News & Notes XLIV: Revenge of the Seth

[Svechhammer]

Athletic survey on League's top front offices (top 3: Dallas, Tampa, Florida).
Canes came in 8th (Total points: 21 (1 first-place vote, appeared on 6 ballots).

Leafs were 23rd and the following 9 finished "last": Buffalo Sabres, Calgary Flames, Chicago Blackhawks, Columbus Blue Jackets, Los Angeles Kings, New York Islanders, Ottawa Senators, San Jose Sharks, Seattle Kraken.


"They operate on the most frugal budget and their staff does a helluva job,” one senior adviser said. “I’ll be interested to see how Eric Tulsky does because Donnie Waddell’s the one person that I know that could handle Tom (Dundon). A guy like Mark Craig runs the pro side, and the pro side’s basically a part-time gig for most of those guys. It also tells you just how good a coach Rod Brind’Amour is. His players play at their optimal level.”

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5860549/2024/10/22/nhl-front-office-rankings/?campaign=11451300&source=targeted_email&userId=9706046

The most frugal budget that annually spends to the cap and gives the head coach whatever salary he wants.

ok, sure

 

[bleedgreen]

The most frugal budget that annually spends to the cap and gives the head coach whatever salary he wants.

ok, sure

We always tell ourselves we spend the money on the ice, and now on Rod. This article would seem to line itself up with that thought. I’ve been assuming the front office and support guys are amongst the lowest paid in the league the whole time. Even if you don’t believe or care about that it’s interesting that our “pro guys” are “mostly part time”. Tulsky himself said in summer interviews that they do a lot of work with a bare bones staff.

We also didn’t seem to want to give the coach whatever he wants.

It’s ok to say we’re cheap. We are. At least we aren’t on the ice in terms of cap, but we obviously won’t overspend on almost anyone. We let guys go all the time because of cost. Yes we replace them….with cheaper options that maybe erode our overall level. It feels kind of cheap, but we’ve made it work.

We’re winning so it doesn’t matter but I think some of the comments that go in this direction are fair.

 

[chaz4hockey]

LY, it was reported that we had a waiting list.....no longer I gather.

btw: team spend comment. My takeaway was that it was directed to the non-ice product.

 

[Svechhammer]

LY, it was reported that we had a waiting list.....no longer I gather.

btw: team spend comment. My takeaway was that it was directed to the non-ice product.

View attachment 919789

This is what happens when you continually jack up the price of tickets, parking, and everything for sale in concession stands while fumbling the bag on someone like Guentzel.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

Yeah, we knew the organization was frugal, but that "part time" comment is damning. There's frugal and then there's exploitive.

 

[A Star is Burns]

Craig appears to be 71 and has been here for quite some time. I'd assume if it's something that wasn't working out for him, he would have left some time ago. Perhaps the arrangement is beneficial to both sides. Nah, it has to be a damning thing. (this isn't to say that I don't think we are cheap at times, we obviously are, just seems worth thinking beyond the random unsourced quote)

 

[Navin R Slavin]

I'll worry about how "cheap" we are when we miss the playoffs. Until then, I don't give a shit what the Internet Click Machine says, about pretty much anything.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

Craig appears to be 71 and has been here for quite some time. I'd assume if it's something that wasn't working out for him, he would have left some time ago. Perhaps the arrangement is beneficial to both sides. Nah, it has to be a damning thing. (this isn't to say that I don't think we are cheap at times, we obviously are, just seems worth thinking beyond the random unsourced quote)

I might be reading it wrong, but the quote seems to imply that Craig is the leader of the pro group, and he has a bunch of part time workers under him. So yeah, it might be working for HIM, but I bet if you ask those part time guys, you might be getting a different answer.

 

[hblueridgegal]

I figured for the marketing departures one reason may be "it's time to get paid."

 

[A Star is Burns]

I might be reading it wrong, but the quote seems to imply that Craig is the leader of the pro group, and he has a bunch of part time workers under him. So yeah, it might be working for HIM, but I bet if you ask those part time guys, you might be getting a different answer.

Yes, but looking up the other pro scouts, several of them have been here several years. I think it'd be pretty easy to leave if they aren't happy and have experience in a good organization.

 

[chaz4hockey]

I figured for the marketing departures one reason may be "it's time to get paid."

FWIW: I think marketing losses have been impactful. Marketing has been subdued this year and tag lines are not as creative as prior years.

 

[Discipline Daddy]

To the staff's credit, the amateur scouts SEEM to be doing a fine job. Sure, we have lots of darts, and many of them miss, but we are getting a ton of intriguing prospects. It's much too early to say our scouting team is better than X or Y. But at the same time, we have a handful of really exciting prospects, almost all of which are from the 2nd day of the draft.

Likewise, the pro scouting is knocking it out of the park. It's why we are able to keep the machine going to so speak after losing at least one big part of the team every offseason. We seem to find a lot of players who have the Brind'Amour quality we are looking for. Eric Robinson seems like a great fit. Martinook. Chatfield. Trocheck. Nino. Almost all of our trades and free agency acquisitions fit the team like a glove. Bunting was a strike, but we got out from that one partly through one year. Orlov appears to be another strike. He's been fine, but not $7.5 million great like we'd want.

 

[CanesUltimate11]

To the staff's credit, the amateur scouts SEEM to be doing a fine job. Sure, we have lots of darts, and many of them miss, but we are getting a ton of intriguing prospects. It's much too early to say our scouting team is better than X or Y. But at the same time, we have a handful of really exciting prospects, almost all of which are from the 2nd day of the draft.

Likewise, the pro scouting is knocking it out of the park. It's why we are able to keep the machine going to so speak after losing at least one big part of the team every offseason. We seem to find a lot of players who have the Brind'Amour quality we are looking for. Eric Robinson seems like a great fit. Martinook. Chatfield. Trocheck. Nino. Almost all of our trades and free agency acquisitions fit the team like a glove. Bunting was a strike, but we got out from that one partly through one year. Orlov appears to be another strike. He's been fine, but not $7.5 million great like we'd want.

Orlov also wasn't signed to be a 7.5 million a year great d-man (though I'm sure based on the playoffs they had hope) he was signed to be a two year stopgap for this year specifically.

 

[WreckingCrew]

I might be reading it wrong, but the quote seems to imply that Craig is the leader of the pro group, and he has a bunch of part time workers under him. So yeah, it might be working for HIM, but I bet if you ask those part time guys, you might be getting a different answer.

That said scouting doesn't necessarily have to be a "full time" job...that could get QUITE costly for a team constantly sending people out of town on travel. I'm sure many of the scouts go out for a few weeks here and there, catch a handful of games, then can go about doing other work in between? I have no idea if that's the case, but seems like a logical reason why some would be "part-time" but we're also not seeing constant turnover?

 

[chaz4hockey]

More clothing choices coming (ours in ‘24-‘26 though):

First look at Lululemon/Fanatics collaboration with NHL featuring Canadian hockey players

The line will be available for Canadians on Oct. 29 online.

nationalpost.com

 

[Navin R Slavin]

FWIW: I think marketing losses have been impactful. Marketing has been subdued this year and tag lines are not as creative as prior years.

I'm guessing Dundon thinks that wins are the best marketing, and I'm also guessing that, for now, the box office is proving him right.

Besides, in the age of Chatgpt, marketing is an employer's market, for good or ill.

 

[Bub]

I'll worry about how "cheap" we are when we miss the playoffs. Until then, I don't give a shit what the Internet Click Machine says, about pretty much anything.

"32 Reasons Why Dundon So Cheap. NUMBER 17 WILL ASTOUND YOU."

 

[Blueline Bomber]

I'm guessing Dundon thinks that wins are the best marketing, and I'm also guessing that, for now, the box office is proving him right.

Besides, in the age of Chatgpt, marketing is an employer's market, for good or ill.

Embracing AI might be the right move financially, but if Dallas's marketing attempt last year was any indication, fans (on the whole) are VERY much still against it.

Though it'd be funny to see Dundon try to go full AI and start generating our roster photos with it.

Do you think Aho is more of a Borts or a Fooly?