Chip Alexander: Rutherford expected to give up GM duties at end of the season

[caniac315]

That website, I forget the name of it, but the one that lists the percentage of chance your team has on any particular day of going to the playoffs, has the Canes at 1.2% chance. What a season. Another one dashed after such high hopes.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

That website, I forget the name of it, but the one that lists the percentage of chance your team has on any particular day of going to the playoffs, has the Canes at 1.2% chance. What a season. Another one dashed after such high hopes.

SportsClubStats. 1.2% is right around where we've been for the last two weeks or so.

 

[dogbazinho]

Great news!

 

[Stickpucker]

Like I said, it's margin of error. Now, we have some top end talent, but then 2 goalies get hurt. We pick up some good depth, and then Tlusty/Staal/Semin all limp into the season with injuries and don't produce.

Williams/Ladd/Ruutu/Skinner/Cole/Pitkanen/Brindy have wreaked havoc on the depth chart with frequent injuries over the years. Williams/Ladd/Cole's good durability since leaving makes that sting even more.

There are mistakes and shortcomings. But I don't know if those are worse than the craptastic luck we've seen at the same time. Losing two goalies concurrently twice in two years is absurd, right?

Our medical staff/conditioning could be subpar also.

 

[Finnish Jerk Train]

My fear is that Francis will join them in the ranks of "good player, subpar GM," especially if he's as blatantly disinterested in it as he was coaching.

IIRC, when Francis retired from playing, he said he wasn't interested in coaching and only went behind the bench to do the organization a favor during the second Paul Maurice administration. Even then, he always had one foot in the front office. I don't think he'd be given the GM's chair if he didn't want it.

I'd have to agree with everyone else on Yzerman's body of work in Tampa. It's hard for me to find something to criticize there.

At any rate, I believe Ronnie's got the right stuff to be a GM, my only concern is whether old blood is the right thing for the organization. Guess we'll see.

 

[WWAD]

We can't afford them because we have so many former players taking up salary in made up positions. Director of Defense, Director of Forwards, Youth and Amateur coordinator, Vice President of Hockey Operations, Assistant Coach, etc...

Director of Defense is a very important position. He takes the specifications from the directors, and brings them to the defensemen. Well......not physically...actually his secretary does that, but......well sometimes he does.......you see, directors aren't good at dealing with defensemen.....what....what's that you say?.....what does he actually do here? I TOLD YOU!!! HE DEALS WITH THE ******* DEFENSEMEN SO THE DIRECTORS DON'T HAVE TO!!! HE HAS PEOPLE SKILLS!!!!

 

[HisIceness]

I don't know who I want to take over as long as it's someone who can bring success and sustain it long-term. If that person happens to be Francis, that's fine.

Last thing this team needs is someone like those goofballs who ran Tampa 5 years ago.

Director of Defense is a very important position. He takes the specifications from the directors, and brings them to the defensemen. Well......not physically...actually his secretary does that, but......well sometimes he does.......you see, directors aren't good at dealing with defensemen.....what....what's that you say?.....what does he actually do here? I TOLD YOU!!! HE DEALS WITH THE ******* DEFENSEMEN SO THE DIRECTORS DON'T HAVE TO!!! HE HAS PEOPLE SKILLS!!!!

 

[DougieSmash]

New culture. That's it. No Francis. Look outside of the organisation. Ward, for sure, is about to be traded. There's no way he stay here over Eric/ Jordan. Skinner for the right deal - if he brings future #1 dman, he's pretty much gone. Do not want anything from Toronto just because there's no way they trade JVR or Kessel.

 

[Stickpucker]

Director of Defense is a very important position. He takes the specifications from the directors, and brings them to the defensemen. Well......not physically...actually his secretary does that, but......well sometimes he does.......you see, directors aren't good at dealing with defensemen.....what....what's that you say?.....what does he actually do here? I TOLD YOU!!! HE DEALS WITH THE ******* DEFENSEMEN SO THE DIRECTORS DON'T HAVE TO!!! HE HAS PEOPLE SKILLS!!!!

Have you tried turning it off and back on again?

 

[FlyingSquirrels]

Maybe I'm in the minority here but....I think there is a huge chance Ron trades Eric Staal. Does anyone here really believe Ron looks at Eric and marvels at what a great leader he is and therefore sees him as untradeable? No way man. If anything Ron knows what a terrible leader he is and desires to rid the franchise of him, that's my hunch.

Surely he knows it is time for a major overhaul, unless he's been totally checked out these last few years. Gut the franchise top-to-bottom. Get new leadership and make some serious changes in Charlotte too. What we have been doing just ain't workin'.

 

[Ole Gil]

Maybe I'm in the minority here but....I think there is a huge chance Ron trades Eric Staal. Does anyone here really believe Ron looks at Eric and marvels at what a great leader he is and therefore sees him as untradeable? No way man. If anything Ron knows what a terrible leader he is and desires to rid the franchise of him, that's my hunch.

Surely he knows it is time for a major overhaul, unless he's been totally checked out these last few years. Gut the franchise top-to-bottom. Get new leadership and make some serious changes in Charlotte too. What we have been doing just ain't workin'.

Even if they wanted to deal him, Eric has to waive a NTC. He seems to like the area, his brothers live here, and he's got a couple small kids. It's not exactly a recipe for "Sure, I'd love to go to Winnipeg."

 

[Sens1Canes2]

Winnipeg is the closest "big" city to Thunder Bay!

 

[DaveG]

I don't know enough about Daniels and the AHL to say if they are doing a good, average or horrible job, but how can you reconcile that we didn't get anything worthwhile out of these drafts but then put the failure to develop onto Charlotte? I mean if you have ****** ingredients, even the best chef is going to cook a ****** meal. For the most part, any prospect that has shown promise goes almost straight to the NHL (Sutter, Skinner, Lindholm, Murphy, Staal, Ladd (lockout AHL), etc..

Other than Boychuk and maybe Dalpe (who has had more than his fair share of chances), what really top picks / top talent have had a chance to develop in the AHL for the Canes? Again, I don't know enough about what they do down there to assess it, but it's not like they've been getting a lot of 1st/2nd round picks to ripen down there and we all know with the lack of scouting, that the Canes don't have a lot of success beyond the 2nd round.

I don't think it's a case of only having to revamp one or the other, both could use some serious fixing. But that said, I honestly don't see a way for us to do any better long term without addressing the AHL situation. We can always add a scout or two with some savings by cutting salary, and hopefully Ronnie's not like JR tossing out random mid-round picks just to make people go away. I'd be interested to see but if we're not the worst in the league in number of draft picks over the last 10 years we have to be damn close to it. But that said, yes, I honestly think we're being dis-serviced by what's going on in Charlotte right now. Guys like Boychuk and Dalpe may not have been the B+ prospects we thought they were, but it honestly seems like their skillsets weren't further developed in the AHL under Daniels essentially turning them into busts.

To be frank I honestly think it goes both ways with our prospects. Yes, we've had guys like Sutter, Skinner, Murphy, Faulk, etc. who were able to jump right from the NCAA or Juniors to the pros while Daniels has been the HC in Albany/Charlotte, it's the matter that we haven't had anyone outside of Dwyer, Bellemore, and Nash (and I was arguing that Nash was NHL ready when we signed him) come out of the AHL that's been legit in the 6 or so years he's been coach there. The fact that if they're not NHL ready from the get go they probably won't make it tells me that we have a major issue there.

 

[VAcaniac]

Did the Berlin Wall just fall?

 

[VAcaniac]

On the third day of Christmas, we burned three effigies of Jim Rutherford.

 

[AhoLottaLove]

Maybe I'm in the minority here but....I think there is a huge chance Ron trades Eric Staal. Does anyone here really believe Ron looks at Eric and marvels at what a great leader he is and therefore sees him as untradeable? No way man. If anything Ron knows what a terrible leader he is and desires to rid the franchise of him, that's my hunch.

Surely he knows it is time for a major overhaul, unless he's been totally checked out these last few years. Gut the franchise top-to-bottom. Get new leadership and make some serious changes in Charlotte too. What we have been doing just ain't workin'.

If Ron is the type of person that is able to not allow his personal opinions and relationships to affect his judgment of a player then he may very well trade Eric. But Ron did play with him, mentored him, and probably has been to his home and developed a personal relationship with him.

There is this whole dynamic that maybe gets overlooked. That is, that these guys know each other on a personal level and often have great relationships. That has to cloud a GM's judgment of a player. That's why I sometimes wonder if some of the better posters on here (those who catch every second of every game) might be better judges of what the team needs than an emotionally compromised GM.

That's why it may be better to go outside the organization IMO. At least the guy coming in wouldn't have to battle his biases to form an opinion on a player.

 

[Cardiac Jerks]

If Ron is the type of person that is able to not allow his personal opinions and relationships to affect his judgment of a player then he may very well trade Eric. But Ron did play with him, mentored him, and probably has been to his home and developed a personal relationship with him.

There is this whole dynamic that maybe gets overlooked. That is, that these guys know each other on a personal level and often have great relationships. That has to cloud a GM's judgment of a player. That's why I sometimes wonder if some of the better posters on here (those who catch every second of every game) might be better judges of what the team needs than an emotionally compromised GM.

That's why it may be better to go outside the organization IMO. At least the guy coming in wouldn't have to battle his biases to form an opinion on a player.

Very good points. Wonder if he simply strips him of the C? Tough to even do that as you're still friends with the guy and have a longstanding relationship with him. Perhaps Eric would be happy to be relieved of the pressue. So many possibilities.

I think I'd be happiest seeing a new face from outside the organisation brought in as they won't care about hurting anyone's feelings, they'll just get the job done. It won't happen, though. It'll be Francis for sure.

Whatever happens, I just hope it's big. Even if it means we're terrible next year, I'm tired of watching this piss poor effort and country club atmosphere while we continuously miss the playoffs.

 

[rocky7]

there are several issues and I'm glad to hear this but 'the old boy club/culture' rarely works out well so I doubt much will change. I doubt that Rutherford will keep his nose out of things behind the scenes as well but at least it is a step of sorts and change is needed.

if Francis does become GM it will be interesting to see the type of player he gravitates toward (style of team play as well) being that he was more of a cerebral/play making player. was it him that was pushing for Lindholm?

and in regards to him trading E. Staal, I haven't heard anyone bring up entertaining the idea of Staal himself wanting a change of scenery. I'm not really sure why he would considering he has a such great thing going here but still, you never know. if he did want out I'm sure Francis would accommodate him easily enough.

 

[CioCio]

 

[A Star is Burns]

I'm glad that this change is coming. Even if it is Francis, I'm more than willing to give him a chance. Just because of the type of player he was and the fact that he learned under Rutherford doesn't mean necessarily he will be any particular style of GM. We just won't know until he's in charge of every decision. Even basing his potential success (good or bad) on the few moves that we know he had input on isn't a good enough way to judge him as we don't know what his vision would have been if he had been in charge of all the other moves around those players.

And I have no idea what type of personal relationships he may or may not have with players. Everything we've seen or heard in the public may have nothing to do with how things really are. Just because he was a classy enough player to put the young future franchise player under his wing doesn't necessarily mean they are BFFs.

That being said, I'd like to see a move early in his tenure (provided he's the choice) that shows he can make a tough decision like trading a player that we may think he has a relationship with or letting go of a coach or front office person that he may have played with or worked with for several years now.

 

[raynman]

My concern after all this speculation is that PK wants to shed salary. I can get on board with jettisoning Ward's contract and could probably deal with trading Skinner for a legit d-man. Anything more than that seems like it'd be taking a step backwards. I mean there is a foundation to build from unlike Florida/Buffalo/Calgary. Unless of course Francis wants to start from scratch and build "his" team to compete for a Cup.

 

[TheBigKahuna]

A step in SOME direction, but is it a step in the RIGHT direction? Will JR really step down? OR is this simply a ploy to sell tickets, which are struggling? Will JR still pull Francis' strings from behind the curtain?

I'd prefer to see an outsider hired, who has ZERO ties to the Carolina Country Club.

 

[RodTheBawd]

Why are people continuing to bring up the idea of trading Skinner for a top D-man? Do you all really think our issue is still defense?

 

[Highest Boss]

I think I'd be happiest seeing a new face from outside the organisation brought in as they won't care about hurting anyone's feelings, they'll just get the job done.

See Gettleman, Dave

 

[What the Faulk]

Why are people continuing to bring up the idea of trading Skinner for a top D-man? Do you all really think our issue is still defense?

I think people wouldn't say that if they didn't think that wasn't the problem. So yes.