Confirmed with Link: It's Started! (Management firings)

[MrBurghundy]

Every time I read POHO, I think of SOPO.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

Scientists absolutely do not work like that though, AB. They’re just as emotional and irrational as the rest of us. What you want is Dr. Sheldon Cooper for GM, which isn’t really gonna happen.

It's fun to read up on some of the absolutely hilariously petty bullshit scientists resort to when squabbling with each other.

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

It's fun to read up on some of the absolutely hilariously petty bullshit scientists resort to when squabbling with each other.

"Tim kept stealing my tuna fish sandwich every lunch from the break room refrigerator. I know it was him. I used my scientist brain to figure it out. So yeah... I upper decked the particle collider. So what? He's an asshole."

 

[Pens x]

I don’t want anyone with previous ties to this franchise. Botts would be disastrous. Another guy to praise Sully for his coaching from six years ago.

 

[Turin]

Didn’t even realize Dan MacKinnon was a director of player development for Pittsburgh for almost a decade. He might be a good call.

 

[Malkinstheman]

Didn’t even realize Dan MacKinnon was a director of player development for Pittsburgh for almost a decade. He might be a good call.

Yeah I was pretty surprised to see that. I literally dont remember hearing his name once during the Shero era

 

[HandshakeLine]

He's at least a lot smarter than an average guy. He'll spend more time poring over data. Much higher chance of happening upon the truth.
He's not gonna be the type like Hextall who kept believing our process will inevitably lead to success if they just wait long enough.

There's nothing about his work in Carolina to suggest he's irrational at this point. They make high percentage decisions. They get guys with sneaky upside.
Waddell himself has talked about how influential he is in their assessment process before making trades/acquisitions. He's the brain over there.

The best question is what would the other candidates do better than him, and how will those things lead to more success than Tulsky's team would? If there isn't a convincing answer, you hire Tulsky.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have Tulsky and a fresh perspective; I think it'd be really great to have. I'm just cautioning against building up an unrealistic picture of Tulsky as both a GM and a person.

I've also spent the entire week dealing with 3 neuroscientists and boy howdy are they irrational as shit.

 

[HandshakeLine]

The stupidest GMJR decisions all seem to have happened after Botts was gone, Reaves like a month after, then JJ, Brassard, Zucker, etc. So if you look at the good JR trades and the bad, Botts was there for pretty much all of them. I'm not saying he was responsible, or it's that simple, but that certainly argues in his favor.

I would be fine with Botts coming back in some capacity.

I think it's also worth noting that after Botterrill left, this team made a number of unforced cap errors which hobbled them throughout the seasons, this one in particular.

 

[Solution]

I don't think POHO has a lot of interaction with other GM's, so that's why I'd be OK with Chayka there, but not as GM. Could be wrong about the responsibilities of POHO and GM, though.

Botts on his own merits would be fine, but the potential loyalty to Sullivan is a big mark in the 'con' column for me. Maybe that's not fair of me, but it would be a fear of mine if he were to be hired (as POHO or GM).


My only real hope on a quick trigger for Sullivan was Dubas for some reason (and no, I'm not taking the "reports" out of NY into consideration on that ). The rest I think are basically in two camps. Those with previous connections to Sullivan and those without. Not really hopeful any of them would do it, but those without previous connections might get there a little quicker.

I have no idea how they interact, but since there has been a bit of a transition recently from the general manager holding both titles, I interpreted that the old boys (for lack of a better term) would still associate with the POHO. Regarding Botterill and a potential loyalty to Sullivan that would be one of my bigger concerns as well as his Buffalo performance. I think he would be the best choice for POHO based upon the current candidates that we are aware of. I have some doubts about a corporate entity being enthralled with Chayka and his missteps at the end of his time in Arizona.

 

[Solution]

Didn’t even realize Dan MacKinnon was a director of player development for Pittsburgh for almost a decade. He might be a good call.

He might be another good candidate if you are thinking about taking prospects and turning them into NHL players. The coaching tree in WBS really seemed to die out after Sullivan. I am leaning more towards the idea of a POHO with previous experience as a GM and a GM who is more data/analytics driven. Although you could come up with a situation with Botterill, MacKinnon, and Ventura all hired in as POHO, GM, and assistant GM. Not sure I want that much prior ties to the organization.

 

[Pens x]

Why are we talking to anyone with previous ties to the team? Now people are convincing themselves that a guy who was here for a decade but they had never heard of him would be a good candidate?

 

[AuroraBorealis]

I'm just cautioning against building up an unrealistic picture of Tulsky as both a GM and a person.

Handshake the faithless!
Our dynasty is nearing, yet you cannnot see it.
This league is unprepared for the reckoning our mad scientist is about to unleash upon it.
Crosby will retire hoisting his 8th Cup, just shy of his 41st year on this Earth.
His doubters vanquished. His legacy everlasting.

 

[Solution]

As a side question, who would be a good candidate for the WBS coaching job? I would imagine that whoever becomes the general manager would be looking to hire somebody there who could be his emergency/interim replacement if they were to fire Sullivan.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Handshake the faithless!
Our dynasty is nearing, yet you cannnot see it.
This league is unprepared for the reckoning our mad scientist is about to unleash upon it.
Crosby will retire hoisting his 8th Cup, just shy of his 41st year on this Earth.
His doubters vanquished. His legacy everlasting.

that’s me apostating it up in here!

As a side question, who would be a good candidate for the WBS coaching job? I would imagine that whoever becomes the general manager would be looking to hire somebody there who could be his emergency/interim replacement if they were to fire Sullivan.

I dunno but I wondered the same thing. I know it’s hard to judge the farm team from its bad roster but man, we just haven’t been very good at producing serviceable players from there and we need that if we’re even pretending to do this whole Cinderella story thing.

 

[Buddy Bizarre]

As a side question, who would be a good candidate for the WBS coaching job? I would imagine that whoever becomes the general manager would be looking to hire somebody there who could be his emergency/interim replacement if they were to fire Sullivan.

For a period of time everyone thought it was Velluci who was going to be the next great WBS HC

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

Well... lets see if he sticks to his guns, I guess.

 

[Gurglesons]

Oh no! How will the Maple Leafs ever be a first round exit now?

 

[Harvey Birdman]

Handshake the faithless!
Our dynasty is nearing, yet you cannnot see it.
This league is unprepared for the reckoning our mad scientist is about to unleash upon it.
Crosby will retire hoisting his 8th Cup, just shy of his 41st year on this Earth.
His doubters vanquished. His legacy everlasting.

Awesome.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

Wasn't worded as a mutual parting of ways, but not sure it matters. Like BlindWilly said, we'll see if the "I'm not going anywhere else" thing holds up.

 

[Josey Wales]

Lets see if Dubas meant it?

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

Also, this is just funny.

 

[AuroraBorealis]

IT'S TOO LATE, LEAFS! TULSKY IS OURS!!

 

[BrookswasHere44]

Dubas will be sticking to his guns because he'll be POHO here with Tulsky GM

 

[BlindWillyMcHurt]

IT'S TOO LATE, LEAFS! TULSKY IS OURS!!

I have to think the Penguins are a bit ahead of the Leafs in the process.

But the Leafs are undoubtedly gonna use this one cool trick they love called "throw an absolutely ungodly and for-nearly-all-other-teams-unattainable amount of money and resources at it." We'll see what happens.

To reiterate I'm also not at all anywhere close to convinced that the Penguins job is seen as desirable. I mean... try to sell ME on it as an exercise. I think once you start going down the list of talking points for a potential candidate you'll see what I mean. The best thing you guys yourselves could come up with a couple weeks back was "there's only 32 of these jobs in existence!" Compelling.