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Originally Posted by Red John
Little late joining the party, but want to chime in regarding "meddling".
It's obvious the new GM is going to be that in title only - he'll handle the day to day operations but make no mistake this will be Burke's team and he'll be driving the bus.
It's a risky hierarchy that hasn't worked for most teams but it can work provided the right people are doing the meddling.
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In reality, it's a hierarchy that simply takes away the traditional decision-making role of the GM. There's no risk at all. There are specific roles in running a hockey club that includes the financial side of the business. Burke is no stranger to the role of GM and President and even meddling from above, but he's old school and believes that hockey decisions should be left to hockey people. In hockey, it's really the role of the President that is superfluous rather than the GM's role. In the end, someone has to make the decisions. If you treat Burke as the GM and the GM as his assistant GM there's little difference.
I think it's reasonable to say that it's a unique situation in Calgary. If you look at other teams with this hierarchy, you have a President with no GM experience, and that includes John Davidson. The issue here is that Burke has a reputation for essentially making his own decisions. Not saying that he doesn't listen to his team, but everywhere he's been he's had the reputation of being the guy calling the shots. Someone like John Davidson on the other hand has the reputation of being much willing to defer to his GM and head scout.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Red John
It's almost never mentioned but look at the Chicago Blackhawks. Stan Bowman may be GM but its public that all decisions are made as a team between himself, Scotty Bowman, and John McDonagh (who in fact fired Dale Tallon because Tallon didn't involve him enough - he just waited for Tallon to make a mistake he could scapegoat him over).
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It's almost never mentioned because Stan Bowman really is in charge. Just because he seeks the advice of Daddy and listens to him doesn't make him any less in power. I haven't heard much in the way of Mcdonough meddling with decisions relating to hockey operations. Putting your own guy in charge of making hockey-related decisions is a bit different from giving your own input on who to draft and who to trade etc.