Archive for the ‘NHL Business’ Category
For those of you who took in the Pittsburgh vs. Philadelphia game on CBC last night, you may have seen an interview of Bobby Clarke during the intermission.
I, for one, found this interview rather fascinating. Although I was not totally surprised by Clarke’s candor, I was surprised at some of his answers - particularly with regard to the Toronto General Manager’s job.
Clarke on Game One
“We (Philadelphia) always start a series a little ragged and I think Pittsburgh is ragged too…this is not the type of hockey that will be played throughout this series”
Clarke on Containing Malkin
“You have to get him along the boards and keep him there…if you run at him, you’re going to pay the price”
Clarke on Containing Crosby
“The same thing (as Malkin), he is a guy with a lot of skill that can burn you”
“He seems to like the battles along the boards, he keeps his feet moving”
“He’s a tank, you’re not going to knock him on his rear end”
Clarke on Coaching in The NHL
“You need a different coach in Montreal than you do in Toronto…In Toronto you better be a guy with experience. Montreal is so technically skilled, Carbonneau does a good job”.
“Same thing in Philly, you better be tough because that’s what the people expect”
Clarke on The Maple Leafs General Management Position
“I’d have to talk with Holmgren (et.al), but I’d talk to them”
“I don’t know…you’ve got Cliff Fletcher right there, why not look at Hextall or Nieuwendyk…the young guys who are going to be great General Managers in this league”?
Hextall certainly fits the bill as the tough, no-nonsense, personality required to withstand the scrutiny of the Toronto media spotlight. He is currently serving as the General Manager of the Los Angeles Kings AHL affiliate, Manchester Monarchs, so he does have some experience at the professional level.
Your Take
What do you think?
Is Ron Hextall the upstart General manager that the Maple Leafs need to turn their franchise around?
Or, Do the Leafs need someone with more experience?
Jaci of WickedBruins Fan Submits:
When being a Bruins fan, one has to expect and accept changes that take place throughout the season and off-season. We have to roll with the punches. In past seasons, the player turnover was equivalent to New England’s ever-changing weather; it would change anytime the wind switched directions and a fan wouldn’t know what to expect in the outcome.
This past season was different.
Only two trades happened during the season. One was when the Bruins sending a forward over for a defenseman that had a rough start but turned into one of the many bright spots of the season.
Those two trades were acquiring Alex Auld for Nate DiCasmirro and acquiring Shane Hnidy for Brandon Bochenski.
The Bruins finished the season with much of the same personnel that started the season, which were:
Goalies: Manny Fernandez, Tim Thomas. Defensemen: Bobby Allen, Andrew Alberts, Zdeno Chara, Andrew Ference, Mark Stuart, Aaron Ward, Dennis Wideman. Forwards: P.J. Axelsson, Patrice Bergeron, Brandon Bochenski, Phil Kessel, Chuck Kobasew, David Krejci, Milan Lucic, Glen Metropolit, Glen Murray, Jeremy Reich, Marc Savard, Peter Schaefer, Marco Sturm, and Shawn Thornton.
The team that finished out the season was (new names bolded):
Goalies: Alex Auld, Manny Fernandez, Tim Thomas. Defensemen: Bobby Allen, Andrew Alberts, Zdeno Chara, Andrew Ference, Shane Hnidy, Mark Stuart, Aaron Ward, Dennis Wideman. Forwards: P.J. Axelsson, Patrice Bergeron, Phil Kessel, Chuck Kobasew, David Krejci, Milan Lucic, Glen Metropolit, Glen Murray, Petteri Nokelainen, Jeremy Reich, Marc Savard, Peter Schaefer, Vladimir Sobotka, Marco Sturm, and Shawn Thornton.
Any Bruins fan should give props to the players who were here all season and got us to where we wanted to see them, the playoffs. As we all know, some of these players might not be wearing the spoked-B come this October, but this was a great team to watch on the ice this season.
General manager Peter Chiarelli certainly built Boston a strong and hard-working hockey team, and hopefully it will only get stronger in 2008-2009.
Bubba From Canes Country Submits:
In a recent report written by beat writer Luke DeCock, the at times “absentee” owner of the Carolina Hurricanes, Mr. Peter Karmanos has promised to be more active in the running of his NHL franchise this coming year. Karmanos is reportedly taking a lesser role at Compuware, his number one business interest and will have more time to devote to managing the Canes.
“I plan to come in and actually help work on both those areas myself two or three days a week starting in July,’‘ Karmanos said this week in a telephone interview from his Detroit office. ( he was referring to sales and advertising).
Also from the report….
The Hurricanes could lose as much as $10 million this season because of the absence of playoff revenue, a larger-than-budgeted payroll, reduced NHL revenue-sharing payments and decreased attendance.
As the NHL’s salary cap increases - from $50.3 million this season to an expected $56.3 million in 2008-09 - the Hurricanes need to bring in more money to keep pace.
Beset by injuries last season, they ended up spending about $49 million on salaries - 11th among the NHL’s 30 teams and at least $5 million more than expected.
“We need to put more people in the building,” Karmanos said. ”We need to do a better job of selling advertising. It’s not so much a cap that we put on (general manager) Jimmy (Rutherford). Its the cap we put on ourselves. We’re just not maximizing our revenue streams.”
Because of his Compuware commitments, Karmanos has been somewhat removed from the day-to-day operations of the Hurricanes during their decade in North Carolina. He has often voiced his preference to become more involved and now thinks he has that chance.
It comes at a critical time for the franchise. Because of the fall-off in revenue from the post-Stanley Cup honeymoon season in 2006-07 to last season, the Hurricanes lost a quarter of their NHL revenue-sharing money when they failed to meet the league’s growth benchmarks.
”We quite frankly need to sell more tickets regardless of the CBA or not. I want our building full because I think it adds to the atmosphere and it’s great entertainment. We’re going to work really hard on trying to increase our revenue.”
I agree with Karmanos on all fronts. It must sting like the dickens to be the owner of a team who just barely missed the playoffs, and the millions that would have come with it. But not only does he take that hit, he loses out on 25% of the revenue sharing money because attendance dropped off? Either Jim Rutherford or someone else dropped the ball on this one.
Don’t they realize that all they had to do was to offer some type of package deal like the old Harris Teeter 4 packs, and they probably would have met their goals? Even if they had to discount their tickets, they still would have made up for the loss by taking in the extra revenue sharing. That quite frankly, is not very smart business. No wonder the owner wants to get more involved.
If this blogger could offer some humble suggestions….
- Start your own blog Mr. Karmanos, and submit articles daily. Let your fans know what you are thinking about regarding the team, regarding advertising, and regarding the fanbase, or anything else that comes to mind. Ask for and respond to feedback. This would generate interest as well as let the fans know that you care about what they think.
- Enlist the aide of your blogging empire. There are already a couple of teams in the NHL who recognize the value of having well-informed, popular bloggers spreading the word about the team. You could be number 3, or you could even take it to another level.
- Bring back the old “family packs” and other popular ticket specials. So what if you give away a couple of free hotdogs, you will make that money back 100-fold because of the lost revenue sharing.
- Get the faces of the team out in the public more often. They are your best advertisement.
I’m sure that other folk have more ideas of their own, and probably better ones. What do you think, does anyone have anything to share?
Personally, I think it’s great that the owner of the franchise cares enough to get more involved. I have wondered myself if the Hurricanes could ever get to the point when they would sell out every home game and what that might be like. Shouldn’t that be the goal? With hard work and creativity, it could be done.
Montreal Celebrates By Burning Police Cars?
After the Canadiens pounded the Bruins 5-0 on Monday night to claim victory in Game 7 of thier first round match-up, Habs’ fans took to the streets of Montreal with their celebration.
Montreal police say they will review and adjust their game-night strategy after a riot left the downtown strip littered with torched cruisers and broken windows following the Canadiens’ playoff win Monday night.
I can’t believe Montreal fans were this excited after barely beating a Boston team that the Canadiens should have swept in four games. I wonder what kind of mass destruction will occur if they manage to win the cup? I imagine it is comforting for Montreal Police to know that, if the Canadiens continue to play the way they did against Boston, more celebrations in the streets are highly unlikely.
Caps and Flyers Set For Game 7
On Frozen Blog has some very enlightening coverage on the Washington Capitals playoff run. Please take a moment to check out this most recent piece.
If you think this Flyers’ team is busing down I-95 in perfunctory fashion to play the patsy to our party, you’re in for a rude awakening around 7:15 Tuesday evening. On this blog over the weekend we talked about a reversal of pressure, from an advantage for Philly toward one for the Caps. It reversed itself again around 9:30 Monday night. For the past three games the Caps have been the hunters. Beginning tonight, they’re the hunted. And Alexander Semin’s wrists and Alexander Ovechkin’s new-found confidence, I’m loathe to report, don’t mean a heck of a lot in the matter.
Another “Legion of Doomer” Calls It Quits
One-time NHL forward Mikael Renberg, best known for being part of the Philadephia Flyers’ Legion of Doom line in the mid-1990s, retired from competitive hockey on Tuesday.
Renberg has been toiling in the Swedish Elite league, but has been hampered by a nagging groin injury. Renberg has had his groin surgically repaired three times and has told a local Swedish newspaper that he won’t be attempting another comeback at his age.
Trotz et. al Back In Nashville
Nashville Predators coach Barry Trotz and his staff received contract extensions after an unexpected fourth straight trip to the playoffs. The extension finds Trotz in the unexpected position of the second longest tenured coach in the National Hockey league behind Buffalo’s Lindy Ruff.
Even though Nashville has not won a playoff series, or even a road playoff game for that matter, Trotz has guided his Predators to the post season in each of the last 4 campaigns.
Osgood Gets Rewarded…Finally
After a season compiling numbers that most NHL starting goaltenders would adore, Chris Osgood found himself on the bench behind the aging Dominik Hasek as the Red Wings ventured into the playoffs.
Osgood has done everything short of taking a bullet for the franchise and I’m sure not the only one who wondered when his time would come. Well, it appears that he is finally getting his chance to shine in the second round of the playoffs.
“Ozzie’s obviously got the net right now and it’s his job to make sure Dom doesn’t get it back,” Detroit coach Mike Babcock said Sunday night after eliminating the Predators in Game 6 of their first-round series. “But Dom’s going to do everything he can to be ready.”
It’s about time Babcock.
During this season, like none in recent memory, the league has exhibited a great amount of parity. Whether by luck or by design, it has been exciting for fans down the home stretch of the regular season and into the playoffs.
In light of the new salary cap rules, general managers have been locking up their young stars to contracts that boggle the mind of the most seasoned sports fans. In just the past year, we have seen contract terms of 12-15 years in places like Washington, Philadelphia, and New York (Islanders).
While contract terms like this may seem risky, it makes sense that the General Manager would want to solidify his “core” group of young stars to build a franchise around. This strategy helps to prevent outlandish offer sheets (Kevin Lowe) being thrown at younger free agents, raising the price of “labor” for all teams.
What About The Rest of The Team?
If so much effort and money is spent on securing a core group to build a franchise around, how does a team fill out the rest of its roster without breaking the bank?
This job is left to the true unheralded heroes of the National Hockey League. The ones whose names mean nothing to the average fan and whose faces you wouldn’t recognize from television. The scouts!
Kevin Allen of USA TODAY reports,
With all due respect to Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin, the true real MVPs in the NHL these days are guys like Tim Burke in San Jose, or Jim Nill in Detroit or David Conte in New Jersey and others who shepherd scouting staffs on premium teams.
When the salary cap was introduced, the league was supposed to be about younger free agents moving from team to team.
Instead, it’s probably more about scouting and drafting than it has ever been.
I think that Kevin is correct to a certain extent.
The league will always be dominated by the superstar players and fans will always flock to see them play, but the successful teams that win championships and go deep into the playoffs on a regular basis will do so because of scouting success.
Keeping the Pipeline Full
Now, I am not proclaiming that great scouting is something new. It has always lead to success - see Detroit. However, in a market where a core group of players can use a large percentage of the salary cap, the job of scouting becomes a whole lot more important.
As time progresses and the General Managers get used to the salary cap system, it will be interesting to see the different strategies that they utilize to leverage their scouting system and develop young players.
Which team has the deepest pipeline of young prospects?
How effective are the individual minor league programs in developing young talent?
These are questions that fans must start asking themselves about their team.
It’s not just about the superstars anymore!
The battle for the Kraft Hockeyville 2008 title was not even close.
This year, the Hockeyville title goes to Village sur Glace de Roberval, Quebec!
Each community displayed exceptional spirit, originality and passion for hockey but only one managed to develop an automated voting program to win the title! (Just kidding).
However, it almost looks as if there was a voting program, automated or not, developed by supporters of the wining town of Village sur Glace de Roberval. The margin of victory was absolutely astronomical.
With nearly double the number of votes from the nearest competitor, one must wonder what strategy the people of Village sur Glace de Roberval used to secure such a vast amount of votes? I’m afraid it’s one of those secrets they may be unlikely to share.
As voted by the Canadian public, Village sur Glace de Roberval is Canada’s greates hockey community. The Village has won the prestige that comes with the title of Kraft Hockeyville 2008 and also receive the following prizes:
- $100,000 from Kraft to upgrade their home arena
- An NHL® pre-season game hosted in the arena*
- A CBC Hockey Night in Canada broadcast special from their community
The other four finalists receive $20,000 from Kraft to upgrade their home arenas and have already received a CBC Hockey Night in Canada broadcast from their community.
For What It is Worth
For what it is worth, the CBC crew that completed each of the Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts told the people of Wilcox, Saskatchewan that they deserved to win. I’m not certain if they said that to every community, but a first hand interview with a resident of Wilcox revealed that fact this morning.
Who did you vote for for Hockeyville? Let me know in the comments.