News Article: News and Note XXX: Now is the Summer of our Don Waddell Content

[Navin R Slavin]

"Why don't you go ahead and interview with another company" is usually not an effort at retention.

Yup.

Dundon clearly has an idea in his mind of who the key pieces are. If DW were one of them, he'd be signed.

If we hear that Tulsky is moving on, I'd be legitimately concerned. Until then, eh.

 

[FreshSeabass]

Chiarelli has proved multiple times how incompetent he is. I want him no where near this team that finally after all these years has good players.

 

[bleedgreen]

I don’t really care if he stays or goes, but I do think this is an unnecessary distraction in general. Should be nothing but happiness from the season and some of the moves we made, not a daily update on the guy generally credited for all those moves (deserved or not) leaving the team with the owner outwardly saying he’s totes cool with that because he doesn’t believe in contracts or gm’s really as a concept.

I know Minny set this all off by firing Fenton at an interesting time, but I’d rather have this be the beginning of the off season.

 

[vorbis]

I hate that this stuff is happening in August most of all. Dundon let Bill Peters wander off the pasture when he had a contract option, and I think it's safe to say that was the right move. So I'm willing to consider that this is the right move as well. just rotten timing, and it will necessitate a corresponding move once Waddell leaves, I would assume.

 

[A Star is Burns]

What's so bad about the timing? Most of the heavy lifting is done. Yzerman stepped aside right before camp last year I think, and it didn't seem to have much negative effect unless you blame him for the playoff loss 6 months later.

 

[Joe McGrath]

Waddell should just quit hockey and open a PR firm. From moron GM that turned everything he touched to crap that was only brought in to move the team, to indispensable team builder and keen business mind.

Not before he cashes in with the Wild.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

I'm only worried about losing Waddell as GM because we saw last season that Dundon had trouble finding someone who would act as the point of contact for the committee. Certainly can't have multiple members taking calls from opposing GMs. Will Dundon go back to trying to poach an assistant GM? Will he try to bring an unemployed GM into this figurehead spot (Hextall or Chiarelli with Borg guardrails)?

All that said, there will also be a need for a new team president. And I think Waddell has done well in that job, as concerned as many of us were at the time he was hired. He did well in that role for Karmanos before Dundon came in. Has Dundon taken over most of that team president role now? I don't think Dundon is doing a lot of day-to-day management of the team operations, but I could be mistaken.

At a minimum, pay Waddell like he's filling two roles in the franchise. Because he is.

Yes, but what does the president actually do? GMBC makes the hockey decisions. If the president is in charge of other areas like sales/marketing/PR/facilities, I'm not sure a hockey person is actually the right person for that job anyway. TD might as well pick a young exec from Top Golf who has energy and ideas about the entertainment business.

 

[tarheelhockey]

We’re talking about hockey news in August. That’s a positive, right?

 

[DougieSmash]

Well, this sucks. Good as gone.

 

[Lempo]

I hate that this stuff is happening in August most of all.

Counterpoint: The other guys are trying to sign their elite RFAs.

 

[Lempo]

I hope it's not one-for-one for Fenton. Let's not play double or quits on the Nino-Rask trade.

 

[My Special Purpose]

Chiarelli has proved multiple times how incompetent he is. I want him no where near this team that finally after all these years has good players.

Could've said the same thing about Waddell last summer.

We’re talking about hockey news in August. That’s a positive, right?

Isn't that what Dundon said he was gonna do?

 

[tarheelhockey]

Isn't that what Dundon said he was gonna do?

Are we still doing #winning?

 

[Lempo]

"Why don't you go ahead and interview with another company" is usually not an effort at retention.

Of course, the old "ask around and I'll match their offer - yeah I'm not matching that" trick!

 

[tarheelhockey]

Of course, the old "ask around and I'll match their offer - yeah I'm not matching that" trick!

As opposed to the old “ask around and I’ll match their offer - yeah the fact that you think this is a lot of money might be how we got in this situation” trick

 

[DougieSmash]

Who's gonna be next GM

 

[A Star is Burns]

Who's gonna be next GM

Cam Ward is gonna bypass goalie coach and go straight to GM

 

[Svechhammer]

NOT ideal



Tulsky is at the top of their list

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

Dundon is gonna do this weird **** until he fails. It’s the price you pay for having an owner who wants to go against the grain.

Yep. But it's important to consider that while not everything he's touched has turned to gold, he's got a pretty good batting average so far.

Also important to consider that if Waddell does leave, we won't know whether Dundon was right or not right then and there. We'll know he is right if/when the front office takes a downturn.

Dundon's hypothesis is that way more than 32 people in the world can do this job at a high level. We seemingly have one right now. But who's to say whoever comes in behind him won't also be great?

It's easy for us to say "why tempt fate and mess with a good thing?", because it's not our money and it doesn't affect the cap in any real way. Pay him $500,000, $3 million, $5 million, what's it to us? Most of us probably don't even know where to find GM salaries anyway, they're immaterial to even the average die hard fan, so who cares Tom, pay up! But if Tom is right, and there are many others that could do this job at an equal level and a below-average salary, and that salary savings helps us spend to the cap year over year? Then all of the sudden he's on to something.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

NOT ideal



Tulsky is at the top of their list

Mandrycky is already their director of hockey administration. Unless they're preparing to offer Tulsky a VP position I doubt it happens. Tulsky seems to have more pull in this front office than almost any other analytics expert. Him and Dellow are the only two that are officially VPs.

 

[GoldiFox]

NOT ideal



Tulsky is at the top of their list

Same logic applies to Tulksy. If he can go get more money or a better opportunity with Seattle then have at it. There is a reason the Canes have been hiring an analytics team rather than relying on Tulsky alone.

Maybe Rod is an exception to overpay to keep when his contract runs out. Maybe not.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

I don’t really care if he stays or goes, but I do think this is an unnecessary distraction in general. Should be nothing but happiness from the season and some of the moves we made, not a daily update on the guy generally credited for all those moves (deserved or not) leaving the team with the owner outwardly saying he’s totes cool with that because he doesn’t believe in contracts or gm’s really as a concept.

I know Minny set this all off by firing Fenton at an interesting time, but I’d rather have this be the beginning of the off season.

"Nothing but happiness" is not how life works.

And the reason we're getting daily updates is because it's summer and there's nothing else to talk about, and this is literally the best time for such moves to happen.

 

[A Star is Burns]

Yep. But it's important to consider that while not everything he's touched has turned to gold, he's got a pretty good batting average so far.

Also important to consider that if Waddell does leave, we won't know whether Dundon was right or not right then and there. We'll know if/when he is right if the front office takes a downturn.

Dundon's hypothesis is that way more than 32 people in the world can do this job at a high level. We seemingly have one right now. But who's to say whoever comes in behind him won't also be great?

It's easy for us to say "why tempt fate and mess with a good thing?", because it's not our money and it doesn't affect the cap in any real way. Pay him $500,000, $3 million, $5 million, what's it to us? Most of us probably don't even know where to find GM salaries anyway, they're immaterial to even the average die hard fan so who cares Tom, pay up! But if Tom is right, and there's many others that could do this job at an equal level and a lower-than-average salary, and that salary savings helps us spend to the cap year over year? Then all of the sudden he's on to something.

Very very well put. I think he's probably right in his hypothesis. The only issue becomes is even if people that are young and/or hungry and might like this opportunity have the same feeling that those pushing back against this have. If they think that you have to be paid at a certain level and have to have a contract, even being a nobody that hasn't been in this high level position before, we could run into an issue. I'm still very interested to watch it all play out.

 

[Anton Dubinchuk]

Same logic applies to Tulksy. If he can go get more money or a better opportunity with Seattle then have at it. There is a reason the Canes have been hiring an analytics team rather than relying on Tulsky alone.

Maybe Rod is an exception to overpay to keep when his contract runs out. Maybe not.

Speculation suggests Rod is one of the lower if not the lowest paid HC in the league. He doesn't have a reported salary on CapFriendly but I think that was widely discussed through the rumor mill when he was hired ("Dundon wants to underpay everyone", etc.)

 

[A Star is Burns]

"Nothing but happiness" is not how life works.

And the reason we're getting daily updates is because it's summer and there's nothing else to talk about, and this is literally the best time for such moves to happen.

We're also hearing about it a ton because once again it's outside of established and accepted norms. It's going to make noise for the fact that many want to see if fail and that many find it an interesting experiment.