Quote:
Originally Posted by Red John
Don't think many are criticizing bringing in Shanahan. Fans are hoping that he gets carte blanche over hockey operations and brings in his own GM and does things the way he sees best.
What upsets fans is the idea that Shanahan is just a liaison between King and Feaster and status quo remains in hockey ops.
Frankly this comes down to Jay Feaster, Bob Hartley and the current people involved in Flames management. If its a mandate that Feaster stays no matter what, the real change that is needed, won't happen.
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Well, I feel that the role of any president is to be the liaison between the owners (or whatever stakeholders they may be) and lower management. What matters most in that position (in my opinion) is how you set the tone for the organization to be run and hire the most competent people you can below you.
I guess it all comes down to how much 'meddling' really goes on, and if they take King's and Feaster's words for the absolute truth when they came out and said that here is no meddling.
It all depends on how King has been. I am in IT, and I have worked for managers who were IT illiterate. Sometimes they would question my decisions - I would sit with them and explain why I thought 'such and such' was the right approach, and why 'such and such' was the wrong one. I had to 'sell' that manager on what I felt was the right way. How difficult is it to convince King? How often would he say no? How often would he have his own idea as to what was the right way, and force his ideas (or those of the ownership group) down through the pipeline?
I personally just don't think the 'braintrust' was good enough for the last 20 or 30 years. This organization is only finally catching up to other successful organizations now with the scouting and development, and the addition of some executives. I am not convinced that ownership is meddling outside of the occasional "Hey, WTF is going on here? Why do we suck?" now and then. Feaster came out and basically told everyone that he was able to make his decisions without the ownership group blocking him. He even commented on how he called the owners to ask permission to send Kotalik down, and their response was: "Sure, no problem. If you need to, feel free to send Hagman and Stajan down as well."
I think when a rumor starts, it goes around and around. All of a sudden, someone hears it from two different sources, and now the rumor has 'legs'. Someone more legitimate reports on it, and then the rumor has 'merit'. Doesn't mean it is any more true. That is why I just don't buy into the 'ownership is very meddling' in Calgary when these guys are very professional executives and owners who know how to run a business properly - hire good people to manage it for you.
Adding Shanahan (or any other good executive) will only help to reinforce ownership's confidence in the management they hired to run this business. I doubt a good executive would take the job or stay long-term if he felt he was unable to be more than just a messenger back and forth with no powers.