Originally Posted by Jay Random
No, it’s not a coincidence. But it isn’t because the team is deliberately trying to lose, either.
The problem is, the incompetence starts right at the top. Katz hired his buddy Lowe, because he is so ignorant about hockey management that he has no idea how to find a capable president.
Lowe hired his buddy MacTavish, because he is so ignorant that he has no idea how to find a capable GM. I don’t know if Howson is his buddy or not, but they had worked together before, and that was good enough for Lowe.
MacTavish hired Eakins, because he is so ignorant that he has no idea how to find a good coach.
In every instance, the person doing the hiring just handed the job to the first candidate he thought of hiring. There was no search for candidates; no interviewing; no organized process of any kind. Just hire the first person you can think of who hasn’t already got a job. (And all of those guys were unemployed for a reason.)
The weakness of the Flames, for many years, was that the owners didn’t know how to hire people either. When Cliff Fletcher quit, they hired Bill Hay as president (who pretty much did zilch during his tenure), and gave the GM’s job to Doug Risebrough, who was already an employee (but totally unprepared for the promotion). When they fired Risebrough, they replaced him with Al Coates, who was already on the payroll, and when they fired Hay, they replaced him with Ron Bremner and then Ken King, neither of whom had hockey qualifications. Bremner hired Craig Button, not because he was the best man for the job, but because he had a good reputation around the league and was cheaper than anybody with prior GM experience.
Fortunately, Ken King at least knows how to conduct a proper search for qualified employees. Sutter and Feaster were not ideal GMs, but they were a lot better than Risebrough, Coates, or Button. After that, King was smart enough to recognize his weakness, and hired Brian Burke specifically to take over the job of hiring hockey personnel.
The difference between the Flames and the Oilers today is that the Flames hired senior executives who knew how to conduct a proper hiring process, and the Oilers hired guys who just give jobs to their pals. Everything else flows from that.
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