That article from the 4th period was not very heart warming, lol. None of those guys seem like "home run hires" to me. I'll take a hard pass on Nonis and Hunter, based on their records. I don't know anything really about Futa, or Burke though. Can anybody expand more on those 2? Obviously I know of Burke from his playing days, but what about his management experience?
I don't think anyone wants Nonis, I'm hoping his name is just thrown into the mix cause Dreger wants to give his cousin a shout-out. Hunter and McCrimmon for that matter both ran very high end junior teams which were both quite successful and seemed to be great at finding talent; I can't fault either as an assistant GM, both organizations progressed in a positive direction with them onboard.
Futa's main claim to fame is his drafting record, he ran LA's drafting from 2007-14 like anyone some notable misses and poor years, but if you compare his drafting record to ours in that time frame particularly outside of the 1st round they clearly did substantially better than us. Futa was the GM for the Owen Sound Attack they were moderately successful, not as successful as the Brandon Wheat Kings or the London Knights though. I respect his scouting resume, but I'm not sure what qualifications he brings beyond that. Also as I've often argued I don't think GM's impact scouting much other than a bit of hiring/firing, the GM's can scout some of the 1st round picks, but can't get out in the field enough to find the late round steals that are Futa's strong suit (1st rounders for him are a mixed bag). Just an FYI as the Owen Sound GM he picked up Mark Giordano, Andrej Sekera, Bobby Ryan, Brad Richardson, Paul Bisonette, and Theo Peckham.
Sean Burke's worn a few hats, was the director of player personnel, assistant GM, and goalie coach for the Yotes, a pro scout for the Canadiens, and the GM for the 2018 Canadian Olympic team (won bronze /w no NHL players). The Yotes have obviously been pretty forgettable for a long time, I'm not sure how much of that is on him, or the previous GM, or the cash strapped nature of the team, I will say that when he was there they seemed to be getting good performances out of their goalies many of which were less successful elsewhere. I don't have a lot to say about Sean Burke, other than I respected him as a player and based on his interviews I could always tell he was quite a bit smarter than your average NHL player. FYI Sean Burke's son Brendan plays for the UofA Golden Bears.
Given that I can't be the one to interview these guys and how poorly Fenton is doing (I thought he'd do well), I've come to accept that I don't know who will be a good GM and who won't. All I can do is hope that Bob Nicholson gets it right with his second attempt, not only in the GM position, but also in the people we get to surround him.
