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Confirmed with Link: CBJ hire Don Waddell as President of Hockey Operations and General Manager. JD to serve as Senior Advisor

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Aaaarrgghh said:
Yeah, didn't he say something like to the fact of getting down the GA would be the easier quick thing to fix, by improving the D and "getting a few saves here and there"? If I remember correctly, he believed that doing that should already bump them up a few places in the standings.
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I mean, if they manage to improve those things just slightly, on top of simply improving on holding leads, we'd already be close to 40 wins.

I'm forgetting just how many more wins they could have had this season if they held leads, but I think 7-8 more wins would've been on the table if they even successfully held only half of those leads, which would've put them at 35 wins already.
 
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CBJWerenski8 said:
Friedman and Marek talked about Don Waddell today on 32T. They mentioned that while on their show Waddell says he plans to keep the GM job for himself. Marek also thinks he plans to "shepherd along someone like Rick Nash." Friedman says that he heard Waddell will be the GM "for a while."
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Although I think Waddell is a solid choice, this entire thing of him doing both roles, just screams that the CBJ weren't willing to pay a premium price unless he did both.
You would really think the CBJ would have learned from IDWT that you need more than 1 decision maker.
Also the goal of making the playoffs just screams mediocrity. The goal should be to win a Championship.
I've been a frustrated CBJ fan for a while and for a long time I've blamed ownership. Lot of the things being said just lead me to think it's the Blue Jacket way.

Now I'm ok giving a final look at the goalies, especially since Waddell tried to trade for him a few years ago but we have to be willing to cut bait if it doesn't work out. But we've given him one final season for the last couple season, so I understand it (and maybe it's just talk) but if we ride out another season of below average goaltending it's insanity.
 
Viqsi said:
Assumption not in evidence. Citation needed.
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also waddell was doing both of those things in carolina, and according to sarah civian:
  • he was getting paid way below market value
  • had to deal with an absurdly meddlesome owner (apparently dundon once said "i don't give a f*** about what aho's agent thinks of me" and waddell had to smooth that over, just as one example)
  • dundon didn't "believe in" doing contracts for front-office staff, so waddell felt he didn't have enough stability
it's way easier to spin a "waddell's move is lateral on paper but is a huge increase in power + pay" narrative than a "cbj ownership was cheap here" narrative, which is wild given cbj ownership's track record with this kind of stuff lol
 
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CBJWerenski8 said:
Still seems to me like Vincent has to convince Waddell that he should keep his job. Would imagine the next 2-3 weeks are pretty big for him.
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If you have to convince someone that played multiple games against you the previous season, that may not be a positive sign.
 
Aaaarrgghh said:
I think it's a very healthy sign if he's not too trigger happy with firing people and want to hear what their views on the team from last year and going forward are.
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I agree - he knows what happened last season from the view of an opponent, but it can’t hurt to hear the “inside the room” take on those games, and all the other games. It could be simple information-gathering, and it reassuring that he knows enough to know that he doesn’t know everything. Ya know?
 
NotTooWideArena said:
I agree - he knows what happened last season from the view of an opponent, but it can’t hurt to hear the “inside the room” take on those games, and all the other games. It could be simple information-gathering, and it reassuring that he knows enough to know that he doesn’t know everything. Ya know?
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Concerning Vincent, there is also the issue of him being thrown in quite late. If Waddell likes what he hears from Vincent about his views and vision for the team, why not give him a chance to coach another year with a full off-season of preparation beforehand?

I like what Waddell is saying about wanting to meet and talk with the personnel and have them give their honest opinion on the team before Waddell shares his. It's going to be a crucial part if evaluating the team as a whole.
 
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I don't advocate for anyone to lose their job (I for one don't think I am perfect at my job), but the coaching staff I feel need's a facelift. In 2 cases PV and Steve McCarthy were thrust into their positions last minute. That doesn't put you in a position to achieve however the Goal's Against is an indicator that Team defense is bad. This defense is not just the "D" but the goaltending (Goaltending did advance this season) and forwards as well.

This indicator has shown with or without veteran help - Coach McCarthy (Provorov, Severson) hasn't grown the D corp in 2 seasons. As for PV I could go either way (don't know the relationship he had with Jarmo and if Jarmo had his thumb on the scale on lineup), but you are not going to bring in a good D coach with the spectre of PV or the staff possibly getting booted at any time.

For Waddell to come in and clean house might be warranted to some degree to get guys he trusts but also shake off the any business as usual approach. If he is to do it, it should be now. If not he needs to allow 1 more season if he believes in the staff.

Hopefully this decision comes to fruition relatively quick.
 
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Youngguns80 said:
I don't advocate for anyone to lose their job (I for one don't think I am perfect at my job), but the coaching staff I feel need's a facelift. In 2 cases PV and Steve McCarthy were thrust into their positions last minute. That doesn't put you in a position to achieve however the Goal's Against is an indicator that Team defense is bad. This defense is not just the "D" but the goaltending (Goaltending did advance this season) and forwards as well.

This indicator has shown with or without veteran help - Coach McCarthy (Provorov, Severson) hasn't grown the D corp in 2 seasons. As for PV I could go either way (don't know the relationship he had with Jarmo and if Jarmo had his thumb on the scale on lineup), but you are not going to bring in a good D coach with the spectre of PV or the staff possibly getting booted at any time.

For Waddell to come in and clean house might be warranted to some degree to get guys he trusts but also shake off the any business as usual approach. If he is to do it, it should be now. If not he needs to allow 1 more season if he believes in the staff.

Hopefully this decision comes to fruition relatively quick.
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There is a chance that PV had little say in retaining McCarthy and adding Recchi (the two I prefer to see upgraded if PV stays). We simply don't know the dynamics. CBJ has a lot of payroll tied up in management they aren't working with any more - coaches and GM alike. Will be very interesting to see how this moves forward with GMDW
 
Xoggz22 said:
There is a chance that PV had little say in retaining McCarthy and adding Recchi (the two I prefer to see upgraded if PV stays). We simply don't know the dynamics. CBJ has a lot of payroll tied up in management they aren't working with any more - coaches and GM alike. Will be very interesting to see how this moves forward with GMDW
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Steve McCarthy's contract is up this summer and couldn't agree more on if PV stays his staff needs an overhaul.
 
One thing you need to do to keep your job over time is show improvement every year. One strategy is to start out badly and then progress. If you start out really well and then have a set back, it is very noticeable. I wouldn’t be surprised if the new regime didn’t make many changes the first year, claim the first year was about “assessing what we have”, did badly out of the gate, let everyone blame the old regime, get another high draft pick to work with, and then start showing improvement in year 2.
 
majormajor said:
JD was very open about being willing to step back, so it's hard to believe he was blindsided by it.
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Maybe the ownership and JD started the search for new GM/POHO together and had spoken to Waddell already but at some point McConnell and Priest grew impatient and decided to hire him without asking opinion from JD who was under impression the search was still ongoing.

When I listen to JD introduce Waddell in the press conference, I can't find a single sentence in his speech where he explicitly confirms that hiring Waddell particularly was a joint decision. He says there "When we made a decision to look for a GM..." instead of "When we made a decision to hire Don Waddell"...
 
Cyclones Rock said:
If this is true my regard for ownership has grown higher.

It's still very low but higher nonetheless.
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If you believe that JD was kept out of the hiring decision for Don Waddell, then the most likely scenario, and the one suggested in this report, is that it was Mike Priest's decision. We do know that Priest was the one who called Waddell to start the process.

Is that actually better?
 
majormajor said:
If you believe that JD was kept out of the hiring decision for Don Waddell, then the most likely scenario, and the one suggested in this report, is that it was Mike Priest's decision. We do know that Priest was the one who called Waddell to start the process.

Is that actually better?
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If the plan is to bring an entirely new set of views to the roster process, then the old regime shouldn't be deciding the next regime.
 
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