Assisting is the key word. Not leading, not motivating. The Kessel whisperer is a farce. Kessel played better after Tocchet left. Please share your financial information on the owner that was going to go broke within a year. Speculation at best.
It’s pretty common knowledge that Barroway was leveraged to the hilt when he bought out the original IA group. Why do you think he only was left with a 5% stake in the team after Meruelo came in?? That was all the equity he had in it. Aside from the massive loan debt he had to pay off, he was losing millions on top of it running the team.
Barroway is a rich guy. But not rich enough to continue burning through tens of millions annually propping up the franchise. That’s why six months after he bought out IA he was looking for a “minority” investor to drop $200-250 million into the team for a minor stake (ie no control). Nobody in their right mind would drop that much cash into something without a say into it.
If Meruelo had not come along when he did the odds were extremely high Barroway would have been forced to sell the team to either OVG (Seattle) or Tillman Fertitta (Houston).
If you don’t want to believe that then that’s your problem. Most everyone here in F40 knows what the deal was..
Getting back to Tocchet. Look at who Kessel had to play with in Pittsburgh and look who he has now. You going to try convincing me (or anyone) the Penguin’s forward group is inferior to ours?? The “Kessel Whisperer” thing was something hyped up by the media.
Tocchet came to Arizona because he wanted another chance to be a head coach. He could have stayed in a comfortable spot in Pittsburgh, but he didn’t. He went after the position and gave Chayka a full on presentation on what he wanted to do. He may still end up being a bust, but to make some lame drive by chirp that he’s had no fire since the gambling thing a decade ago is a load of manure.