What does a Director of Hockey Operations do? | HFBoards - NHL Message Board and Forum for National Hockey League

What does a Director of Hockey Operations do?

Redpath

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Sep 30, 2011
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This question has plagued me for a while now and with McPhee’s “promotion” I have to ask.

Is it a strictly a ceremonial advisor role to the GM? And relatedly, what does a team President do?
 
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In McPhee's case, it's not strictly a "ceremonial advisor" at all. He not only will continue to do most of what he did as GM, such as control personnel decisions, but he probably receives a raise from this as well. He will still be in charge of McCrimmon.
 
It depends on the team, the situation, and the wording of the job description.

Sometimes, a DoHO essentially runs the team as a hockey team (whereas the owner just does finances) makes all the final decisions, and holds the plug on the general manager. In this case, it's pretty much the same as Team President.

Other times, it's just "we like this guy and we're going to pay him to really not do much." When Howe retired from the Red Wings, he very briefly had a job as VP of Hockey Operations and Olympia Stadium. He quit shortly after because he found out he had no say and the Wings were just paying him to sit behind a desk because he's Gordie Howe.

As for McPhee, the official press release from Vegas says this:

"He [McCrimmon] would continue to report to McPhee, who will continue to oversee the hockey operations team."

The language here implies that McPhee is essentially becoming president. The Knights had no president prior to McPhee, so this adds up.
 
Its all different depending on the team and situation. In this case VP/General Manager and President of Hockey Operations is the same job. It allows a valued assistant gm to put General Manager on his resume.
 
A lot of times a GM would need clearance on a move from the DOHO. Maybe not all moves but definitely bigger moves. Also budget allocations and basically he would tell the GM what he wants the team to look like and sets targets for the GM.
 
According to NHL.com, McPhee is actually President of Hockey Operations, Alt. Governor

He's the GMs boss' boss and sits in board meetings. He has the authority to speak directly with every other department head which gives him the power to accomplish anything within reason. As an alternate governor, whenever the NHL meets with the owners, he can fill in for Foley if necessary.

I believe the Director of Hockey Ops reports to him. So the chain of command is GM -> Director -> President -> CEO -> Owner.
 
This question has plagued me for a while now and with McPhee’s “promotion” I have to ask.

Is it a strictly a ceremonial advisor role to the GM? And relatedly, what does a team President do?

It probably is different in each organization, but I would expect that as many have said, in some cases its a promotion in title only (and perhaps salary), while others might take on additional work from other areas of the organization, potentially even things like ticket sales and marketing, which certainly are not on-ice hockey operations, but are directly related to the viability of the team.
 
It probably is different in each organization, but I would expect that as many have said, in some cases its a promotion in title only (and perhaps salary), while others might take on additional work from other areas of the organization, potentially even things like ticket sales and marketing, which certainly are not on-ice hockey operations, but are directly related to the viability of the team.

It's a high level management role so they don't perform any actual tasks. Sales and marketing are both different departments with their own leadership that report to the CEO and have no real association with hockey operations, other than sometimes they need to work together to help achieve goals for their respective departments.

Although personally I see no reason for Hockey Ops to ever need to work directly with Sales or Marketing but every business is different so maybe for the Golden Knights they do.
 
It's a high level management role so they don't perform any actual tasks. Sales and marketing are both different departments with their own leadership that report to the CEO and have no real association with hockey operations, other than sometimes they need to work together to help achieve goals for their respective departments.

Although personally I see no reason for Hockey Ops to ever need to work directly with Sales or Marketing but every business is different so maybe for the Golden Knights they do.

Glad to see that you know the org structure of every team in the NHL. I wasn't referring strictly to the Golden Knights, but with how different orgs structure things differently, it's entirely likely that a team would consider having their marketing and sales managers report to a director, rather than have those roles have their own Director. Especially with small market teams (again, not referring to Vegas) who might want to keep their leadership team small.
 
Glad to see that you know the org structure of every team in the NHL. I wasn't referring strictly to the Golden Knights, but with how different orgs structure things differently, it's entirely likely that a team would consider having their marketing and sales managers report to a director, rather than have those roles have their own Director. Especially with small market teams (again, not referring to Vegas) who might want to keep their leadership team small.

The organizational structure of NHL teams is publicly listed on NHL.com. For the Golden Knights, Marketing and Sales are their own departments each with their own director. This isn't my opinion.

Just as an aside (this part is my opinion), I believe that their Sales and Marketing teams are likely very intertwined and that high level Sales managers communicate with the Marketing director on a daily basis and vice versa.
 
The organizational structure of NHL teams is publicly listed on NHL.com. For the Golden Knights, Marketing and Sales are their own departments each with their own director. This isn't my opinion.

Just as an aside (this part is my opinion), I believe that their Sales and Marketing teams are likely very intertwined and that high level Sales managers communicate with the Marketing director on a daily basis and vice versa.
I wasn't referring to the Knights, I was answering the question in the OP, what does that position do. I don't think anyone here (other than possible burner accounts) knows the ins and outs of the NHL front office to really answer the question anyway, other than suggesting that each team probably does it a little bit differently.
 
GM handles the day to day running of the team. Director of hockey Ops will be looking more long term at things like the draft, trade deadline, stuff like that.
 
He whispers "code vermillion! code vermillion!" into his suit sleeve and then a team of hardcase saskatchewan hockey commandos breach through the windows.
 
Two major responsibilities:

1) Go to business meetings, nod silently, say “Sorry, I’m really more on the hockey side of the operation”.

2) Go to hockey meetings, nod silently, say “Sorry, I’m really more on the business side of the operation”.
 
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It’s not set in stone, but the Director of hockey ops is in charge of the on ice product but more from a 35,000 ft view. They put (or have people under them) the things in place for the on ice team can perform. The GM used to do all that as well, but everything has gotten so much more complicated and player selection and development has gotten more competitive.

They will handle affiliations, and everything but the actual players & coaches. Scouts, trainers, equipment managers and the like will fall under this side of the department unless the GM wants certain people.

At lower levels of hockey, the GM is still handling more traditional duties.
 
anything from being a ceremonial advisor to basically running everything depending on the team
 
it’s a made up title, much like Assistant to the General Manager

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