Jeff Gorton began his term with the Canadiens on Wednesday night by attending the Laval Rocket game at Place Bell.
His first decisions are eagerly awaited, but those hoping to see Gorton and the next GM transform the Canadiens’ identity in the coming months could be disappointed.
In the majority of cases, new hockey men like to take the time to assess the situation. All the more so when they are hired in high season or at the dawn of it.
Rushing things up puts managers in a weak position, and Gorton is certainly not the type to want to expose some vulnerability in this way.
The example of Pittsburgh and Minnesota
Take for example Brian Burke and Ron Hextall, hired in February 2021 in Pittsburgh. They promised to look into the issue of rejuvenating the team, but ultimately went with the status quo to give this team built by their predecessors a (last?) Chance for playoff success.
At most Hextall ceded a third round pick to the Kings to get their hands on Jeff Carter at the trade deadline. Things could change almost a year later.
Studying Bill Guerin’s Minnesota operation gives us another similar clue. Guerin’s work is interesting since he inherited a very different club from Hextall’s in August 2019.
The Wild had just missed the playoffs and had been eliminated in the first round in the three previous seasons. The nucleus was getting old. There was nothing very encouraging about the hope bank.
NHL.COM PHOTO
Bill Guerin has worked methodically since arriving in Minnesota. Jeff Gorton will undoubtedly act the same way with the eventual GM.
Guerin didn’t make any drastic decisions. He retained coach Bruce Boudreau. He made just one trade in his first six months in office, handing over a man named Gustav Bouramman to the Florida Panthers with nothing in return. For the more curious, Bouramman, an ECHL defender, quickly returned to Sweden at the end of the 2018-2019 season.
A reconstruction was essential in the eyes of many, but Guerin preferred to work methodically.
At the trade deadline in 2019, he sacrificed one of the team’s good forwards, Jason Zucker, to the Penguins for young defenseman Calen Addison and a first-pick.
Veterans sacrificed
A few months later, he announced to captain Mikko Koivu that his services would no longer be retained and gave Eric Staal to the Buffalo Sabers, to make more room for young people.
Joel Eriksson-Ek, Jordan Greenway and Kevin Fiala took the opportunity to take a bigger place in the club. Subtle decisions, but effective.
He also managed to convince the club’s most promising hope, Kiril Kaprizov, to cross the Atlantic. His arrival transformed the team.
Bill Guerin finally resolved to fire coach Bruce Boudreau in February 2020… 18 months after his arrival, to replace him with Dean Evason. Our man also took two years to rebuild his recruiting team by getting his hands on one of the best in the business, Judd Brackett, formerly of the Vancouver Canucks, in July 2020. Gorton and the eventual general manager will not have not this luxury since the post of Director of Amateur Recruitment is vacant.
This summer, two years after his hiring, Bill Guerin took the symbolic decision to buy the contracts of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, hired by Chuck Fletcher nine years earlier for the staggering sum of almost 200 million.
Guerin begins to have a team in his hand. But twelve players with the team when it arrived are still there. The Wild finished ninth overall last year and made the playoffs, before losing in the first round of seven games to Vegas. They are currently eighth overall with a strong 15-6-1 record.
Guerin did not destroy this dilapidated house, but his methodical changes seem to be bearing fruit. Jeff Gorton and the next GM will no doubt act the same.
Despair in Philadelphia
Speaking of the Wild and Bill Guerin’s predecessor, Chuck Fletcher has still failed to raise the bar in Philadelphia, despite enormous resources. The Flyers have just suffered a seventh consecutive failure, Wednesday against the Rangers, and now occupy the penultimate place in the Metropolitan section, five points from the last place giving access to the playoffs. This time around, we can’t blame young goaltender Carter Hart, who gets the job done. The Flyers have one of the worst offense in the league. “I’m not satisfied with anything,” coach Alain Vigneault said after the game. We have to find ways to win. We do not mark. We will have to win our matches 1-0 and 2-1 until we find our finish. ”