I think him coming here and bringing in Nolan salvaged the most important commodity this team has right now..... It's youth and team spirit. I felt Regier was destroying both.
There was nothing left to salvage IMO - the player quotes in the wake of the Regier/Rolston firing and LaFontaine/Nolan hiring all attested to that. Both LaFontaine (whose reputation was renowned amongst players) and Nolan instilled a new sense of hope and trust that they were committed to teamwork and winning and that everyone would work together. More importantly, they each represented inspirational figures that others could rally behind. Regier & Rolston were the opposite of that - and if Murray lets Nolan go, I'm not so sure that Murray's style or demeanor will help keep what Pat & Ted brought.
No, I'll wait on the official Sabres statement of yanking Pat around before continuing.
Fat chance the Sabres will issue anything "official" that will tell the true story...
SOMETHING Patty said or did started all this today and led to his resignation. I can't see what it is that wouldn't put him in kind of a bad light.
More likely, it's what he wasn't allowed to say. If Bucky's and Benigni's reports are accurate, he felt left out of the process/discussions and wasn't consulted as part of the decision-making process on the Miller trade. He obviously didn't sign on as a PR stunt nor did he want the "emperor" role Pegula said wouldn't occur. He espoused a managemment team that would collaborate on decisions - apparently, he didn't get to weigh in or have his input taken as seriously as he thought it was supposed to when Pegula made him President.
Higher than Murray would be any one of:
Ken Sawyer
Cliff Benson
Ted Black
Joe Battista
Craig Patrick (probably not, but he is still there)
If you recall, Regier and Black each went to great lengths in several WGR interviews to explain that Black was not Regier's boss and that they both equally reported to Pegula. By extension, one would expect that Black is not above Murray either.
It's chapter 1 in the book LeBrun is clamoring for
Pierre LeBrun @Real_ESPNLeBrun 8h
Please tell me someone is going to write a book on the 2013-14 Buffalo Sabres season.
I'm anxious to read his and McKenzie's analysis and findings on what really happened.
I'm not even sure what Pegula's inner circle and Lafontaine would be butting heads about...
Not one thing makes sense in the whole ordeal
Well, Sawyer is still there and he was a strong advocate of Regier - it wouldn't be a stretch to think he disagreed with Pegula's decision to fire Regier and possibly harbor some resentment with Regier's replacements.
I hope Tim Murray can navigate this "inner circle" moving forward.
Birds of a feather flock together - and human nature is to seek familiarity in things. Ergo, the odds of Murray replacing Nolan and bringing in some of his associates from Ottawa / Anaheim in the offseason seem good.
How much power did Pat really expect to have? The job of the GM is to shape the roster and coaching staff to what he thinks will be a winning hockey team. Pat's job was to hire the GM.
Adam Benigni @AdamBenigni 4m
talked to more than a half dozen sources... common theme = power struggle and subsequent rift... @wgrz
Adam Benigni @AdamBenigni 3m
and that a good portion of this falls on LaFontaine how he tried to use power within organization... @wgrz
Adam Benigni @AdamBenigni 1m
Told LaFontaine eventually felt cut out... and situation deteriorated... That's the consensus of what I've been told @wgrz
The initial PC revealed that Pegula trusted LaFontaine's judgement on how to restructure the team: he deferred to Pat on the hire of Nolan and then again on the hiring of Murray and Patrick. Pat said in his intro PC that he'd oversee the entire hockey operations side and in the Murray PC, that he wanted a team of management where the GM is not alone in making decisions (justifying why Patrick was added).
The close timing between the Miller trade and the resignation points to the trade not being made by committee as LaFontaine probably wanted it to be.
Good lord, this still isn't ironed out.
Don't expect it to be for several months - like the 7-1-07 debacle and the Muckler/Nolan/Hasek feud, there are probably a lot of different layers and tidbits that will come to light with time and more reporters looking into it.
We hope Murray will be a good GM, he hasn't yet become one
Amen.
People defending LaFontaine need to read this article.
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304023504577319912036433148
Patty has some serous personal issues that he needs to fix.
How in the world do you read that and come out of it thinking it makes him look bad
Someone works with Patty and calls his actions "cowardly" and you see nothing that makes him look bad.
Milbury never worked with LaFontaine - his rant in the article is nothing more than a biased opinion of someone defending his former employer, Wang.
Pat LaFontaine was hired for a mostly meaningless advisory role with the Islanders and quit when the general manager was fired a couple months after being hired... in the summer. It was an absolutely absurd bit of management and LaFontaine rightly wanted no part.
"I believe you treat people fairly,"
That quote in a nutshell is telling of why LaFontaine won't tolerate games that mismanage people. He felt Wang didn't treat Smith fairly in the Islander situation and wanted no part of a team operating that way; it appears likewise that he may have had a problem with Pegula promising something when he got the President title and buy-in to the committee approach of running the team, only to then get left out.
He was promised the power of the GM, but declined that power. However, when it came down to it, he wanted the power without the title.
He was offered the title of GM - and all of the responsibilities that come with it. However, he was pretty clear when asked about the President title that it meant he'd have oversight and input on all hockey-related matters. I never read or heard anything that changed that once the GM was hired; all that came out of the Murray PC was that the trio of LaFontaine/Murray/Patrick would work together with ownership and scouting dept. in personnel decisions.
Great news.... The Chicken Wing is moving into the Golden Age...
Many will hate him doing so but I'm all for Bucky delving into this and finding out what happened, like he did in the Drury/Briere mess.
No GM is going to let someone else build their team. Sorry not happening.
Seriously. What GM would ever agree to come on board with that sort of setup?
I wonder if Patty didn't have something like this in mind when he signed up for the job?
It's exactly what he had in mind - he even referred often to the Bruins' situation with Neely working together with Chiarelli and their management team. Neely isn't doing all the day-to-day duties of a GM but he is consulted on personnel decisions.
Whether you think it makes sense or not, LaFontaine was clearly under the impression that he had final say and could overrule the GM. All relevant evidence and contextual clues point to Pegula putting LaFontaine under that impression. If you find it ridiculous, then you simply find the position he was hired to fill and the situation Pegula created ridicuous.
Well-stated.