Speculation: Hockey Ops Roulette (The Chayka Syndrome)

[hbk]

GMs aren't responsible for actually cutting checks and running payroll. I have no idea why you're blaming Sullivan when this hasn't been a problem in the past (that we know of). Only started happening after XG took over, and this would fall under his responsibilities. Plus, you know, all the people they fired or furloughed.

It’s a hockey ops issue. Sullivan is in charge of hockey ops. He is the interim GM. If this represents his abilities then I want him gone from the organization.

 

[XX]

It’s a hockey ops issue. Sullivan is in charge of hockey ops. He is the interim GM. If this represents his abilities then I want him gone from the organization.

It's a reach and a half. As if a former player doesn't know how stupid it looks to be late on 45k or per diem.

 

[hbk]

It's a reach and a half. As if a former player doesn't know how stupid it looks to be late on 45k or per diem.

When it happened in Chicago the GM took the heat.

You make sure contract clauses are executed on. You follow up and make sure. That’s the job. Especially if people have been laid off.

 

[Jamieh]

When we get our next top 5 GM we won't have to worry about these things!!!! Especially now that we have this rich Owner.

 

[XX]

When it happened in Chicago the GM took the heat.

You make sure contract clauses are executed on. You follow up and make sure. That’s the job. Especially if people have been laid off.

Tendering a contract offer =/= actually dispersing payment. Tallon took heat because he filed them so late they didn't get them on time when there was no reason to do so. Sullivan is not sitting there with a spreadsheet and his finger on a cartoonishly large red button that says "send money." Everything is direct deposit and that's the responsibility of payroll. It's likely that the Coyotes were shifting around working capital with the large bonuses.

To wit;

Yeah idk, the issue is not really that pervasive through the Org. This is honestly just someone in finance holding cheques and managing AP/cash flow. Its not uncommon for the AP department to cut a bunch of cheques and then have a VP withold signatures and delay releasing the cheques to manage cash flow. Every company does it, our customers do it to us, their customers do it to them. During recessions companies will see aging receivables slide out from 30-60 to 60-90 and so on, the response is to do the same with your payables. Simple working capital management.

Sounds like the per diem disbursement just got caught in with the other supplier payments and delayed. Probably an oversight that they got mixed in with the regular cheque run, but it doesn't have anything to do with the owner, the teams solvency, a search for a new GM, or the draft issues.

The owner has 0% input on cheque runs, thats far too granular at an operational level. The finance department also likely has nothing to do with a few of the things you mentioned.

This thread is blown way out of proportion, as an excuse to hate more fortunate individuals.

 

[hbk]

Tendering a contract offer =/= actually dispersing payment. Tallon took heat because he filed them so late they didn't get them on time when there was no reason to do so. Sullivan is not sitting there with a spreadsheet and his finger on a cartoonishly large red button that says "send money." Everything is direct deposit and that's the responsibility of payroll. It's likely that the Coyotes were shifting around working capital with the large bonuses.

To wit;

It’s a faulty process. That I don’t disagree with. I don’t need to breakout my TapRoot flowchart to identify the issue.

That being said. I knew we had bonuses due. Half the posters on this board knew. We also know a significant portion of the staff are laid off. The GM, even a rookie interim GM should have recognized there may be an issue and check in on the process to ensure things went out on time. One of the first rules of management is to never mess with your staffs money and ensure prompt payment. Either Sullivan went “meh, not my problem” or he wasn’t aware. My expectations of a manager are higher; even is this may be temporary gig.

 

[XX]

That being said. I knew we had bonuses due. Half the posters on this board knew. We also know a significant portion of the staff are laid off. The GM, even a rookie interim GM should have recognized there may be an issue and check in on the process to ensure things went out on time. One of the first rules of management is to never mess with your staffs money and ensure prompt payment. Either Sullivan went “meh, not my problem” or he wasn’t aware. My expectations of a manager are higher; even is this may be temporary gig.

He doesn't have access to those accounts or authorization. Your argument is that Sullivan - after already seeing the org. miss per diem for the players - let major bonuses slide weeks later because he's incompetent. That's not a convincing or rational argument. At all.

For all we know he was aware but it still happened due to things being out of his control. We're talking about an organization that has had a ton of turnover and is very clearly in financial distress over COVID.

 

[hbk]

He doesn't have access to those accounts or authorization. Your argument is that Sullivan - after already seeing the org. miss per diem for the players - let major bonuses slide weeks later because he's incompetent. That's not a convincing or rational argument. At all.

For all we know he was aware but it still happened due to things being out of his control. We're talking about an organization that has had a ton of turnover and is very clearly in financial distress over COVID.

Does he have a calendar and a phone?

 

[XX]

Does he have a calendar and a phone?

XG controls the money and its disbursement. Full stop.

The first missed bonus predates even Chayka leaving. Your argument is that Sullivan was asleep for two months and didn't do his job multiple times despite being an ex player and knowing how awful that looks multiple times. That it's somehow his fault the Coyotes didn't handle a $7m cash call on Sept 1st immediately. That he can somehow override people above him and get money sent when it doesn't exist on the balance sheet.

It's a complete asspull.

 

[North Cole]

XG controls the money and its disbursement. Full stop.

The first missed bonus predates even Chayka leaving. Your argument is that Sullivan was asleep for two months and didn't do his job multiple times despite being an ex player and knowing how awful that looks multiple times. That it's somehow his fault the Coyotes didn't handle a $7m cash call on Sept 1st immediately. That he can somehow override people above him and get money sent when it doesn't exist on the balance sheet.

It's a complete asspull.

Apparently GM's are also CFO's in their spare time.

Edit - Sorry, I didn't realize you copied my post in the PHX forums, my bad. Ignore this random sOilers fan. Hopefully Sully works out for you guys.

 

[KG]

I doubt there is a GM in hockey who is aware of, much less runs, the day to day capital management, cash flow, finance and etc of the Club.

 

[Mosby]

Was doing a little more poking around on Hextall. His AGM in Philly was Chris Pryor. He led the amateur scouting as well. He was fired the same day as Hextall. He's since been hired as an amateur scout in Nashville.

In the event we bring in Hextall, then Pryor would be a good candidate to replace Hofford.

 

[BUX7PHX]

It’s a faulty process. That I don’t disagree with. I don’t need to breakout my TapRoot flowchart to identify the issue.

That being said. I knew we had bonuses due. Half the posters on this board knew. We also know a significant portion of the staff are laid off. The GM, even a rookie interim GM should have recognized there may be an issue and check in on the process to ensure things went out on time. One of the first rules of management is to never mess with your staffs money and ensure prompt payment. Either Sullivan went “meh, not my problem” or he wasn’t aware. My expectations of a manager are higher; even is this may be temporary gig.

Agreed - even when layoffs are made, there should still be an active chain of command that gets instituted of who now has additional work in their role. Because of the quick exit of Chayka and layoffs due to COVID, this oversight is pretty significant. In most cases the contingency plans for such an extreme case make it tough to put together, but this is far too long for that to slip under the rug.

 

[Jakey53]

Good thing we have Sullivan holding down the fort. He’s right on top of things.

Not his job, especially if he has one foot out the door already. XG is responsible.

The buck stops at XG but they have people in place that overlook all this but by no means is this the responsibility of the GM.

 

[Mosby]

Most GMs probably can't even read a balance sheet. These are hockey lifers who passed through high school by having a nice smile.

 

[TheLegend]

Not his job, especially if he has one foot out the door already. XG is responsible.

It was the Vice President of Hockey Ops that was responsible.

But remember he cleaned out his desk a while back.........

 

[rt]

Most GMs probably can't even read a balance sheet. These are hockey lifers who passed through high school by having a nice smile.

Laurence Gilman could fix this. Probably get us much better deals on our player contracts. And manage the cap and expansion well. As for hiring and firing hockey people? Yeah, no idea if he’d be any good. Same goes for negotiating any trades. And also for any scouting either pro or amateur.

Better hire Hextall instead. He is our only hope.

 

[87turbobuick]

There is no excuse if these reports of late payments are true. In true NHL tradition he may be an owner who just does not have enough money.

 

[hbk]

Agreed - even when layoffs are made, there should still be an active chain of command that gets instituted of who now has additional work in their role. Because of the quick exit of Chayka and layoffs due to COVID, this oversight is pretty significant. In most cases the contingency plans for such an extreme case make it tough to put together, but this is far too long for that to slip under the rug.

It’s a management failure. Period.

It’s not like we didn’t know as an organization that Chayka wanted out weeks before it became public. We didn’t make a checklist of all the administration items and timelines required given the craziness and delays in finishing the season? Nobody highlighted that their might be other issues when we forgot to pay the per diems? Sullivan was in the bubble. Was he unaware?

Someone should have checked to ensure deadlines were hit; especially given the craziness of this period. In my mind that’s the interim guy; especially if he wants to be legitimately considered for the full time gig.

My concern now is do we have someone internal who knows the timelines to qualify RFA’s? I have zero confidence now that we can order lunch successfully.

 

[hbk]

The buck stops at XG but they have people in place that overlook all this but by no means is this the responsibility of the GM.

My understanding is this is a hockey ops area. At the very least hockey ops should be aware of timelines and be checking in with accounting to ensure payments go out on time. If hockey ops isn’t checking in on Items like this then what are they doing when they have their meetings with accounting/finance?

 

[Jakey53]

There is no excuse if these reports of late payments are true. In true NHL tradition he may be an owner who just does not have enough money.

Then maybe do your share and help this team by buying tickets instead of bitching and moaning.

 

[Jakey53]

It’s a management failure. Period.

It’s not like we didn’t know as an organization that Chayka wanted out weeks before it became public. We didn’t make a checklist of all the administration items and timelines required given the craziness and delays in finishing the season? Nobody highlighted that their might be other issues when we forgot to pay the per diems? Sullivan was in the bubble. Was he unaware?

Someone should have checked to ensure deadlines were hit; especially given the craziness of this period. In my mind that’s the interim guy; especially if he wants to be legitimately considered for the full time gig.

My concern now is do we have someone internal who knows the timelines to qualify RFA’s? I have zero confidence now that we can order lunch successfully.

It was a failure, mistake, what ever you want to call it, and it makes us look bad, again.

 

[Jakey53]

My understanding is this is a hockey ops area. At the very least hockey ops should be aware of timelines and be checking in with accounting to ensure payments go out on time. If hockey ops isn’t checking in on Items like this then what are they doing when they have their meetings with accounting/finance?

Make no mistake, someone screwed up big time.

 

[Jamieh]

I just can't understand after the per diem miss how someone would not have simply looked up exactly what the Team owed abd when it was owed?? That has to be the most basic principles of business??? And when you fail the most basic of tasks its hard to get respect from anyone.

 

[Jakey53]

I just can't understand after the per diem miss how someone would not have simply looked up exactly what the Team owed abd when it was owed?? That has to be the most basic principles of business??? And when you fail the most basic of tasks its hard to get respect from anyone.

There was no excuse, especially after the per diem screw up. The merry go round never seems to stop.