Picking GM replacements is hard without the ability to interview these people personally, but I think what ails this team is more than a one person replacement up top. Fire Chia immediately, name MacT interim GM with instructions to only trade pending UFAs for picks and move dead weight to free up cap space where possible for the inevitable replacement GM. Fire Nicholson first thing in the summer, we need the right person onboard to oversee the hiring of the new management group and I don't think he is it. The only person I want to spare in the management group is Bill Scott who's overseeing the Condors.
We need to compose a braintrust that compliments each other well with varying strengths. I'd want a GM that has a strong vision or direction he wants to build the team towards, who asks the right questions of his personnel and knows how to manage and delegate authority/responsibilities to those who surround him, as well as impose the right internal procedures to evaluate how well individuals are doing their jobs. I'd probably want a former player agent as Assistant GM to negotiate all of the contract extensions and do some preliminary legwork on a lot of the trades. I'd want atleast one of the new age analytics gurus to have a prominent seat at the table, responsible for managing the analytics department and trying to inform the GMs decisions, could probably double as a cap specialist. Obviously you'd want one good head and amateur scout to give their 2 cents on their respective areas of expertise. Then probably someone with a fair amount of experience in a winning organization as the president of hockey operations who provides a level of insight from someone who's been around a while and can be someone you bounce ideas off of.
