GM search thread - all news and discussion here

[Iron Balls McGinty]

I'd have walked. I legit don't know how one can do that and still feel good about themselves.

Thanks for the vote of self confidence when you judge me.

 

[CBJx614]

I think I'm still in the "gimme Darche or Tulsky" camp.

 

[JohnnyJacket13]

Possible, but Carolina named Tulsky interim GM and I would expect is working hard to give him a deal that takes the interim tag off as soon as possible.

https://x.com/i/web/status/1794053061247143970

https://x.com/i/web/status/1794053685472805061

https://x.com/i/web/status/1794056802637623420

 

[GoJackets1]

I think I'm still in the "gimme Darche or Tulsky" camp.

Same. For me, Darche or Tulsky as GM with Waddell as PHOP would be as close to perfect as we could get in this search.

 

[Viqsi]

Thanks for the vote of self confidence when you judge me.

I was explicitly trying to avoid "OMG how can you look at yourself in a mirror" type comments because I know on some level that those things have to be done sometimes and I wasn't trying to dump on you. But it's hard for me to comprehend ever even being willing to talk about it. Apologies if that came across as personal and/or judgemental regardless; I was trying not to be.

EDIT: On the broader topic, I'm not trying to pull some kind of Absolute Ultimatum against Waddell. If he's hired here, I'd be braced for it and I'd find a way to cope; there have been worse options mentioned. And yes, Carolina being stable is a positive. But between folks advocating for essentially existential threats here already with this "we need a protest to get ownership changed" silliness and my general stress over the whole replacement situation AND very vivid memories of what that relocation did to Atlanta fans as a whole AND watching it happen to Coyotes fans right now... let's just say I'm a mite hypersensitive about that. There's a lot of me that is increasingly convinced that a not insignificant number of folks here leading the complaining legitimately would not give a damn if the team were taken away.

 

[squashmaple]

I was explicitly trying to avoid "OMG how can you look at yourself in a mirror" type comments because I know on some level that those things have to be done sometimes and I wasn't trying to dump on you. But it's hard for me to comprehend ever even being willing to talk about it. Apologies if that came across as personal and/or judgemental regardless; I was trying not to be.

EDIT: On the broader topic, I'm not trying to pull some kind of Absolute Ultimatum against Waddell. If he's hired here, I'd be braced for it and I'd find a way to cope; there have been worse options mentioned. And yes, Carolina being stable is a positive. But between folks advocating for essentially existential threats here already with this "we need a protest to get ownership changed" silliness and my general stress over the whole replacement situation AND very vivid memories of what that relocation did to Atlanta fans as a whole AND watching it happen to Coyotes fans right now... let's just say I'm a mite hypersensitive about that. There's a lot of me that is increasingly convinced that a not insignificant number of folks here leading the complaining legitimately would not give a damn if the team were taken away.

I mean… you’re being a lot less hysterical about this than Seeds (MrSwift of the cannon) and Capt Cornelius (of twitter). I normally respect both of them but they’re being insane about this today.

 

[Viqsi]

I mean… you’re being a lot less hysterical about this than Seeds (MrSwift of the cannon) and Capt Cornelius (of twitter). I normally respect both of them but they’re being insane about this today.

He actually used to be a regular here, several years ago. Prudence and site rules prevent me from really elaborating more beyond me expressing my total lack of shock w/r/t him dramatically freaking out.

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1794053061247143970

https://x.com/i/web/status/1794053685472805061

https://x.com/i/web/status/1794056802637623420

Interesting - thanks for this

 

[squashmaple]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1794053061247143970

https://x.com/i/web/status/1794053685472805061

https://x.com/i/web/status/1794056802637623420

I wonder what Strickland, who works for the Blues, knows about this. This is like Jody Shelley commenting on Edmonton’s GM job.

 

[koteka]

Thanks for the vote of self confidence when you judge me.

I was in a similar situation once. I even hated the job. But at the time (early 20’s) I needed the money. I would have loved to have taken the moral high ground and told a bunch of people to screw themselves, but that would have even made it harder to get a new job - they were more diligent about checking references back in those days because people were actually willing to tell the truth. Now everyone is afraid of getting sued so they usually only say “We can confirm koteka worked here from this date and to this date.” But back then they would have said “You don’t want to hire him. He wasn’t a team player. He disclosed to a bunch of potential lay offs that they were going to get laid off and told several members of managed that they were bad people. And he mooned the building when he walked out.”

 

[Viqsi]

I was in a similar situation once. I even hated the job. But at the time (early 20’s) I needed the money. I would have loved to have taken the moral high ground and told a bunch of people to screw themselves, but that would have even made it harder to get a new job - they were more diligent about checking references back in those days because people were actually willing to tell the truth. Now everyone is afraid of getting sued so they usually only say “We can confirm koteka worked here from this date and to this date.” But back then they would have said “You don’t want to hire him. He wasn’t a team player. He disclosed to a bunch of potential lay offs that they were going to get laid off and told several members of managed that they were bad people. And he mooned the building when he walked out.”

Having actually been given bad references by a guy who I thought I'd had a functionally decent working relationship with, I can empathize with that. But now we're drifting off topic.

 

[CBJx614]

I wonder what Strickland, who works for the Blues, knows about this. This is like Jody Shelley commenting on Edmonton’s GM job.

People have connections and people talk. It's not that surprising.

 

[squashmaple]

People have connections and people talk. It's not that surprising.

But to put yourself on record quoting sources and everything on something that doesn’t involve your team in the least? Fishy to me.

 

[VT]

D

 

[Doggy]

It absolutely was more about the ownership. But they were giving orders to sabotage the team, and he complied.

* * *​

The fact that he didn't go with the team to Winnipeg speaks against him, not for him. The job he was asked to do was done; they didn't need him to sabotage Jets 2.0.

He didn't decide to do the execution, but he sure as hell performed it.

Do you actually know this or are you just making wild assumptions based on what you think you saw? Because TBH, if this is common knowledge there is no way he gets the Canes job or any job after that. I call BS until shown proof otherwise.

If you don't like the guy, you don't like the guy. That's fine. But don't slam the guy's ethics with no evidence to back up your accusations.

 

[KJ Dangler]

Do you actually know this or are you just making wild assumptions based on what you think you saw? Because TBH, if this is common knowledge there is no way he gets the Canes job or any job after that. I call BS until shown proof otherwise.

If you don't like the guy, you don't like the guy. That's fine. But don't slam the guy's ethics with no evidence to back up your accusations.

Speaking of sabotage, Scott Arneil was just hired there

 

[Viqsi]

Do you actually know this or are you just making wild assumptions based on what you think you saw? Because TBH, if this is common knowledge there is no way he gets the Canes job or any job after that. I call BS until shown proof otherwise.

If you don't like the guy, you don't like the guy. That's fine. But don't slam the guy's ethics with no evidence to back up your accusations.

I was there with Thrashers fans as it was happening. The roster was being deliberately screwed with.

I'm frankly amazed he did get the Canes job.

 

[majormajor]

EVERY GM has made good and bad decisions. Even the best have far from perfect records. Sure the better ones make more good decisions and fewer mistakes but I think you can argue for or against any GM...even some of the most successful ones.

Wow I had no idea.

My point is that Waddell is a lot like Holland. That is to say a mixed record with long periods of futility and long periods of success. I'm interested and curious, not crazy about it. And I'm surprised folks here are wildly in favor of one and jumping out of the building at the thought of the other.

Waddell's main contribution to the Thrashers moving to Winnipeg was that he was GM for a decade and built a shitty hockey team and that cost them local support. I don't know the stuff in the final year and I don't really care, he wasn't deciding where the team played. That long run as GM is possibly worse than Holland's last decade in Detroit.

And Holland took over a team in Edmonton with a bigger depth problem and much less in the cupboards, and they've won a lot more playoff games than the Canes since 2021. That to some degree counterbalances the top end advantage Holland had in Edmonton.

I do like that Waddell has been delegating a lot in Carolina. But we still need to rely on the GM's vision for the lineup. To some degree Carolina's lineup is a mishmash of buy-low players. It's guys that don't exactly fit, your Necas and Bunting and DeAngelo and so on. And they cover over that to a large degree because of Rod Brind'Amour's system, a coach who was hired by the owner not Waddell. Rod's system either covers for or weeds out players, it makes it much easier for them to know what works there. We don't have that way of testing our players available to us. We need a GM to actually know how they'll fit in advance.

We have so much player/prospect capital in Columbus, a lot falling out of the cupboards. We need a GM with vision for the lineup, not just being able to utillize analytics staff to get a bunch of buy-low steals.

 

[DarkandStormy]

Per Jeff Marek, Waddell interviewed for President of Hockey Ops *and* business, which would force Priest out.

Friedman agreed.

 

[CBJx614]

Per Jeff Marek, Waddell interviewed for President of Hockey Ops *and* business, forcing Priest out.

Friedman agreed.

Well that would be encouraging. So maybe there is a possibility of Tulsky or Darche still...


Maybe we should start researching people Waddell has worked with and not Davidson

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

So when do they announce this? Something must be close if he resigned from Carolina with a contract about to expire anyway.

Do front office contracts follow the same time frame a player contracts and expire on July 1?

 

[GoJackets1]

Per Jeff Marek, Waddell interviewed for President of Hockey Ops *and* business, which would force Priest out.

Friedman agreed.

This is interesting. How much longer would Waddell realistically work before he retires? I’m surprised they’d consider replacing Priest in this fashion.

 

[ClevelandJacketFan]

Waddell as POHO and Tulsky as GM is maybe my dream hire.

 

[Napoli]

Cannot believe this organization is considering replacing Priest. That's a win, let's see if it actually happens but damn is it overdue.

 

[KJ Dangler]

Cannot believe this organization is considering replacing Priest. That's a win, let's see if it actually happens but damn is it overdue.

Someone noted here that his hand was tremoring pretty badly at an event towards the season … regardless , it’s a results business , and the front office needs new ideas , new eyes .