey team. Agents spend their entire career thinking of reasons and making excuses for why their player should be paid as much or more as the previous guy. Thats their sole purpose. It’s not in their best interest to consider all their hockey skills as a whole but rather to downplay or outright ignore their weaknesses and upsell their strengths. All these guys are equal to them one way or another.
Jackson seemed to be a good hire. Spoke of how his agency experience gave a world view of organizational best practices across key function areas, played the game at NHL level, and had some team management experience. Maybe a part of the issue was timing and circumstantial of the executive role to him (without Ken Holland training wheels) and requirement of immediate, significant personnel decisions to deal with. BIG difference from theoretical to immediate huge personnel decisions that carried risk-reward amplified by coming off a Game 7 Cup run. Decisions made with essentially in-house people in an organization that has some significant misses and some hits.
I was really bullish on the Jackson hire for the diversity of experience and philosophy he was espousing. However the summer decisions of he and oiler management have significantly hurt this team at this existential point of their winning window.