Winnipeg Jets (Version 1.0) General Managers

[JMT21]

It was indeed a travesty what the NHL did just to allow the WHA teams to enter the league. IIRC it was Emile Francis who said, "We couldn't afford to have some of these new teams enter the league and be an immediate playoff contender, we did what we had to do".

Choosing Campbell over Nilsson was another brutal decision. Not sure if that was JF's call or not. However, this did lead to an interesting chain of events.

If we kept Nilsson and drafted Goulet instead of Mann, do we get the 2nd pick in the 1980 draft? Probably not.

If we draft Savard or Coffey instead of Babych, do we finish dead last in 80-81? Probably not.

These events allowed us to get Hawerchuk, arguably the best player in Jets history.

As for comrade Smith, it was no secret that he had no love for Hawerchuk. The end game came when Smith (apparently) told #10 that he would have drafted Bobby Carpenter ahead of Hawerchuk had he been the GM. While a very good player, Carpenter wasn't in the same league as #10.

Was it not Smith who rotated goalies in the early 90's all but ensuring the Jets couldn't advance deep into the playoffs?

Smith was by far the worst GM this team has ever seen. AINEC

 

[KCjetsfan]

2 points then I'm out as I know my opinion won't be shared by many:

Mike Smith was a visionary and made the Jets competitive when they had no money to be competitive.

People criticize him but he was in an impossible situation. He pretty much single handedly brought a dynamic new talent pool in into the NHL.

You might be quick to call him out for Bautin, but it's hilarious that you don't mention Zhamnov, Davydov, Korolev, Ulanov, Mironov, & Khabibulin.

I cannot imagine how awful the Jets would have been without our Russian players. We might not have won the cup, but damn we were entertaining to watch!

Also, Marchment was hardly a dud. A pos, sure, but not a dud.

I agree whole heartedly. He just was not popular in the media and was savaged on an almost daily basis, and I suspect in those days that had a lot more influence shaping public opinion. And I think the 'enigmatic Russian' factor is always in play.

He made his mistakes, sure, but he did alright.

 

[Just Ducky]

All GM's from 1.0 had their faults- but with hind sight it easy to fault each.
That Stu Barnes and Draper trade still makes me shake my head.

I was happy when Selanne was traded- we knew our team was leaving anyway.
Phx/Count Bettman could steal our team but you weren't going to get our best player, identity, our soul.

 

[Jets4Life]

things were going sour before Smith took over. i remember there being a few articles about Ducky being unhappy.
better than Phil Housley, who, if memory serves me correctly, walked up to Smith during the Xmas party and started messing his hair up. Housley wanted out, which is a shame, since his career years were in Wpg.

also, let's not re-write Fergie's history. HORRIBLE drafter. made dumb trades. could never surround Ducky with any talent.

I'm not sure where you are getting your information from, but Ducky was unhappy right after Mike Smith took over as GM. Smith and Murdock dramatically cut Hawerchuk's ice time, and it was in the prime of his career too. Smith was not fond of Ducky, and was more than happy to trade him. Hawerchuk got fed up with the situation, and wanted out.

As for Housley, I heard something quite different. Smith and Housley did not care for each other much, and there was an incident at the New Years party (possibly with too much alcohol involved). I learned from multiple sources, that a fistfight almost went down between the two, and afterwards Smith shouted that Housley would be gone from Winnipeg at the end of the season. True enough to his word, Smith dealt Housley to St.Louis for Emerson and Quintal.

 

[Jets4Life]

also, let's not re-write Fergie's history. HORRIBLE drafter. made dumb trades. could never surround Ducky with any talent.

Not quite true.

Drafts:

1979: Dave Christian, Thomas Steen, Tim Watters
1980: Dave Babych, Moe Mantha, Brian Mullen
1981: Dale Hawerchuk, Scott Arniel
1982: Jim Kyte, Dave Ellett
1983: Andrew McBain, Bobby Dollas, Peter Taglianetti, Bob Essensa
1984: none worth mentioning
1985: Fredrik Olausson
1986: Pat Elynuik, Teppo Numminen
1987: Bryan Marchment
1988: Teemu Selanne

Trades:

1979: "Just before the Jets' first NHL game, Ferguson picked up a minor league player from Montreal named Ron Wilson for cash. Wilson was never a star, but a better role player was not to be found, and he went on to play nine seasons with the Jets until he was traded in 1990. His contributions as a penalty killer and all-purpose pest kept him with the team, and amassed 75 goals over 536 regular season games."

1981: "In July, 1981, Ferguson made a five player trade with the St. Louis Blues, acquiring Paul MacLean as a throw-in, yet he turned out to be the key player in the deal. A slow, lumbering forward that saw most of his points come from a five foot radius around the net, MacLean excelled in that role, and picked up 248 goals in 527 games as a Jet before being traded in 1988.

1983: "In March, 1983, Ferguson made an trade with the Oilers, sending Willy Lindstrom away for Laurie Boschman. While Lindstrom was near the end of his fine career, Boschman played seven full seasons for the Jets and certainly justified Ferguson's decision to make the deal.

1984: "In March, 1984, Ferguson traded his first-round selection in the coming Entry Draft and future considerations (Moe Mantha) for a veteran defenseman from Pittsburgh named Randy Carlyle. He came and his tenure in Winnipeg outlasted his own playing career and the team's existence in Winnipeg.
-----

Not overly impressive, but certainly Fergie was not the worst GM of Jets 1.0 history. His preference for big tough goons, and to jump the gun on trades to compete with the Oilers were his two biggest faults.

 

[Doctor Coffin]

2 points then I'm out as I know my opinion won't be shared by many:

Mike Smith was a visionary and made the Jets competitive when they had no money to be competitive.

People criticize him but he was in an impossible situation. He pretty much single handedly brought a dynamic new talent pool in into the NHL.

You might be quick to call him out for Bautin, but it's hilarious that you don't mention Zhamnov, Davydov, Korolev, Ulanov, Mironov, & Khabibulin.

I cannot imagine how awful the Jets would have been without our Russian players. We might not have won the cup, but damn we were entertaining to watch!

Also, Marchment was hardly a dud. A pos, sure, but not a dud.

"Dreamer" seems more appropriate than "visionary." It was no secret that there were a lot of good hockey players in the Soviet Union at the beginning of the 1990s. Smith drafted some of them, but didn't invent them. The problem was that he was a one-trick pony. He had SOME success with his European draft picks, and for the rest of his career was on a mission to show the world that he could build a winner on that specific model. His teams in Winnipeg, as I remember them, consisted of a couple of stars, a tough guy or two (Domi, Cronin, King), and a bunch of spare parts, a mix that never did seemed to accomplish anything as a unit.

My experience was that Smith believed that he knew better than anyone else, smirked and sneered at anyone who didn't agree with him. He later took over a poor, underachieving team in Chicago and made it worse, making ghastly trades all along the way. The 2001-02 false renaissance season was attributable to Brian Sutter - who also could not stand Smith

You bring up Bryan Marchment. Marchment was a solid, young, up-and-coming defenseman in 1991. So, Smith trades him away for an over-the-hill Troy Murray.

Another poster wrote that "Smith and Murdock [sic]" reduced Hawerchuk's ice time, aggravating that situation. I just wanted to ask, did Murdoch really cut down his ice time? Just two years earlier in Chicago under Murdoch, Denis Savard regularly played 25-30 minutes a game and had the highest point total of his career. So, it would be interesting if Murdoch's philosophy had changed in two years' time.

On another note, I'd take Dave Manson, even on the backside of his career as in 1994, over the dancing teddy bear Mironov any day.

Thanks.

 

[Jets4Life]

"Dreamer" seems more appropriate than "visionary." It was no secret that there were a lot of good hockey players in the Soviet Union at the beginning of the 1990s. Smith drafted some of them, but didn't invent them. The problem was that he was a one-trick pony. He had SOME success with his European draft picks, and for the rest of his career was on a mission to show the world that he could build a winner on that specific model. His teams in Winnipeg, as I remember them, consisted of a couple of stars, a tough guy or two (Domi, Cronin, King), and a bunch of spare parts, a mix that never did seemed to accomplish anything as a unit.

My experience was that Smith believed that he knew better than anyone else, smirked and sneered at anyone who didn't agree with him. He later took over a poor, underachieving team in Chicago and made it worse, making ghastly trades all along the way. The 2001-02 false renaissance season was attributable to Brian Sutter - who also could not stand Smith

You bring up Bryan Marchment. Marchment was a solid, young, up-and-coming defenseman in 1991. So, Smith trades him away for an over-the-hill Troy Murray.

Another poster wrote that "Smith and Murdock [sic]" reduced Hawerchuk's ice time, aggravating that situation. I just wanted to ask, did Murdoch really cut down his ice time? Just two years earlier in Chicago under Murdoch, Denis Savard regularly played 25-30 minutes a game and had the highest point total of his career. So, it would be interesting if Murdoch's philosophy had changed in two years' time.

Hawerchuk's ice time was cut during his final couple of seasons as a Jet. Whether this was on Smith's orders, or Murdoch's decision is up for debate. Smith made horrible moves as the Jets GM that make no sense. He favored Russian players over Canadians, and this was evident when he drafted Sergei Bautin in the first round in 1992, when Bautin was 25, and could have been picked up in the fifth round or later. Smith would trade away future stars like Draper and Barnes for virtually nothing. He proceeded to trade Housley, who contributed so much to Teemu's record breaking season, and let Essensa go.

Smith did draft Tkachuk and Khabibulin, but the negatives far outweigh any positives he may have accomplished for the Jets. He would go on to Chicago and continue his poor performance. It's notable that Smith was in Europe during the famous USSR-Canada brawl in the 1987 World Junior Championships, and proceeded to yell and berate the Canadian team for the incident when he came upon them at the airport.

here is a thread that goes into great detail as to why Hawerchuk wanted out:

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=919763&highlight=hawerchuk

"In my era, there were two Winnipegs," Hawerchuk told torontosun.com.

"There was the John Ferguson era, which was positive, upbeat, a really communitydriven team. And then the Mike Smith era, which was negative and pessimistic. That ran through the media.

"Mike Smith did a good job bringing in some talent, but I don't think the same community spirit was there.

"A lot of those guys would just go back to Europe or wherever they were from. Early on, when I played there there were probably a dozen of us who lived there year round.

"I thought I'd be a Winnipeg Jet forever, but at the end Mike pretty much made it impossible for me to really push forward with my career there."