Quote:
Originally Posted by Harry Lime
It's starting ro look like this might be a team game.
Perhaps the deciding factor is a gm who isn't ####.
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That, and an owner who is willing to take intelligent risks and knows how to hire people who can tell which risks actually are intelligent.
Throughout the history of the NHL, there have been teams in contention and teams that were just there to make up the numbers. I can give some examples of what I mean to make it clearer:
The Leafs were in contention in the 6-team league. They had a goal of competing for the Cup every year and the resources to back it up. They sponsored so many minor hockey teams that they could always, in those pre-draft days, rely on plenty of young talent coming up through the system.
After expansion, the sponsorship system went out, the draft came in, and Harold Ballard bought the Leafs. He didn't give a damn whether he ever won the Stanley Cup or not, as long as all the tickets were sold. So the Leafs became a make-up-the-numbers team and were irrelevant for decades.
The Canadiens stayed in contention a lot longer, chiefly because Sam Pollock was a grandmaster at cheating other teams out of their draft picks. Around the time the Bell Centre opened, their owners started treating the team as a cash cow. Instead of hiring GMs with a plan to win and the chops to see it through, they hired a string of GMs who spoke good French and looked plausible to the media. The Habs became a make-up-the-numbers team.
For many years in the Original Six, Detroit was in contention and Chicago was a make-up-the-numbers team. Then the Norris family, which controlled both teams, decided to change their priorities and the teams switched roles. (There was actually a pretty big trade between Detroit and Chicago which, I believe, marks the exact turning point.)
Much later, ‘Dollar’ Bill Wirtz got control of the Blackhawks, pinched every penny, and the club became a make-up-the-numbers team again. When he died, Rocky Wirtz opened up his wallet and put them back in contention. It remains to be seen which way the Hawks will go under the current generation of ownership.
The Oilers were in contention from the moment they brought Gretzky into the league, and remained so until 1990, when the NHLPA began publishing players' salaries and the Oilers' players realized how badly Glen Sather had been ripping them off. They've been a make-up-the-numbers team ever since, although Sportsnet tries mighty hard to pretend otherwise.
The Flames came into the league as a make-up-the-numbers team, but Cliff Fletcher put them in contention because his bosses wanted so badly to beat the Oilers. After he left, they reverted to a make-up-the-numbers team and have pretty much been one since.
It's going to take a major change of direction for the Flames to decide to be in contention. Bottoming out and drafting high won't do it. The trouble is that being a contender (even in a cap league) costs a lot of money, and the business case just isn't there to make it profitable in a market as small as this. I believe it will take an owner who is willing to risk large amounts of his own money for the glory of building a winner – and Canada is not well known for producing such people.
Note that ‘in contention’ is about organizational philosophy and management. It is not the same as being ‘a contender’, which is about having a really good roster at a particular time. Teams that are not in contention may happen to ice contending rosters for a year or two now and then, but it doesn't last.