News Article: The future of Doug Wilson in San Jose

[Pinkfloyd]

Perception vs reality is a real thing in sports and business, and when you make a move that makes you look weak, in this case firing a GM without a suitable replacement, other savvy GMs will take advantage. It weakens the position of the franchise.

Those are fair points at the end, but for me it's not enough to tip the scales. I strongly believe that bringing in a new GM and saddling them with cap baggage and "assets" like Jones and Vlasic is setting them up for failure. I'd rather let DW fill in the hole first before moving on to someone else

It's a risky decision either way and I am glad I don't have to make it.

I think you exaggerate the effects here. Most new GM's don't get taken advantage of. Front offices don't materially affect the position of the franchise in this manner. This type of move doesn't make the team look weak to the fans nor does it to investors or other teams. Plenty of teams hire first time GM's where it doesn't even register on anyone's radar.

As for the next GM's being saddled, that's the business and the spot he chose to accept a job from. Most people in these circles looking for a GM spot know what they're dealing with when they look to manage them. I'm confident that the owner and the candidate have this sort of conversation when they're interviewing. Why are we treating them like naïve children? They're not. Most are comparably bright to DW. Some are dumb sure but you expect them to weed them out and hold them accountable when they don't.

 

[CupfortheSharks]

I mean...yes? In a league where parity wasn't a thing and the Sharks operated under a tight budget, Lombardi did a fantastic job building a competitive team. The team constantly exceeded expectations, the drafting was excellent, and they always made the playoffs. Lombardi's big flaws were his aversion to risk and his contract negotiation tactics, and those are things he has improved on.

I completely disagree with your assessment of Deano’s time here and want nothing to do with him back in San Jose. When he was GM, the overwhelming majority of Sharks fans had nothing good to say about him and I wouldn’t expect very many would agree with your post.

 

[Pinkfloyd]

I completely disagree with your assessment of Deano’s time here and want nothing to do with him back in San Jose. When he was GM, the overwhelming majority of Sharks fans had nothing good to say about him and I wouldn’t expect very many would agree with your post.

Lombardi was good at certain things. He wasn't very good at relationships but he knew how to build a competitive team with the restrictions the team had.

 

[OrrNumber4]

I completely disagree with your assessment of Deano’s time here and want nothing to do with him back in San Jose. When he was GM, the overwhelming majority of Sharks fans had nothing good to say about him and I wouldn’t expect very many would agree with your post.

Lombardi was criticized for the way he handled contracts and the implosion that was 2003...and even then most fans were sympathetic with the limits he had and his conservative, build-from-within strategy.

DW brought the Sharks exciting trades and headlines, but with far more resources he's not really accomplished much.

 

[CupfortheSharks]

I find it interesting how people either rewrite history or just remember things differently. I posted on another site much like this during the Deano days and Pete DeBoer is much, much, much more popular here than Deano was there.

 

[Quid Pro Clowe]

I remember too many 1st round draft busts under Deano.

 

[CupfortheSharks]

I remember too many 1st round draft busts under Deano.

He had like 3 or 4 top 5 picks and Patty was the only really good player we got.

 

[Sharksrule04]

Gorton didn’t do shit. He lucked into two lottery wins, signed a top-5 player in the world in free agency, and fell ass backward into signing a future #1D because the guy would only sign with the Rangers.

exactly this! They’ve had it fairly easy as they always will in NY since so many players want to be in NY. The Rangers have been good as stock piling draft picks but let’s be real as Jux said, most of their moves were luck/easy.

 

[Pinkfloyd]

He had like 3 or 4 top 5 picks and Patty was the only really good player we got.

He had three top five picks and they were Zyuzin, Marleau, and Stuart. The Zyuzin draft was garbage but kind of made up for with getting Sturm and Stuart was pretty good and they got Cheechoo in that draft but not Marleau level obviously. But after that Lombardi's drafting kind of went belly-up. The 1999 draft was almost a complete bust with only Douglas Murray being a meaningful player but even that took almost 10 years to materialize. The 2000 draft was a complete bust. The 2001 draft was okay with Goc, Ehrhoff, and Clowe but nobody that was going to help the team anytime soon from that point. And then the 2002 draft was a complete bust.

A lot of the ill will towards Lombardi is his own doing because of how he treated the players at contract time. If he simply negotiated with a little more tact and respect, I'm sure he probably would've stayed a lot longer. The way he handled the Nabokov holdout was atrocious but he was hardly better dealing with Brad Stuart either.

 

[Vachon23]

Yeah, it takes a real genius to want Panarin to sign with you.

I’d give you Zibanejad if the trade were with anyone but Ottawa. I just don’t see a single move that impresses me. NYR gathered talent by winning the lottery and signing high-end free agents who only wanted to sign with them. The Trouba trade was really bad, if you judge it in hindsight like everyone does the Karlsson trade, the Kreider extension was just as bad as Couture, and they’ve blown a whole bunch of really high picks like Kravstov and Andersson. I just don’t see how this guy is any better than Doug Wilson.

As a Habs fans, if we fire Bergevin and both Wilson and Gorton are available, Wilson is my #1 candidate and by far

 

[tealzamboni]

Bring back Chuck Grillo - that guy knew when to tank

 

[OrrNumber4]

I remember too many 1st round draft busts under Deano.

...Jeff Jillson and Mike Morris (and Morris was due to ridiculously awful injury luck) is "many"? I suppose you could say Zyuzin as well, but that was a terrible draft, and Lombardi more than redeemed himself with his selection of Marco Sturm.

 

[Pavelski2112]

...Jeff Jillson and Mike Morris (and Morris was due to ridiculously awful injury luck) is "many"? I suppose you could say Zyuzin as well, but that was a terrible draft, and Lombardi more than redeemed himself with his selection of Marco Sturm.

Goc wasn't exactly a world-beater either, though he did become a somewhat long-term NHLer.

 

[OrrNumber4]

Goc wasn't exactly a world-beater either, though he did become a somewhat long-term NHLer.

He was drafted in the bottom third of the first-round; that's the expected value for that position. Who taken around that position should the Sharks have drafted instead? OTTOMH, Derek Roy and Fedor Tyutin were both taken in the first half of the 2nd round and would have been a decent bit better...

 

[Pavelski2112]

He was drafted in the bottom third of the first-round; that's the expected value for that position. Who taken around that position should the Sharks have drafted instead? OTTOMH, Derek Roy and Fedor Tyutin were both taken in the first half of the 2nd round and would have been a decent bit better...

Not really anyone in the first round who would've been much better tbf, but guys like Mike Cammalleri and Jason Pominville were still available. Even Patrick Sharp didn't go until the third round.

 

[DepressedSharksFan]

literally everyone in the front office should be canned, starting with doug wilson.

they suck at drafting, wilson should be fired for the mess we're in. the entire roster should be available to trade.

blow this shit up and start from scratch

 

[SJSharksfan39]

For the good of the franchise I really hope they do something radical this summer. I already want Boughner gone (What "system" did the Sharks have this year, and when you go 1-34 on the Power Play, that's inexcusible) but I'm looking at this from a business perspective. The longer the sharks are this bad, the more irrelevant they become to the Bay Area, with the 49ers, Giants, and Warriors as the top tier. They already have some issues with the Arena and Google's development project, and what does it say to the fanbase that for the last two years the Sharks have been pretty much persona non grata to Bay Area sports but also just the NHL in general. They didn't have draft picks, they weren't invited to the playoff bubble, and they are basically irrelevant to the league. The Eric Karlsson thing was a huge swing and a miss, but it's not just that. It's dragging players like Vlasic around, it's having Jones as your main goalie even though he has shown he is a suitable back up. It's having these players who have shown great things in the past completely shit the bed the last two years (Meier and LaBanc are the two I'm thinking about the most).

This franchise needs to decide where they want to go because right now they are on the Titanic while it's sinking and Hasso and Wilson are the ones playing the Violin.

 

[PacificOceanPotion]

New GM-Cammi Granato
New Coach- Marco Sturm

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

Boughner really needs to go, I believe this team plays less than the sum of its parts and thats the coaches fault. I think this team could be a lot better simply by improving the coaching

 

[NWSharkie]

Boughner really needs to go, I believe this team plays less than the sum of its parts and thats the coaches fault. I think this team could be a lot better simply by improving the coaching

I'm going to be the softie again and point out that we went through, what, 30/56 games without John Madden being able to cross the border? Yeah, they've sucked since he got here, but I'd probably want to see a training camp with a full staff before firing anybody.

 

[Cas]

I'm going to be the softie again and point out that we went through, what, 30/56 games without John Madden being able to cross the border? Yeah, they've sucked since he got here, but I'd probably want to see a training camp with a full staff before firing anybody.

If John Madden was the difference maker, they should just fire everyone else, but then, as you've noted, the Sharks have sucked since he arrived too. I just can't see any competence in this staff at all, especially not Rocky Thompson's astonishingly impotent, unimaginative power plays.

 

[fasterthanlight]

Link Gaetz for GM

 

[NWSharkie]

If John Madden was the difference maker, they should just fire everyone else, but then, as you've noted, the Sharks have sucked since he arrived too. I just can't see any competence in this staff at all, especially not Rocky Thompson's astonishingly impotent, unimaginative power plays.

That's a fair assessment of the season. My only reservation is that we let Bob pick his staff, and then put none of them in a position to succeed between starting on the road, the shortened season, and Madden's border issue (which I'm still suspicious of. Players got traded across the border and had none of the same problems). Granted, I don't see the point of firing a losing coach during a tank that I assume will last through next year's draft, but I still feel like this year wasn't quite a fair shake, for SJ slightly more than the rest of the league.

 

[Barrie22]

Both ahl and nhl coaching jobs need to be changed over. Entire front office also, maybe keep the scouts as they seem to be on the right track lately.

I would not even keep wilson on as president like others have mentioned, he would still have that voice and could potentially be a shadow over the new GM.

 

[stator]

I would not even keep wilson on as president like others have mentioned, he would still have that voice and could potentially be a shadow over the new GM.

And he would too, all in the name of loyalty.