Quote:
Originally Posted by Calgary4LIfe
Alright, so you feel that someone has had to play the game competitively for some time.
Feaster does scout. I have no idea how often he scouts, but he does. I remember an interview where he said he would be going out east for 3 days or so to do some scouting. Doesn't mean he is any good, doesn't mean he is bad - just means that he does scout 'x' amount of time (and I would personally assume it would be lower than the average as compared to other GM's - but just an assumption).
As for the 'living and breathing' thing - how do you or anyone else know that Feaster or King don't live and breathe hockey? How do you know they don't PVR and watch as many games as possible?
I am not here defending Feaster - I for one have never really liked him much. However, he has been involved in hockey now since 1988 apparently - longer than a large portion of NHL hockey players now. He never did play hockey, but he seemed to love the sport enough to want to continue in this field. After he left Tampa, he did some blogging for a while about hockey - seems to have enough love for the game to do that rather than return to his law practice (or maybe he did, but still loved hockey enough to try and remain in the game somehow).
I would much rather the Flames bring in a better GM (I don't particularly like most of his moves, and his constant drivel in the media I find a bit much), but when people throw out the terms: "not a hockey guy" or use the "newspaper man" when talking about Ken King, I just kind of scratch my head at times. I do think that the Flames should hire the best guys available, but that to me doesn't necessarily mean being a hockey guy. If it was, Lowe, Tambelini and Milbury would not be the huge flops that they were. Conversely, Bowman and Lamoriello wouldn't be seen as so brilliant (though they both played competitive hockey, none played close to the level of the 3 aforementioned).
I just think being a 'hockey' guy is less and less important as you move up the organization. I think it is definitely a 'plus' that Shanahan was a great player who played the game for a while, but what is more important to the Flames to him being president is his competency at being a president in the organization, not a scout or an evaluator of talent. That is simply not the job of a president I would think, but I do agree it adds value.
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I'm going mostly by the stuff like Cervenka (IIRC Feaster never watched him play, Weisbrod was the one sent off to vouch for the guy?) and Jankow (IIRC, and I hope I have the right player, they were going to trade/move down in the draft till Weisbrod (?) saw him play)...
Featser might have gone East to PRO scout, but there was an article a few days/short weeks ago saying he doesn't do any amateur scouting.
Also, I have never used the word "newspaperman" ... mostly because I don't have a problem with KK's background, as he isn't/shouldn't be making hockey decisions. But a GM, I want my GM to be at the very minimum one of the 30 best GM's in the NHL (o/w it means there are better options out there)...... and ideally, one of the best of the 30... in the large hockey community of options, do you honestly believe one of the 30 best people in the entire field can be one of the best when they never played the game? I never said Feaster is completely ignorant to hockey, I'm saying its just really hard to be one of the best if you don't have that background.
Its great that he was an underwear blogger during stints to stay current, but a lot of other former GM's scout. Has Feaster ever been a scout? As far as I know, he's always been a suit guy.
Again, not saying he doesn't know anything about hockey. Just saying there is a certain limit that I think reach without the experience, and that limit is likely below being one of the 30 best in the industry.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jay Random
I can agree with that.
I don't have a terribly high opinion of Feaster as a GM. I think the Flames hired him in the wrong way and for the wrong reasons. He was supposed to be Darryl Sutter's mouthpiece, the guy who would do most of the talking to the media while Sutter made the hockey decisions. Making the mouthpiece the actual GM, in my opinion, was a fairly serious mistake.
But if the club were to fire him because they suddenly noticed that he never played hockey, I'd say they were firing him for the wrong reason. Fire him based on his performance on the job, or don't fire him at all.
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I think that would be "proof is in the pudding"