Speculation: When Does Bruno Get The Boot?

[herzausstein]

After reading that... it is going to be a very long season and i expect parsnips to be waived at some point as we continue down a path of self destruction

 

[101st_fan]

It's a series of non-answers from Henry portrayed as a statement from Haslam.

 

[Predsanddead24]

Get ready to throw up. Looks like Haslam will be just like the other owners and never talk to the media. Even for the Tennessean, this is an extremely misleading headline:

What Bill Haslam, Nashville Predators owners think of Barry Trotz, Andrew Brunette so far​

Alex Daugherty
Bill Haslam, Tennessee's former governor and soon to be majority owner of the Nashville Predators, is well aware of the team's disappointing start to the season.

He watches every game, attends occasional practices, and is in constant communication with general manager Barry Trotz about the state of the team.

And like everyone else, Haslam is disappointed by the results.

"I don't think anyone inside or outside the organization expected this," Predators chief executive officer Sean Henry said.

"Bill Haslam, and every one of our owners, are they disappointed with where we are right now? Yes. Is every sales person, everyone on the team staff, every fan, every casual fan, every player? Yes."

Speaking on behalf of Haslam, who is set to become majority owner of the Predators on July 1, 2025, Henry said Predators ownership knows the team is not living up to expectations. After a shutout loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday and a 3-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Saturday, Nashville is in seventh place in the Central Division, two points ahead of last-place Chicago Blackhawks.

Not close to where the Predators were supposed to be after a spending a franchise record $111 million on July 1 on four free agents, including Steven Stamkos.

"July 2nd was really fun," Henry said. "Reading about the signings everywhere, it was awesome. But, like (Trotz) warned everyone, it's fantasy hockey in the summer until it works. It's going to take a little while for them to jive together."

Nashville Predators' owner Bill Haslam fully supports GM Barry Trotz​

In June 2022, the Predators announced Haslam would buy most of owner Herb Fritch's stake in the team during the course of three years, becoming majority owner in 2025.

At the time, David Poile was general manager and Trotz had just been fired as coach of the New York Islanders. In 2023, Poile retired and Trotz took over, setting up a Haslam-Trotz partnership.

According to Henry, Haslam is happy with that partnership. He's an active owner who pays attention to the day-to-day, though no one would confuse him for Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones — i.e., an owner who meddles in the daily affairs of the team.

"(Haslam) believes in how we're approaching it," Henry said. "What we did this summer, what we're doing now, how we're handling it, and how does it project into the future."

Haslam is also not concerned with the team's financial commitments to Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault, and Brady Skjei — three players whose price tags have not led directly to wins.

"Is anyone feeling that we shouldn't have spent that money? Absolutely not. Whatever we need to keep making ourselves better, let's keep doing it," Henry said.

Trotz's attempt to turn the Predators into a short-term contender is complicated. It's something he elaborated on following his "rebuild plan" comments in November, but it required spending most of the team's salary cap while not sacrificing future assets.

Haslam and team ownership fully back those decisions.

"We're not going to throw money out the window, but where you can invest, you invest," Henry said. "With the Stamkos and Marchessault contracts, as these contracts start moving off in the future, the young guys that we're protecting and drafting, they move up the roster. It really does work well."

Draft picks and prospects are expected to be handled delicately, but money will always be there for Trotz to spend.

"(The owners) will never let a bank account get in our way of winning," Henry said. "(Haslam) has carried that torch, probably taking it on even more aggressively. There's going to be bumps and valleys through that."

Predators ownership thinks Andrew Brunette can turn it around, but . . .​

This season's team has descended far beyond valleys, however. After an 0-5 start, it has just seven wins in its first 28 games, including a current seven-game losing streak.

The most glaring issue has been goal scoring — the Predators have the worst offense in the NHL, scoring 2.22 goals per game.

Last season, they finished 10th in scoring with 3.24 goals per game. Because adding Stamkos and Marchessault was supposed to improve the offense, some have pondered coach Andrew Brunette's role in the offensive decline.

Henry said the team ownership still believes Brunette can turn things around this season. It has been a disappointment so far, but there is an understanding that there will be growing pains.

"It's a long season. We have guys that are going to figure this out. The coaching staff, they're all working together," Henry said. "And if it turns into we miss the playoffs and we are 32nd in the league, then you have to look at it and say, what did we do wrong that we can control? What should we have done differently?"

Brunette was hired in May 2023 after the team moved on from John Hynes. In his first season, Brunette led the Predators to a 47-30-5 record and he was a finalist for the Jack Adams Award, given to the league's top coach. But this team's 7-15-6 start could be testing everyone's patience.

BENCH PROBLEMS:Nashville Predators lead NHL in bench minor penalties: Coach Andrew Brunette explains

"We are patiently impatient," Henry said. "You go into every game thinking, is this going to be the spark? Will that spark come? We believe it will come. No one's throwing up the flag saying we're done."

Henry, Haslam, and Trotz meet at least twice a week, but they've been meeting more frequently in the past few weeks. They believe in a "no surprises" management philosophy, with constant communication, especially when times are tough.

From the perspective of Haslam and team ownership, all decisions made by Trotz regarding players or coaching staff will be fully supported.

"From Bill Haslam to Barry Trotz and myself, we are in 100% alignment," Henry said.

Alex Daugherty is the Predators beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Alex at[email protected]. Follow Alex on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @alexdaugherty1. Also check out our Predators exclusive Instagram page @tennessean_preds.

Thanks for posting and yeah that is very frustrating. I do think overall that not having a meddling owner is generally a good thing and it's also good to see that money isn't an issue, but I just don't know how every one in this organization can just stand idly by and watch this disaster. I don't think we're at decade of darkness levels of terrible yet but if everyone in the team is incapable of self reflection than we're definitely headed that way.

 

[JR303]

Jesus.

This is idiocy.

This is now, to me, a lower point than when poile had to sell off everyone when Leopold tried to sell the team.

 

[101st_fan]

According to the Tennessean drivel, Henry says there is agreement between him, Trotz, and Haslam. "Patiently impatient" .... so as of writing the team is sticking with Bruno .... but ... " all decisions made by Trotz regarding players or coaching staff will be fully supported."

He really buries the what Henry claims ownership thinks of Bruno and still never has anything of substance on the topic.

 

[Predation]

We’ll see how patient they are when people stop going to games.

 

[Flgatorguy87]

We’ll see how patient they are when people stop going to games.

I am interested to see how this changes. While attendance has been good lately, I can't help but feel like most of the games I have attended the last couple years have been more social outings and glorified bar hopping spots along the night, as opposed to fans attending the game to cheer on their team. I wonder if the average attender even cares about the results of the night, much less of the season at this point. It's just a place to drink before you go to the next place to drink.

 

[herzausstein]

We’ll see how patient they are when people stop going to games.

Tomorrow should be a litmus test on attendance. Coming off an ugly road trip. Tickets expensive and coming up on Christmas.

 

[Armourboy]

I dunno I'm not as down on the Haslam thing as some are, but mainly for one reason. Part of his agreement while purchasing is that he wouldn't rock the boat but the fact he is involved that much makes me wonder if he will continue to sit back once he has finalized the purchase.

I can't imagine an owner being that involved just sitting back and watching this for long.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

I won't panic too much about that article. I mean, you never really hear anything negative like "we meet everyday, we're really worried, we're actively looking into replacing the coach" etc. They will keep spouting rah-rah BS right up until they don't. And then of course even after they fire Bruno, they won't say anything bad about him, it will all be how great he is, wish him well, needed to look for a change, everybody is still on the same page and believes, etc, etc. I don't think we should expect to EVER hear anything different from the head office, no matter what happens.

If anything, I'm happy there are not even any hints of financial constraints, since firing Bruno will require swallowing several years of his salary, and if the team is a-ok financially with doing that, that's a good sign.

 

[Preds Partisan]

My takeaway is nothing changes for now. Ownership offers lip service to give the appearance of concern, but in reality are more than willing to just write off the season because they trust the plan that Trotz sold them on. No urgency and no one is held responsible for their failures. Great.

I had two real world situations last week in which the plan and the people that put it in place completely failed. We were told basically "oh well, everything failed spectacularly, but we trust the people we put in charge so you have to trust them too. Goodbye, have a nice day".

My neck hurts from all the head shaking I'm doing these days.

 

[darth5]

my take on the article: "The beatings will continue until morale improves"

 

[drwpreds]

So at this point it appears that nothing is going to happen with Brunette- I guess I am naive but I am very surprised that a move has not been make. Very disappointing and flat out depressing.

I do see some Preds fans (and writers) pushing back on Brunette, with the usual comments about the "coach can't execute for them, can't score goals, etc, etc". I don't think everything is his fault, but I am 100% on board with a whole heck of a lot of it being his fault.

What I can't get past is looking around at other teams who are succeeding and even some who are not very good, but still performing way better than the Preds are. And many of these teams absolutely positively do NOT have a better roster than we do. Minnesota and St Louis- two examples- those rosters are really not any better than ours and may be even worse, and look how far ahead of us they are in the standings. And don't even get me started on teams like the Ducks/Sharks/Canadiens/Blue Jackets, etc. The fact that we are significantly behind those teams is completely inexcusable and flat out embarrassing. And THAT I am putting on Brunette.

I guess Trotz isn't going to do anything and if so that is completely depressing. Tomorrow night I am hoping Bridgestone is completely packed and we lose 5-0- whatever it takes to get Trotz to pull the trigger.

 

[Bringer of Jollity]

Trotz thinks he's playing Poile to Brunette's Trotz? That's sweet, but this isn't an expansion team with no expectations and is just happy to be here. Ypu could also almost always see what Trotz was trying to do and knew what kind of identity the team was embodying. We currently have no identity, almost everyone is playing below standards, newly added vets are grumbling. I don't see how this is a salvageable situation barring Trotz starting to rip the roster down a bit (which he made extraordnarily difficult with his "sign a contract, get a free NMC" promotion).

 

[triggrman]

Sean Henry is also part of the problem. In arena experience and customer service has dropped dramatically under his leadership.

 

[Bringer of Jollity]

Sean Henry is also part of the problem. In arena experience and customer service has dropped dramatically under his leadership.

Now that they are getting those sweet, sweet corporate dollars, they don't have to try so hard.

 

[bdub24]

Tomorrow should be a litmus test on attendance. Coming off an ugly road trip. Tickets expensive and coming up on Christmas.

Will it be though? Preds have insulated themselves quite a bit by going after cooperate ticket block sales. So even if the seats are empty, that ticket revenue is already in their pockets. They don’t have to care about fans as much

Now that they are getting those sweet, sweet corporate dollars, they don't have to try so hard.

Pinch poke you owe me a coke

 

[Armourboy]

Will it be though? Preds have insulated themselves quite a bit by going after cooperate ticket block sales. So even if the seats are empty, that ticket revenue is already in their pockets. They don’t have to care about fans as much


Pinch poke you owe me a coke

Doesn't matter who it is going to matter eventually. Companies aren't going to keep throwing good money to take clients to a half empty building and advertisers are going to want a new deal if not want out. That insulation only lasts until fans quit paying attention.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

One thing that continues to surprise me in terms of Trotz's ongoing support of Brunette is... I mean Trotz is extremely experienced at NHL coaching. He's not one of those GMs who might have no firsthand knowledge of coaching strategies and gameplans and all that. You can be a smart NHL GM without knowing much about those things. There are some in the league who don't have any kind of coaching experience at all. Maybe somebody like that should be a little more inclined to "believe" whatever Brunette is selling? But Trotz can see the on-ice product here. He knows exactly what Brunette is selling, what it looks like on the ice, and all possible alternatives.

And yet... he's still behind Brunette? I don't get it.

It ends up feeling like he just takes the position of "give coaches their independence and authority and confidence and don't interfere" as his fundamental belief from his decades of coaching experience, as opposed to applying his strategic knowledge.

 

[Armourboy]

One thing that continues to surprise me in terms of Trotz's ongoing support of Brunette is... I mean Trotz is extremely experienced at NHL coaching. He's not one of those GMs who might have no firsthand knowledge of coaching strategies and gameplans and all that. You can be a smart NHL GM without knowing much about those things. There are some in the league who don't have any kind of coaching experience at all. Maybe somebody like that should be a little more inclined to "believe" whatever Brunette is selling? But Trotz can see the on-ice product here. He knows exactly what Brunette is selling, what it looks like on the ice, and all possible alternatives.

And yet... he's still behind Brunette? I don't get it.

I think he's trying so hard to override his instincts to stay out of things coaching wise that he is letting it override common sense.

 

[darth5]

Bruno has had enough rope for a few shutouts now. Unless this season is now just a total TANK, making no attempt to change shows complete betrayal to the fanbase. Winners win. We are way beyond 'happy to be here' days. Preds in current incarnation are not winners. Sad.

 

[Armourboy]

Brunette focused on fixing Predators, not job security as coach | NHL.com

Nashville 12 points back in playoff race, has scored 2 or fewer goals in each of 7 straight losses

www.nhl.com

 

[Enoch]

I still don't get it. The issues many of us were upset about last year, are still here this year. They are even worse. We have waived more young talent. The star talent we brought in has actually led to a worse team....

What are we looking for here?

By all measures, Bruno is failing:
- Team morale
- Team discipline
- Wins
- Player evaluation
- Getting the most out of your players

We suck

 

[Bringer of Jollity]

Bruno has had enough rope for a few shutouts now. Unless this season is now just a total TANK, making no attempt to change shows complete betrayal to the fanbase. Winners win. We are way beyond 'happy to be here' days. Preds in current incarnation are not winners. Sad.

It is possible Trotz is, in some small way, ok with this. Not looking like a mushy middle team at all this year. Then next year we rebound to what we should have been + a top of the draft talent (who will probably bust, and we lost 3 talented young players along the way, but I digress).

 

[PredsV82]