Honestly, I'm surprised Rich stuck it out for that long. It's pretty evident that Meruelo and Armstrong are working on purging the team's culture and remaking it as theirs, so Nairn was a legacy employee no matter how well he did his job. That he wasn't let go speaks to his skill and ability, IMO.
But keep this in mind also - Nairn's been doing this job for 27 years, and speaking from personal experience, that's a long time to be in a PR job in professional sports. I spent about that long doing PR/marketing work in motorsports, and believe you me, when you get to the quarter-century mark, many people are burned out by the grind and the thanklessness of the work. Now add onto that the Damoclean Sword of being with a franchise like ours, perennially on the verge of relocation, perennially fighting to survive scandals, perennially having to do crisis communications and damage control, and Nairn's longevity looks even more miraculous by that metric.
His farewell message indicated that he's going to take a non-NHL job and I don't blame him. When I switched industries a decade-plus ago, people thought I was nuts to give up a gig in racing. But I was so done - I knew if I didn't find something new to pursue, all the love I had for the sport would have curdled into distaste, and I didn't want that to happen. Not sure if that's what Nairn's thinking, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is.
Good luck to him - he's a pro's pro, and he'll land comfortably on his feet.