Brian MacLellan's tenure as GM of the Washington Capitals (UPD: rumor agreed to multi-year extens)

[RandyHolt]

It would be easiest to grade him if we knew for certain what Dick Patrick's role is in day to day GM duties. I just cannot shake the notion that he is a very hands on President and behind some of the problems we typically pin on a GM.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

It would be easiest to grade him if we knew for certain what Dick Patrick's role is in day to day GM duties. I just cannot shake the notion that he is a very hands on President and behind some of the problems we typically pin on a GM.

Totally agree. I’ve had one conversation with Patrick in my life and that definitely left me with the impression that he was heavily in on any significant team decisions. I think GMBM is the day to day operational guy and Patrick is the guy with a seat at the table influencing Ownership.

 

[Hivemind]

GMs almost always have more job security than coaches, and GMBM hasn't done anything so egregious to demand instant firing yet. So it's no real surprise he'll be around for a few more years.
That being said, I would still like to see some meaningful improvement on some of the areas the franchise has struggled with for a while.

 

[BiPolar Caps]

If this pisses off George McPhee even more, then I'm all for the extension.

 

[KWPower]

I'm not overly pleased about the re-signing because I believe a change in the overall management spectrum is needed and an outside view on the situation would be best for the team. However, he has earned the extension by making moves with the goal of improving the team and its odds at a cup outside the offseason and this tdl. It may be a recency bias that makes me feel this way, and I hope he can improve off the performance he had during his first contract.

 

[Roughing]

GMBM is doing well. His ownership sucks and his coach sucks. He's put together rosters good enough to win a cup. I'm good with him sticking around.

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

If this pisses off George McPhee even more, then I'm all for the extension.

Why would he care now?

 

[Bananas]

GMBM is doing well. His ownership sucks and his coach sucks. He's put together rosters good enough to win a cup. I'm good with him sticking around.

I don’t think you can say he “put together” those Cup level rosters since the main contributors were mostly McPhee guys.

 

[OVrocks]

I think he's done a solid job, he built a roster good enough to win the cup. At the end of the day that's all that a GM is asked to do, can't blame him for us suddenly being unable to score in the playoffs, that falls on players and/or coach. Although at this point, it's more likely the players since we had the same problem with BB, Hunter and now Trtotz.

 

[artilector]

Meh. He can sign decent UFAs and hasn't made any utterly stupid trades; that's an improvement over McPhee, but that's about it. I don't see any real evidence that he's better in any other respect... the Oshie deal was nice, but might get canceled out by the Oshie extension, etc.

He did a very decent job maximizing the 2-year peak window.
This summer he faced tough decisions.. and was unable to avoid nearly the worst-case scenario.

I think he'll be a bit better than McPhee. I also doubt it will be enough in the foreseeable future, unless... miracles.

 

[Hivemind]

I think he's done a solid job, he built a roster good enough to win the cup. At the end of the day that's all that a GM is asked to do, can't blame him for us suddenly being unable to score in the playoffs, that falls on players and/or coach. Although at this point, it's more likely the players since we had the same problem with BB, Hunter and now Trtotz.

GMs in most franchises have more say than just roster decisions, and should be graded on some bigger picture stuff as well. Coaching hires (including assistant and developmental coaches), scouting success (both pro and amateur), farm team/developmental success (via the AGM), financial management, and ultimately team culture fall under the GM umbrella as well. This is the type of stuff we haven't seen any improvement with under GMBM, and we've even seen regression in some areas. Granted, some in this thread have raised the belief that Dick Patrick/Ted Leonsis may interfere with some of this bigger picture stuff, which could be handcuffing any GM we have in that position. So to an extent you have to grade the whole front office together.

 

[RandyHolt]

A big part of his tenure thus far could be graded by looking at Orpik. The Capitals have internally analyzed how blue lines benefit from some variety in playing style of the D. I could argue the benefits of interchangeable parts; all LD be puck movers for example.

He has said he would sign him again if he could go back in time. He admits the extra year was not optimal, but what he brings to the table is worth it. Leadership. Mentoring. Eating pucks. Turns out he is the poster child for the old school thinking, lowest corsi blah blah meanwhile the game has evolved to up and down transition speed shoot and skating.

It's at the root of GMing, these kinds of decisions. Orpik may have to win a cup here to validate BMac's last extension.

 

[Skrudland2Lomakin]

A big part of his tenure thus far could be graded by looking at Orpik. The Capitals have internally analyzed how blue lines benefit from some variety in playing style of the D. I could argue the benefits of interchangeable parts; all LD be puck movers for example.

He has said he would sign him again if he could go back in time. He admits the extra year was not optimal, but what he brings to the table is worth it. Leadership. Mentoring. Eating pucks. Turns out he is the poster child for the old school thinking, lowest corsi blah blah meanwhile the game has evolved to up and down transition speed shoot and skating.

It's at the root of GMing, these kinds of decisions. Orpik may have to win a cup here to validate BMac's last extension.

I don't disagree that this is an antiquated way of thinking, that being said I have yet to see the "Moneyball" analysis yield a championship in hockey so I'm not ready to put all my eggs in that basket either.

If you look at the Kings, Hawks, and Pens the common denominator was a clear identity in their hockey that they executed to the highest level. Whether it was speed, or heavy, or defensively minded, they all looked different but they knew what they were and leaned into it.

So I'll give GMBM some credit, he seems to understand that building around an identity is the key to success.

 

[Hivemind]

What team identity is GMBM pursuing, exactly?

 

[Skrudland2Lomakin]

What team identity is GMBM pursuing, exactly?

Didn't say he was successful at creating one, just that he seems to recognize it is an integral part of a championship team. Orpik clearly fits into some sense of what he wants this hockey team to look like. I mean this maybe polishing a turd, but at some point you have to acknowledge his steadfast commitment to Orpik certainly is indicative of him having some sense of a vision.

I'm not saying Orpik or GMBM's strategy of him is great, I'm just acknowledging that sabremetrics aren't necessarily the key and GMBM seems to have a sense of what winning teams do right, he might be terrible at executing on it but that's something else. In a weird sense his commitment to decisions he's made that have not panned out (re: Shattenkirk trade, Orpik signing, etc.) makes me feel better because it's clear he wasn't flying by the seat of his pants and for whatever vision he had at that time those guys fit it.

 

[Roughing]

I don’t think you can say he “put together” those Cup level rosters since the main contributors were mostly McPhee guys.

Which GMBM had a hand in. Beyond that, he finished what GMGM started by assembling (IMO) the best Caps roster of all time last season. It just choked again because Patrick loves his loser coach.

 

[Hivemind]

Didn't say he was successful at creating one, just that he seems to recognize it is an integral part of a championship team. Orpik clearly fits into some sense of what he wants this hockey team to look like. I mean this maybe polishing a turd, but at some point you have to acknowledge his steadfast commitment to Orpik certainly is indicative of him having some sense of a vision.

I'm not saying Orpik or GMBM's strategy of him is great, I'm just acknowledging that sabremetrics aren't necessarily the key and GMBM seems to have a sense of what winning teams do right, he might be terrible at executing on it but that's something else. In a weird sense his commitment to decisions he's made that have not panned out (re: Shattenkirk trade, Orpik signing, etc.) makes me feel better because it's clear he wasn't flying by the seat of his pants and for whatever vision he had at that time those guys fit it.

I don't think that shows vision at all. Perhaps with his first year roster, where Orpik and Trotz both fit the "heavy" mantra they preached. But since then it has been all over the place. They went skill the next year with Oshie and Williams. Then they spent a whole bunch of lip service about speed, but didn't really do much to address it (Eller was definitely a tempo upgrade over Richards/Beagle, but not particularly fast). Then they exposed Schmidt and traded Johansson, actively making the team speed worse on both ends of the ice. Now the pendulum has swung back, where their deadline acquisitions were all related to puck moving D.

So what's the vision of the team? How do any of the moves since Orpik relate to a vision where Orpik's style is valued? Every move since the Orpik/Niskanen off-season has been trending away from a heavy hockey team. I don't see any concrete vision of what they want the team to play like. Hell, your own statement regarding "sabremetrics" also flies in the face of both trades they made this season, where they went after players who were favorites of the analytics community.

 

[Skrudland2Lomakin]

I don't think that shows vision at all. Perhaps with his first year roster, where Orpik and Trotz both fit the "heavy" mantra they preached. But since then it has been all over the place. They went skill the next year with Oshie and Williams. Then they spent a whole bunch of lip service about speed, but didn't really do much to address it (Eller was definitely a tempo upgrade over Richards/Beagle, but not particularly fast). Then they exposed Schmidt and traded Johansson, actively making the team speed worse on both ends of the ice. Now the pendulum has swung back, where their deadline acquisitions were all related to puck moving D.

So what's the vision of the team? How do any of the moves since Orpik relate to a vision where Orpik's style is valued? Every move since the Orpik/Niskanen off-season has been trending away from a heavy hockey team. I don't see any concrete vision of what they want the team to play like. Hell, your own statement regarding "sabremetrics" also flies in the face of both trades they made this season, where they went after players who were favorites of the analytics community.

I don't pretend to know what his vision is, nor do I endorse it and think it's working. I think his commitment to Orpik though at the very least supports the idea that he had one, where it stands now? Shit if I know. You could look at his clutching to Orpik as his refusal to admit that the train left the station, I still think it supports the idea that he recognizes an identity is a core component to a team being successful.

I also think Kempny and Jerabek while being analytical darlings just scratched the obvious itch of puck moving d, something that GMBM has probably been kicking himself for losing since July.

In the end, vision or no vision, I guess it doesn't really matter. The proof is in the pudding, GMBM could roll out Wilson's 14 Points but he hasn't delivered on anything more than any other GM we've had so I guess splitting hairs is sort of a fruitless endeavor.

 

[Hivemind]

To an extent, I have frustration that GMBM seems to be regressing back towards the "patch the weakness" mentality that McPhee displayed as he tried to convert this team from an up-and-comer into a legitimate cup contender. MacLellan's early moves (Niskanen, Orpik, Oshie) were very splashy attempts at correcting the flaws in the roster. As time as progressed since then, his early lack of consideration for future resource availability has painted him into a corner, and now he's increasingly trying to save the ship from sinking by bailing water out with a bucket. Kempny and Jerabek are buy-low moves trying to patch significant roster deficiencies with duct tape.

While fixing flaws in the roster is obviously important, I'd prefer if he did so via some more coherent vision of how he wants the team to play. Perhaps it's hindsight, but even the splashy moves earlier in his tenure now seem to be a bit like knee-jerk fixes to grab players at a position of need, rather than a composed vision of the style he wants the team to play.

It just seems like some of McPhee's worst traits at roster construction are also present in MacLellan. GMBM definitely has a very different view of asset management, handling trades, and aggression in free agency. But in terms of actually fielding a roster, I see similarities in terms of targeting the positions/styles they felt short on last year, regardless of the long-term vision of the style they want to play. Oftentimes, playing to your roster's strengths is more beneficial than trying to fix all the flaws.

 

[Ridley Simon]

As I have stated elsewhere....this summer will be a very telling one for the Caps, and for GMBM. The chaos that was last summer is in the rearview mirror, and he'd had a chance to learn from it and to use that to his advantage. The team was relatively "baked in" this year due to the salary cap constraints, so we didnt get a chance to see much wheeling and dealing.

We can now. The cap is rising, we have some players leaving that we dont need (Beagle), we only have one major UFA, and we dont have an expansion draft...and all the uncertainty is holds. We have a pick in each of the first 4 rounds (5?), so we have a relatively full compliment of resources.

We kept all of our youth, so we can also determine who to keep, and who to deal. The draft is a week before FA period, so GMBM has a chance to move some players out to get some NHL ready players now (including Orpik), and can then also resign Carlson.

We can also see a new coach. So....lots going on. This is a chance for him to put his stamp on this team (again), and do it from a position of strength/certainty, versus not. Those circumstances have been where he's shined...shined in the sense of having a plan and executing it (D's the first off-season, W's the second, 3C the third).

I think he will make a very very real push for a difference maker at D (Karlsson or OEL) by trading futures, lose Orpik, and then resign Carlson. Whats left will be for vet forwards to fill bottom 6, as I see the D top 4 being very very set before FA period (Orlov, Niskanen, Carlon, D Acquired).

 

[Ridley Simon]

To an extent, I have frustration that GMBM seems to be regressing back towards the "patch the weakness" mentality that McPhee displayed as he tried to convert this team from an up-and-comer into a legitimate cup contender. MacLellan's early moves (Niskanen, Orpik, Oshie) were very splashy attempts at correcting the flaws in the roster. As time as progressed since then, his early lack of consideration for future resource availability has painted him into a corner, and now he's increasingly trying to save the ship from sinking by bailing water out with a bucket. Kempny and Jerabek are buy-low moves trying to patch significant roster deficiencies with duct tape.

While fixing flaws in the roster is obviously important, I'd prefer if he did so via some more coherent vision of how he wants the team to play. Perhaps it's hindsight, but even the splashy moves earlier in his tenure now seem to be a bit like knee-jerk fixes to grab players at a position of need, rather than a composed vision of the style he wants the team to play.

It just seems like some of McPhee's worst traits at roster construction are also present in MacLellan. GMBM definitely has a very different view of asset management, handling trades, and aggression in free agency. But in terms of actually fielding a roster, I see similarities in terms of targeting the positions/styles they felt short on last year, regardless of the long-term vision of the style they want to play. Oftentimes, playing to your roster's strengths is more beneficial than trying to fix all the flaws.

I think a lot of this had to do with Trotz. Maybe that's my own personal "I want it to be this way" stance, but it's how I feel. We will hopefully see what GMBM can do with a new coach, one that truly has less organizational power than he does. That dynamic has changed quite a bit in 4 years. Trotz really had the power at the onset...I think its GMBM who does now.

I dont see him as a power hungry type though, which is good, as it may allow him to hire a Quenneville, versus a Rierden. I saw GMGM as more power hungry in the end (and vindictive), which I am hoping Bmac has learned from. His greatest power play would come from being the GM that actually wins the Capitals a Cup. That should be the goal. Nothing less. I think Patrick would help him now, versus get in the way (as stated earlier, due to Dick's age and closing window of job longevity w Ovechkin)

 

[Langway]

My guess is the power still basically resides with Patrick and I don't really foresee him having a sudden eureka moment when it comes to much of anything. That ownership involvement dynamic absolves MacLellan for the coaching situation IMO in terms of hiring/firing and perhaps also for how last off-season was handled in terms of the poor timing and overall lack of organization. Maybe MacLellan has a stronger voice in the hiring process this summer but financial constraints will likely keep them in the bracket of either unproven NHL assistants, AHL head coaches or head coaches from the amateur ranks. I really doubt they land a name coach for $4M+.

I think they just re-sign Carlson, Wilson, etc. and make their picks at the draft. Maybe they attempt to swap Orpik out for some other team's problem but I'd generally expect a quiet status quo type off-season. The only caveat is if they crash and burn in the playoffs (say by losing to NJD/FLA in the first round). Do that and then there's probably enough leeway to significantly alter their makeup. Otherwise, I'd bank on them to mainly hope a coaching change pays off in a bunch of ways.

Regardless of those ownership constraints, I still think there's more MacLellan could do in terms of holding the coaching staff and their adherence to the process more accountable and in terms of smaller Euro/NCAA/CHL signings that do more to move the needle re: organizational depth. Their three NCAA signings from last spring all seem very inconsequential. I know there's a lot on his plate and maybe they don't have tremendous resources there either but it should be a bigger priority for a team with cap constraints that are unlikely to change any time soon.

 

[Ridley Simon]

My guess is the power still basically resides with Patrick and I don't really foresee him having a sudden eureka moment when it comes to much of anything. That ownership involvement dynamic absolves MacLellan for the coaching situation IMO in terms of hiring/firing and perhaps also for how last off-season was handled in terms of the poor timing and overall lack of organization. Maybe MacLellan has a stronger voice in the hiring process this summer but financial constraints will likely keep them in the bracket of either unproven NHL assistants, AHL head coaches or head coaches from the amateur ranks. I really doubt they land a name coach for $4M+.

I think they just re-sign Carlson, Wilson, etc. and make their picks at the draft. Maybe they attempt to swap Orpik out for some other team's problem but I'd generally expect a quiet status quo type off-season. The only caveat is if they crash and burn in the playoffs (say by losing to NJD/FLA in the first round). Do that and then there's probably enough leeway to significantly alter their makeup. Otherwise, I'd bank on them to mainly hope a coaching change pays off in a bunch of ways.

Regardless of those ownership constraints, I still think there's more MacLellan could do in terms of holding the coaching staff and their adherence to the process more accountable and in terms of smaller Euro/NCAA/CHL signings that do more to move the needle re: organizational depth. Their three NCAA signings from last spring all seem very inconsequential. I know there's a lot on his plate and maybe they don't have tremendous resources there either but it should be a bigger priority for a team with cap constraints that are unlikely to change any time soon.

They have had *some* recent success with NCAA signings (our long lost love, Nate Schmidt, as an example). So we may have some luck there.

I do think that part of that was the make up of the team the past 3 years. There was very little room for a top college player to ...you know....actually play. Team was loaded with vets, and of course.....Trotz.

That should change this year, and moreso the next few. Least, I'd like to believe that.

 

[Hivemind]

Their last two undrafted/NCAA free agent success stories have been Nate Schmidt (2012) and Jay Beagle (2008). That's not a lot to show over the course of a decade. I suppose it's still possible that Copley or O'Brien pan out to NHLers of some degree (more likely in Copley's case, although he's been passed on the depth chart by Vanecek this season), but the bulk of their UDFA signings aren't even panning out at the AHL level. Mason Mitchell is barely more than a 4th liner for Hershey. Bindulis, McGauley, and Gustafsson have seen more time in the ECHL than AHL.

Heck, they also may end up losing some of their own drafted talent via the NCAA free agency route. Hopefully they can lock up Gersich, but there's a part of me deep down that knows he's going to be scooped up by the Penguins.


Granted, undrafted free agency tends to be pretty slim pickings and many franchises struggle with it. But aggression in the market can pay off, look at Philadelphia. Raffl, Read, Lyon, Myers, Manning, and Vecchione are currently in their system (albeit Read going the wrong way at this point), and guys like Bobrovsky and Bellemare in the recent past.

 

[Ridley Simon]

Their last two undrafted/NCAA free agent success stories have been Nate Schmidt (2012) and Jay Beagle (2008). That's not a lot to show over the course of a decade. I suppose it's still possible that Copley or O'Brien pan out to NHLers of some degree (more likely in Copley's case, although he's been passed on the depth chart by Vanecek this season), but the bulk of their UDFA signings aren't even panning out at the AHL level. Mason Mitchell is barely more than a 4th liner for Hershey. Bindulis, McGauley, and Gustafsson have seen more time in the ECHL than AHL.

Heck, they also may end up losing some of their own drafted talent via the NCAA free agency route. Hopefully they can lock up Gersich, but there's a part of me deep down that knows he's going to be scooped up by the Penguins.

They've had very little room for the top college players. Those guys want to play immediately. And the Caps the past 3 years really havent had that option for them, at all. They kinda do, now. Kinda.

That said, I will take the other tact. I think we see both Gersich AND Samsanov signing deals with the club in the coming weeks. One to join the big club for the playoffs (Gersich), the other to join the AHL for a few cups of coffee before next season.