Who holds Patrick Roy accountable if he coaches the Canadiens?

The question was posed: would Patrick Roy be held accountable by the organization, the media and the fans if he was named coach of the Canadiens?

Organization: I think Patrick would demand and receive a 5 year contract, which would give him a little bit of security and autonomy over and above the financial security he currently enjoys. I think that’s a positive in this case, he’d be taking the job not because he wants a bump in pay, and then coach so as to cling to the salary and position, but rather to win.

Marc Bergevin and his team would probably deal with Patrick as an equal rather than a callow underling. That still implies a level of accountability, and I would argue probably a higher level. I’ve held positions where my direct superior is a buddy and someone I knew socially before they became my boss. They trusted me to deliver and didn’t micromanage me, so I got lots of autonomy, but also felt an inner need to succeed and not let anyone down for personal reasons, over and above any classic employee-boss relationship. I think Patrick would have and need input and a seat at the table, but would also be driven to deliver, and would understand that failure and discord wouldn’t be tolerated.

Geoff Molson has shown to be a patient, thoughtful man. He let the incumbents do their job when he took over instead of autocratically cleaning house as was done in Winnipeg for different reasons. Once he realized that the management team was dysfunctional, he decisively but skillfully went about making changes. He’s no imperious George Steinbrenner-type, but he’s also shown that he’s going to be involved, will care, and won’t suffer incompetence.

Media: I have a jaundiced view of the media to begin with, and the Pierre Gauthier saga just adds to it. Why were we not told that the team hated his guts or feared him? Why were not the Mike Cammalleri jersey story or the Ottawa cookie rationing incidents relayed to the people who consume sports journalism? Why were we not told of the climate of fear in the New Forum? Why was there not a comparative analysis of the way the Canadiens management operated versus a sample of others, such as the Bruins, Wings, Lightning, Coyotes, Leafs and Blue Jackets, for example? I know some will snap that sports journalists need to protect their access to the team by not antagonizing it, but then I have to respond that this access is hollow, useless to the fans. It’s like the supply clerk who won’t give you a box of pens because he’s running out of pens.

My gut is that, with respect to the very low bar set by the media who cover the Canadiens in this instance, the people who championed Patrick Roy would defend his moves and decisions until or unless that became untenable, and at that point the tide would have shifted and he would be on his way out. Conversely, those that had other favourites would give him a very short leash/honeymoon period, and start to stomp him at the first losing streak.

Fans: My guess is that 10% would love the coach unconditionally and would defend him to the end, and past that point. Heck, we have posters who advocate for Randy Cunneyworth right now, so Patrick would have his backers. Another 10% would howl with frustration at the hire and would lick their chops anytime the team didn’t win by a five goal margin. The other 80% would be the sane majority and would support Patrick and give him the benefit of a dozen doubts, win or tie.

Pierre Gauthier's micro-management muzzled Trevor Timmins

Okay, so relatively recently, I stepped forward, in the name of blogger accountability, whereby one’s opinions are attached to oneself and one must defend them or repudiate them when they are demonstrated to be false, and admitted to having offered an opinion on this forum that was not as bang-on as practically everyone of my other posts. It was a trifling matter, not a big deal at all, I’ve held my personal glasnost on this matter, everyone else was allowed to Air their Grievances, we’ve moved on since then, and we’re all better friends for it.

I am now moved to attend to another matter. After last year’s draft, many posters decried Pierre Gauthier’s organizational decision that he would speak to the media about the draft, not Trevor Timmins. These posters stated that this was Mr. Timmins’ one opportunity to shine each year, and he was the most well equipped to speak on the prospects that were chosen by the Canadiens, so that to prevent him from doing so was a disservice to him and the team.

I took the opposite view. I have worked in many organizations where the policy is that only the President or his designates or the person ultimately responsible on scene is allowed to speak to the media. This ensures that the organization can shape its message and that it speaks with a united voice. Right or wrong, this practice is familiar to me, so it didn’t faze me that Mr. Gauthier would decree that the Canadiens would function that way. I argued that his head was on the chopping block if these decisions don’t pan out, so he should be the one to speak for the organization. It made sense to me at the time.

I now officially retract that statement, and concur with the others that Mr. Timmins should be allowed to speak on matters of the draft and the team’s prospects. Marc Bergevin’s way of doing business, of decentralizing decision-making and of allowing subordinates to spread their wings is a much preferable climate than Mr. Gauthier’s now-revealed Reign of Terror.

I still think that both communications strategies have value, but what the posters decried last June, and they were proven right, was that Mr. Gauthier was micro-managing, behaving in an imperious manner, and was clipping the wings of those in what should have been his entourage. In this they were proven right. Since he was let go, we were told the Ottawa cookie story, the fact that his players feared/detested him, the Mike Cammalleri game-worn jersey story, the knee-jerk quality to some of his decisions, instead of a committee approach… I defended his communications strategy as nothing to worry about, as an accepted business practice. The detractors were proven right that this behaviour was symptomatic of something fundamentally wrong with his management style and his persona. I wanted to come forward and admit that.

So I was wrong on that count. That’s two that I’ll admit to. I kind of forget what was the first one, maybe I’ve blocked it out. We do what we can to preserve our self-image.

As far as the love for Mr. Timmins , I agree that he’s shown a good eye for talent, but what has me even more excited is the statement by Mr. Bergevin that he will beef up the scouting team, and Mr. Molson’s assertion that the team will not spare any effort or resources to win. Taken together, this is a very positive development.

We sometimes pine for the days of Sam Pollock, for a wizard who would routinely pull a rabbit out of a hat, and would outfox other organizations. Those days are over, we won’t be able to fool other teams as we have in the past, there is too much available info out there for us to rely on that to succeed. What we can do is build a solid organization, with strong teams in the scouting and player development areas. We can have young lieutenants getting their feet wet and being groomed to take over if the next Guy Boucher or Julien Brisebois is cherry-picked by another organization. With these strong management teams, what we can do is outwork the other teams, and ensure that we get the best prospects possible and then give them all the advantages they need to reach the NHL and contribute to our next great dynasty.

Petr Nedved and the Vancouver Canucks' sad draft day dirge

Holy flashback Batman, a Petr Nedved sighting at the World Championships! I didn’t know he was still playing.

You think Montréal suffers from draft revisionism, from first pick remorse. You should hear them here in Vancouver. Alex Stojanov, Jason Herter, Dan Woodley, they play the same broken record we play. And Dan from Edmonton has the same tale of woe, post 1990.

The 1990 draft, whenever it is brought up, is always referred to as the Great Miss, and the bellyaching commences ipso facto. First, the Canucks drafted ‘hometown hero’ Petr Nedved, since he played in their backyard with the Seattle Thunderbirds. The Canucks have had the same luck drafting Thunderbirds in the first round as the Canadiens have (see, Vallis, Lindsay; Stevenson, Turner; Bilodeau, Brent) it seems. Instead of taking Hall of Fame and Stanley Cup winner Jaromir Jagr, or at least rugged centre Keith Primeau, they chose small, surly diva Petr Nedved, he of the contract holdouts and trade demands, the guy who couldn’t play in traffic they said since it would make him drop his purse.

Then late in the first round, the Canucks chose physical winger Shawn Antoski, a guy who was going to be the second coming of Cam Neely, only bigger and stronger, and a faster skater. Trouble is, he had hands of stone, and chosen immediately after the career plugger who was beset by injuries, were Keith Tkachuk, who would have filled the role of scoring tough forward nicely, and Martin Brodeur, another guy who the Canucks could have used. “Imagine Brodeur instead of Cloutier in nets”, they moan.

So it’s kind of a shock to see a smiling, happy Petr Nedved, a guy who is blamed for some lean years in Vancouver, much as we may look at Scott Gomez in years to come. He’s Andrei Kostitsyn to Vancouver fans, only way way worse, the guy they ended up with instead of the guy they should have got, and the guy who left town with a ‘Goodbye and good riddance’.

There is no other choice for coach of the Canadiens but Patrick Roy

 I was talking with my friend Mitch on Saturday about Alain Vigneault having his contract extended.  Mitch is a knowledgeable hockey fan, a diehard Canuck and a really good Men's League player (as opposed to our lower level Rec League here in Whistler).  Anyway, he kind of shrugged when we were discussing it, and agreed with me that there aren't that many coaching candidates out there that really get your attention.  In that climate, he's okay with the decision, although he feels that a lot of coaches could have done just as well with that stacked team, and that on some occasions last season Mr. Vigneault was clearly outcoached.

I commiserated with him, and explained that the Canucks probably did the right thing, and if they hadn't we would probably have snapped him up.  As it is, I told him there were real slim pickings out there for our coaching position.

Which brings me to state, again, that especially with the dearth of great coaching candidates, either guys with lots of experience and a winning background, or up-and-coming natural choices like Guy Boucher or Kirk Muller, we should not try to bunt our way on with a safe choice like Bob Hartley or Marc Crawford.  We should swing for the fences and hire Patrick Roy, instead of hiring a more middle-of-the-road candidate and then watch Mr. Roy go to another franchise within a couple of years and make us regret it.  It's kind of like when you're at the bar: you don't sell yourself short and just talk to the plain girls, you suss out the best-looking one and then go for broke, despite the hurdles and that little voice in the back of your mind that's telling you you're wasting your time.

Patrick Roy would bring fire and passion behind the bench, something we've been missing for a few seasons now.  He would bring instant credibility, no one would disrespect the Hall of Famer.  Kids would have stars in their eyes.  Much is made of his volatility, but to hear him speak nowadays you get the sense that he's a grown man, in full command of his team.  He's respectful, humble, frank, insightful.

His inexperience is the stumbling block that many point to, but like I said it's bad judgment to let the best candidate walk away on a technicality and regret it later.  He has a lot of coaching experience now, as well as GM experience in Junior, which would help him understand and participate in some of the personnel decisions.  Finally, we could surround him with experienced Assistant Coaches.  There's a whole slew of people who could help him out and ease his transition to the NHL game: Larry Robinson, Doug Jarvis, Guy Carbonneau, Guy Lapointe, Keith Acton, Gerard Gallant, etc...  I'd be very favourable to having former Canadiens who have played with him and would bring a different dynamic to that position, in that they know Patrick as a person and could call a spade a spade with him, and also call bullspit when needed.  Any fears about his temperament can be allayed this way.

So let's not settle for good enough.  Let's hire the guy who has the stuff, the winning fire, the potential to be the next great Canadiens coach, not just the next in a long line of coaches who last two and a half seasons and then get kicked to the curb.

Scott Mellanby named Canadiens' Director of Player Personnel

The Canadiens have announced that they have appointed Scott Mellanby as the Director of Player Personnel.  The director of player personnel is in charge of all the players in the Canadiens’ system except those with the Grand Club, so he will oversee the prospects in Junior, NCAA, Europe, and the AHL players. This is a hockey/human resources position.

I think this is a vital link in player development. Some guys will just naturally end up in the NHL, but some will need to be pointed in the right direction and be offered all kinds of support. I think of two guys who I’ve touched on today, Olivier Archambault and Ian Schultz. These guys need to be coached up and put on programs and have constant encouragement and coaching.

Another guy who I think needs this support is Alex Avtsin, who seems like a kid who came over to North America and put in a pro league too soon. He should probably have spent a year in junior. Anyway, after two disappointing seasons, there needs to be some focus on him and an attempt to harness all that raw talent and get it going in the right direction.

A story that staggered me, having a bit of a HR background, was one told by Ryan McDonagh, who when he was asked if he saw the trade to the Rangers coming, answered that he didn’t expect it at all. In fact, he continued, he was a couple days away from attending the Canadiens’ development camp, and was looking forward to it to find out what the team had in mind for him, since, in his words, “I hadn’t heard anything from them in a long while.” This story boggled my mind, and is why I’ve been very receptive to the idea of a bigger front office with lots of talented staff and defined priorities for each. If we had that kind of front office instead of a very small centralized hierarchy with tight control on all aspects of hockey operations, like Bob Gainey and Pierre Gauthier ran, the Ryan McDonagh story would never have happened as such. Heck, maybe there would have been a strong voice in place that would have advocated against trading away the kid, would have seen him as much more than just disposable trade bait.

So Scott Mellanby joins the team as Director of Player Personnel, great.

Now, let’s get some former Habs in the front office in junior roles to learn the ropes and prepare a succession plan.

Alex Galchenyuk is a gym rat? Gimme more of those please!

Some fans debate the importance of a particular draft prospect, namely Alex Galchenyuk, being a gym rat.  One fan makes the very good point that anyone drafted in the first round is either one or becomes one very quickly by dint of their chosen profession. Despite this I agree that it is an important distinction, a tag which when affixed properly helps to evaluate players.

A gym rat is someone who you can’t get rid of at the gym, he’s there everyday, sometimes twice a day, and unfailingly is there because he loves the gym. Other players who go because it’s part of their program, or because their coaches tell them to, usually don’t work out with the same dedication and intensity, take days off, etc.

Same goes for a rink rat. Some guys love hockey and everything about it. They’ll be at every practice, won’t ever miss a game, will join a couple of pickup teams or play drop-in when they can, as opposed to the guys who like hockey but take every day off that they’re entitled to, and sometimes miss a game or practice because they ‘need to study’ or ‘couldn’t get a sitter’.

Going back to the gym rat moniker, we can apply it to P.K. Subban and Mike Cammalleri, but not to guys like Ian Schultz and Ryan White and Guillaume Latendresse and Olivier Archambault. The two former players have their quirks and flaws, but have never been accused of not showing up to camp in shape or sucking wind in the third period.

Guillaume Latendresse was heavily scouted and was promised to a bright future, but physical conditioning was always a problem for him. It’s something that can easily be addressed, yet he chose to ignore this until possibly last summer. There’s no telling how much his career has been set back due to poor physical fitness.

Ryan White and Ian Schultz were both guys who had good junior careers, both with the Calgary Hitmen incidentally, but who both carried too much weight and would need to shed that to make an impression in the pro game. Ryan White was described as having a ‘bad body’ but playing well despite it, with good hockey sense. He fell to the third round in the draft, past guys who were ranked lower than him by Central Scouting like Ben Maxwell and Milan Lucic. I still wonder if his unimpressive physique, on full display at the draft Combine, made him fall a round or so. Once he had to make the jump to the AHL he understood what he needed to do and was a pleasant surprise two seasons ago with his energy and reckless style.

Ian Schultz is the guy who was destined to be known as the ‘throw-in’ in the Jaro Halak-Lars Eller trade, a guy who was out of his league in the AHL. Conditioning was the main issue with him, as observers used to note. Last summer however, he showed up to camp in decent shape, having shed a few pounds and being a little bit stronger, and had a good season. He was singled out by Clément Jodoin, the Bulldogs head coach, as being the most improved player along with Joonas Nattinen.

Olivier Archambault is one of those high-risk, high-reward draft picks, although spending a fourth rounder on him was not a steep cost. He has great skill and scoring talent, but worth ethic and fitness are two question marks among many. Apparently he did nothing to address these issues this season and he again underwhelmed. He needs to wake up and pattern his habits after players like David Desharnais and Martin St. Louis, guys who look like middleweight wrestlers.

So when I read that a player like Alex Galchenyuk is a gym rat, that’s a checkmark in the plus column for me. This is not to say that other players who currently don’t spend the same amount of time in the gym will not ever do so, but since past behaviour is the best indicator of future behaviour, I say Mr. Galchenyuk is a step or two ahead of others in this department. A hockey player who is a gym rat/rink rat is definitely a good thing.

Rogers' livestream of the Memorial Cup is an abysmal failure

 I hope Rogers runs the Leafs with the same attention and duty of care that they showed when they trumpeted that they would provide a livestream of the Memorial Cup earlier this season.  Absolute total bush league.

Need a hockey analyst?  Hire Nick Kypreos, the goon who intentionally took out Grant Fuhr in the '96 playoff run, blew out his ACL, and effectively ended his career.

Want to bring NFL football to Canada?  Enter into an agreement with a poorly run franchise, have a press-conference where the senile owner of that franchise cackles with the dessicated owner of the broadcaster over the fact that the taxpayers of Ontario built the stadium the event will be held in and then gifted it to you so you can then gouge the same taxpayers for tickets to that event.  Make sure to appeal to the citizens' sense of civic pride.  It would be a black eye for Torontonians to not snap up every over-priced seat.  Racketeers such as Ziggy Wilf and Jim Irsay and the corpse of Al Davis would cluck their disapproval.

Puck-teased a whole country with a vow to livestream the Memorial Cup, and now you kind of have to put out?  Just throw on a horsebleep one-camera shot from the corner of the rink, with no replays or commentary or scoreclock.

You guys are heroes.

Will Danny Kristo spurn the Canadiens, like Justin Schultz with the Ducks?

Some Canadiens fans are worried that Danny Kristo's decision to not turn pro this summer but rather return to the University of North Dakota is a bad portend of things to come.  They liken it to the Justin Schultz situation with the Anaheim Ducks.  Mr. Schultz is setting up to become an unrestricted free agent by spurning Anaheim's offers, and who can blame a player in his shoes for choosing his own future as opposed to having it dictated to him by the NHL's rules?

http://www.anaheimcalling.com/2012/3/14/2870063/anaheim-ducks-justin-schultz-contract-restricted-free-agent-wisconsin-badgers-bob-murray-contract

In Danny Kristo's case though, I am not concerned.  He has never expressed any reluctance to join the Canadiens, as Justin Shultz has with the Ducks. His reasons for going back to school is that for him playing at the University of North Dakota is a boyhood dream. His options are taking a year off hockey to become a UFA, signing with the Canadiens and playing in Hamilton next season, or playing another season at UND and shoot for a Frozen Four berth and even a national championship.  It shouldn't be seen as a bad omen that he chooses to stick with his team and teammates and takes another shot at a title.

His links to the Canadiens are not strong, but neither are they tenuous. He’s good buddies with Louis Leblanc, having roomed with him in the USHL. He also played this season with Mark MacMillan at UND, so it’s likely that the two Canadiens draft picks talked to each other about the Grand Club.

His goalie at UND, Aaron Dell, had a tryout at the Canadiens development camp last season, and there was a rumour that he had signed a contract, but ultimately he returned to UND for his final season. Mr. Dell will be back at the development camp this summer, and it’s not unlikely that he may be offered a contract that he accepts.

Taking all this in consideration, with the fact that there will be a flood of rookies joining Hamilton this fall, he made a good decision to follow his heart back to UND, which won’t hurt him since he hasn’t dominated competition at the college level to the point that he doesn’t have anything left to learn there.

Ilya Kovalchuk redeems himself

You guys remember how good it seemed Illy Kovalchuk was going to be when he broke in with the Trashers? He was on the cusp of being one of the faces of the NHL. Remember the Nike commercial with Markus Naslund and him?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UIppjQajqU

He then seemed to fade, with his contract status and a bad team the prime suspects for the drop-off in performance. Last summer the mammoth contract with the Devils almost turned him into a punchline.

What a difference a strong playoff run makes. He’s finally arrived at where we always thought he would get to.

The Canadiens introduce Rick Dudley as their new Assistant GM

So the Canadiens finally bring over Rick Dudley from the Toronto Maple Leafs, the hold up being tied to language regarding his non-compete clause which apparently states he will not divulge draft info gathered while working with the Leafs.  Some argue that there would be little advantage in that since the Canadiens are picking before the Leafs in most rounds, and especially in the first where we pick 3rd and the Leafs have the fifth pick.

I disagree with this view.  I think the Canadiens would benefit massively from sharing info with Mr. Dudley, and I think it is fair that this agreement has been reached.  Mr. Dudley got this information from scouts working for the Leafs organization, and it wouldn't be fair for the Canadiens to benefit from it.  In a number of industries, when an executive gets hired by a competitor, such non-compete clauses specify what areas are off-limits to discuss and within what timeframes.

As far as the benefit the Canadiens would receive from comparing info, I think the clear advantage would be in the later rounds.  Some outstanding Canadiens picks in very recent years such as Morgan Ellis, Brendan Gallagher and Darren Dietz now seem inspired.  Colin Sullivan gathered a little bit of ink lately for a seventh rounder, he was a kid with little to draw attention except his size and skating ability, but now that seventh round choice is looking good, in that he is developing nicely and is headed in the right direction.  These players were probably scouted once or twice, and background checks done as well as interviews, and on this basis they were selected when still available in the later rounds, due to whatever factors.  These selections are not quite hunches, but they're not as researched as the likely candidates in the first and second round were.

With this in mind, imagine that Trevor Timmins and his staff have quite a few dark horses that, due to less than ideal size, or injuries, or a late birthday, or poor linemates on a horrible team, or an experienced goalie ahead of a potential draftee on the depth chart soaking up all the starts, have not had a chance to shine and shoot up the rankings.  The Canadiens scouts hope to grab them in the later rounds.  These guys will have been scouted as I've said before only a couple of times, but the backgrounders and interviews will confirm what they showed on the ice and we'll get an organizational, let's say, tumescence for them.

So let's say Mr. Timmins and his team have 10 dark horses.  If he was able to pick Rick Dudley's brain and run these names past him, and finds out that he also absolutely loves 8 of them and completely agrees that they are diamonds in the rough.  One thing that does is it validates your scouting and your hunches.  Another is that it alerts you to the fact that other teams see what you see in these dark horses, and maybe you need to revise your board and create a Top 8 dark horses and leave the other two for free agent tryout contracts.  Also, maybe Mr. Dudley has info from an uncle or neighbour that the shifty small but very talented forward you're considering in the fourth round is undoubtedly the giant dick and pain in the butt that everyone says he is, so maybe you wait until the fifth or sixth for him.  As we should have done last year.

So I have no doubt that the Canadiens would derive an advantage from being able to copy from the Leafs exam sheet, and being able to consequently change a couple of answers.  I fully understand Toronto's reluctance to allow Mr. Dudley to join the Canadiens prior to the draft.

In general, his joining our staff is good news.  We saw what happens when a lone wolf GM tries to do everything by himself and micromanage every facet of the team.  The results are apparent by analyzing recent roster moves, and by the tone of comments from players such as Jaroslav Spacek.  Instead of that approach, Marc Bergevin is confident enough to surround himself with smart hockey guys, that's great news.  It allays the fear some might have had in a rookie GM being faced with such a monumental task.  Mr. Dudley along with Larry Carrière is a good brain trust with vast experience to support him.

As I've stated before, we now must also attend to the succession plan, and be ready when another team raids our front office for talent, or people decide to leave for whatever reasons.  We have to have personnel ready to assume higher positions in the organization when someone at the top moves on.  We have to have people in the front office learning the ropes and being groomed to succeed when an opportunity arises, either in Montréal or elsewhere.  It won't hurt us to have five or ten people who were groomed at the University of the New Forum working in other organizations.  They'll be good contacts to have, and a pool of candidates to draw from when we have openings as well.

Having lots of hands on deck will allow more coverage, more support for our prospects.  We shouldn't hear stories any longer like Ryan McDonagh's, when he explained that before the trade in June 2009, he was looking forward to attending the Canadiens development camp since he hadn't heard from anyone in the organization in a long time and was wondering what they expected from him.  We should have a staff of people keeping in regular contact with our prospects and visiting with them and giving any support they need.  We can do that if we have staff on hand to allocate this area to.

To fill these junior roles, I am partial to former Habs who wore the bleu blanc rouge with pride and honour.  I nominate Vincent Damphousse and Hal Gill, off the top of my head.

Vincent had to remove himself from consideration for the head job due to family commitments.  Most people know he's going through a divorce right now, and the prospect of the travel involved in the job was not feasible in his mind, he needs to be a stay at home dad.  He may be amenable to a junior role though, one that allows him to mostly stay in Montréal.  As his boys get older and he has that situation under control, he can start to assume more responsibility.

As far as Hal Gill goes, I'm not sure if he's ready for retirement from active duty, he may be able to get a contract to play somewhere, but if he wants a job with us, let's give him one.  He seems to like Montréal, his family does as well and they stayed here when he was traded to Nashville.  He's shown calm and leadership in his time here, and we've been able to overlook his Leaf and Bruin antecedents and have grown to love the guy.  He's funny, he's smart, he commands attention, let's get this guy working with our prospects on the ice, let's give him an office upstairs, let's find out what he likes to do and what he's good at, and harness the potential of that guy.