Winnipeg Jets (Version 1.0) General Managers

[Jets4Life]

What was your opinion of the old Winnipeg Jets managers?

IMO, Ferguson was about average and had his moments. He did draft Hawerchuk, Selanne, Ellett, and Steen. He also traded for Carlyle, MacLean, and Boschman. On the other hand, he drafted some duds like Jimmy Mann, Andrew McBain, Ryan Stewart, and Bryan Marchment. He also made some horrible trades (Babych for Neufeld???). He certainly had a lot of character, and was respected by players and coaches.

Mike Smith, on the other hand was horrible. he admitted his preference to drafting Russians "because they play cheaper." He did draft Tkachuk, Barnes, and Draper, but in the same breath picked Sergei Bautin, Mats Lindgren, and Aaron ward. He also drove Hawerchuk and Housley out of town, and virtually gave away some of the best young Jets prospects for future considerations.

Once Paddock replaced him as GM in early 1994, it was already too late. the Jets would be sold to Phoenix owners in 1995.

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[Warhead77]

John Ferguson Sr. was the heart and soul of the original Jets. His background with the Montreal Canadians and New York Rangers gave us some legitimacy and a strong voice to the NHL who were never crazy about bringing the Jets into the league.

His failings as a GM had more to do with what Jets v.1 were up against during their first decade -- a very tough division that featured an all around Hall of Fame team (Oilers) that won 5 cups.

Fergie made bad moves based on frustration of having been knocked out of the playoffs by Edmonton either in the first or the second round. And when he would make these changes in the off season, it would hurt the team and its chemistry and they would eventually suffer and not make the playoffs the following year.

That led to the Jets having a good-then bad season syndrome.

When Fergie was canned, Mike Smith was brought in and his vision for the team was so flawed it wasn't funny. Building a team around a bunch of Russians in the early 90s was crazy. Not to mention you don't piss off your main superstar by having a coach not give him the playing time he needed -- dividing his time equally between all four lines. Smith should have kept Hawerchuk and went out and got some great wingers for him -- but he didn't.

By the time Smith was gone, the Jets were in another re-building phase once again. With the likes of Selanne, Zhamnov, Tkachuk and Khabibulin the future looked bright. But alas the team was gone before we would know just where we couldve went.

 

[Old Horse]

The only word you need to describe Jets 1.0 GMs: incompetent. I remember when the Leafs hired JF Jr., I nearly fell outta my chair laughing.

Let's hope Jets 2.0 doesn't turn out like New Coke.

 

[trebendan]

The incompetence may have had a lot to do with the fact that the Jets were stripped bare when they entered the NHL in 1979. Fergie may not have had the patience to give some prospects a little more time to develop, and had them in the line-up before they were ready. With Jets 2.0, we got a decent team to start from.

 

[Old Horse]

The incompetence may have had a lot to do with the fact that the Jets were stripped bare when they entered the NHL in 1979. Fergie may not have had the patience to give some prospects a little more time to develop, and had them in the line-up before they were ready. With Jets 2.0, we got a decent team to start from.

So then, it was incompetence. There were high hopes that the popular enforcer from the Habs would make a great GM. He didn't. End of story. I liked the guy, so did everyone. But he was a mediocre GM, whose record was made to look better in hindsight by an even worse one in Mike Smith. Smith is in the same category as Milbury.

Surprised at this thread, if there's one part of Jet history no one should want to re-live it's the GMs.

 

[Warhead77]

So then, it was incompetence. There were high hopes that the popular enforcer from the Habs would make a great GM. He didn't. End of story. I liked the guy, so did everyone. But he was a mediocre GM, whose record was made to look better in hindsight by an even worse one in Mike Smith. Smith is in the same category as Milbury.

Surprised at this thread, if there's one part of Jet history no one should want to re-live it's the GMs.

I agree.

I like from what I have been seeing from Chevy thus far.

 

[Winnipeg Jet]

Who was the General Manager before Rudy Pilous. I know we had Pilous, Ferguson, Smith, and Paddock, but Pilous wasn't the first General Manager the Jets ever had.

 

[Guardian17]

Dale Hawerchuck said in a recent interview that he asked for trade out of Winnipeg because of his dislike for Mike Smith.

 

[AndersUlfBobby]

Who was the General Manager before Rudy Pilous. I know we had Pilous, Ferguson, Smith, and Paddock, but Pilous wasn't the first General Manager the Jets ever had.

Annis Stukus

Bill Robinson was Director of Player Personnel in the early years.



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Countdown to Puck Drop

 

[King Woodballs]

Love Ferguson hated Mikael Smith

 

[Jets4Life]

Dale Hawerchuck said in a recent interview that he asked for trade out of Winnipeg because of his dislike for Mike Smith.

I heard Hawerchuk and Smith had bad blood for each other. What is ironic though is that the man Smith traded Hawerchuk for: Phil Housley. He would be traded away by Smith at the end of the 92-93 season after the two nearly got into a fist fight at a Jets New Year's party a few months previous.

 

[Winnipeg Jet]

I heard Hawerchuk and Smith had bad blood for each other. What is ironic though is that the man Smith traded Hawerchuk for: Phil Housley. He would be traded away by Smith at the end of the 92-93 season after the two nearly got into a fist fight at a Jets New Year's party a few months previous.

As much as I hated losing Hawerchuk, long term that turned out to be a pretty good trade. At least it would have been had Smith not forced one of the central pieces out of town. The big parts coming back were Housley and a draft pick that ended up being Keith Tkachuk.

 

[Hollywood3]

To this day I cannot believe that Mike Smith ever got a GM job in the NHL. And then continued to get hired after being fired in Winnipeg.

Drafting Russians was not a totally flawed idea. Jim Devellano had a similar idea for Detroit. His idea was draft Europeans in late rounds because they still had undrafted quality players at that stage.

In Chicago his first round picks included Mikhail Yakubov, Pavel Vorobiev, Adam Munro and Anton Babchuk.

 

[Jets4Life]

As much as I hated losing Hawerchuk, long term that turned out to be a pretty good trade. At least it would have been had Smith not forced one of the central pieces out of town. The big parts coming back were Housley and a draft pick that ended up being Keith Tkachuk.

Actually, the Jets gave up their #14 draft pick for Buffalo's #19 pick, so they would have drafted Tkachuk regardless.

 

[Jets4Life]

Here is an intersting tidbit I found while looking up that infamous 1987 Canada-USSR World Junior hockey brawl that resulted in both teams being disqualified:

"Immediately following the tournament, Canadian officials were seen as trying to distance themselves from the team: "The CAHA (Canadian Amateur Hockey Association) didn't do anything for these kids", reporter Jim Cressman said. "These kids were good enough to make this team. They gave up their holidays, did their best, risked getting hurt and ended up on the wrong end of a bad decision - and the CAHA basically handed them their tickets."[54] Mike Smith was in the airport while the Canadian juniors were waiting for their flight, and took the opportunity to criticize them for their play at the tournament as well as the brawl."

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punch-up_in_Piestany

Wow.

This incident should have made it clear how poor Smith's judgement was, considering over 90% of North Americans sided with Team Canada. After all, it was Davydov (who would ironically be drafted by Smith) who started the bench clearing brawl by leaving the bench.

 

[Guardian17]

Here is an intersting tidbit I found while looking up that infamous 1987 Canada-USSR World Junior hockey brawl that resulted in both teams being disqualified:

"Immediately following the tournament, Canadian officials were seen as trying to distance themselves from the team: "The CAHA (Canadian Amateur Hockey Association) didn't do anything for these kids", reporter Jim Cressman said. "These kids were good enough to make this team. They gave up their holidays, did their best, risked getting hurt and ended up on the wrong end of a bad decision - and the CAHA basically handed them their tickets."[54] Mike Smith was in the airport while the Canadian juniors were waiting for their flight, and took the opportunity to criticize them for their play at the tournament as well as the brawl."

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punch-up_in_Piestany

Wow.

This incident should have made it clear how poor Smith's judgement was, considering over 90% of North Americans sided with Team Canada. After all, it was Davydov (who would ironically be drafted by Smith) who started the bench clearing brawl by leaving the bench.

I never heard this before.

Not surprised.

 

[Hollywood3]

Here is an intersting tidbit I found while looking up that infamous 1987 Canada-USSR World Junior hockey brawl that resulted in both teams being disqualified:

"Immediately following the tournament, Canadian officials were seen as trying to distance themselves from the team: "The CAHA (Canadian Amateur Hockey Association) didn't do anything for these kids", reporter Jim Cressman said. "These kids were good enough to make this team. They gave up their holidays, did their best, risked getting hurt and ended up on the wrong end of a bad decision - and the CAHA basically handed them their tickets."[54] Mike Smith was in the airport while the Canadian juniors were waiting for their flight, and took the opportunity to criticize them for their play at the tournament as well as the brawl."

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punch-up_in_Piestany

Wow.

This incident should have made it clear how poor Smith's judgement was, considering over 90% of North Americans sided with Team Canada. After all, it was Davydov (who would ironically be drafted by Smith) who started the bench clearing brawl by leaving the bench.

One thing people forget to mention was that the Russians were 6th at the time of that game. Canada had to win by either 3 or 4 goals to win gold. (This was before they held a playoff round.)

 

[Jets4Life]

They had to win by 5 goals. With a win against the USSR, Canada would have tied Finland for 1st place. However Finland has the tiebreaker, and their goals/goals against difference was 4 goals better than Canada's record.

Considering that Canada was ahead 4-2 not even halfway through the game made the chance of us winning the gold a very real possibility. The way Hockey Canada threw our young players under the bus for the brawl was disgusting. Incidentally, it also launched Don Cherry's career from a simple hockey analyst to HNIC most popular personality.

There is a really great book that I read in 2007 about this event. It's called "When the lights went out" by Gary Joyce.

 

[Jets4Life]

Chevy>Fergie>Smith

Comments?

 

[Gm0ney]

Chevy>Fergie>Smith

Comments?

Say what you will, but John Ferguson built some legitimate playoff teams here. Smith kinda sucked, but he did draft Stu Barnes, Kris Draper, Disco Dan Bylsma, Davydov, Tkachuk and Zhamnov in his first two drafts. Things kinda went off the rails after that though.

What's Chevy done? Scheifele + Trouba > Tkachuk + Zhamnov?

As of right now, I'd rank them: Ferguson > Smith = Chevy > Paddock

It's a bit of apples-to-oranges...man they used to make a lot of moves back in the day. Not all blockbusters, but lots of roster players moved around...different waiver rules back then, I guess?

 

[blues10]

Fergies drafting of Jimmy Mann was abysmall. Smith drafting Bautin was even worse.

They were both so hit and miss. Apparantly Smith made 70 trades in 5+ seasons. This seems a little high. He is also credited for drafting Cory Crawford, Byfuglien, Seabrook and Keith while with the Hawks.

 

[Jets4Life]

Say what you will, but John Ferguson built some legitimate playoff teams here. Smith kinda sucked, but he did draft Stu Barnes, Kris Draper, Disco Dan Bylsma, Davydov, Tkachuk and Zhamnov in his first two drafts. Things kinda went off the rails after that though.

What's Chevy done? Scheifele + Trouba > Tkachuk + Zhamnov?

As of right now, I'd rank them: Ferguson > Smith = Chevy > Paddock

It's a bit of apples-to-oranges...man they used to make a lot of moves back in the day. Not all blockbusters, but lots of roster players moved around...different waiver rules back then, I guess?

Why do you have Paddock so low? He was better than Smith.

 

[Edgar Halliwax]

Fergie's biggest blunder in my opinion was protecting Scott Campbell over Kent Nilsson when the Jets joined the NHL in '79.

When the Jets joined the NHL they were allowed to protect two players. The other player Fergie protected was Morris Lukowich which was a good choice.

 

[Gm0ney]

Why do you have Paddock so low? He was better than Smith.

Let's start with, he traded Selanne for Kilger and Tverdovsky...

He also traded for Dave Manson - which only cost Mats Lindgren, Boris Mironov, a 1994 1st round pick (4th overall) and a 1994 4th round pick.

Oh and he traded Essensa for Cheveldae...

Where would you rank him?

 

[cbcwpg]

Fergies drafting of Jimmy Mann was abysmall.

Mostly because the next two picks after Mann turned out to be Goulet and Lowe.

The number of good players after Mann was insane.

********

To be fair though it is easy to find fault in any GMs draft record because the draft is more or less a crap shoot. In Jimmy Mann's year... 47 picks were done before Messier was picked. All the teams missed on this guy once.

IMO if you want to judge a GM look at player for player trades... known talent for known talent... this will tell you about the GM's ability to judge a player.