The Athletic: NHL front office confidence rankings

[sureLoss]

https://theathletic.com/454869/2018/...team-is-doing/

The Athletic's annual survey of fans on how much confidence they have in their front office.

Tampa #1.

Canadian teams:
Leafs #2
Jets #4
Flames #21
Canucks #28
Oilers #29
Habs #30
Sens #31

[Funkhouser]

Seems about right
Would be interested to see which American teams are ahead of us.

[TheKurgan]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

Canucks #28
Oilers #29
Habs #30
Sens #31

Really sad to see how mismanaged most Canadian teams are.

Except the Oilers of course... E=NG

[Benched]

what's public opinion vs. fan base?

seems like overlapping things, at least partially

[sureLoss]

Originally Posted by Benched

what's public opinion vs. fan base?

seems like overlapping things, at least partially

Fan base are those who identified themselves as Flames fans. Public opinion are those who did not.

[PugnaciousIntern]

Tough to make sense of this. Canadian players and management are under the microscope, so I’m expecting the general opinion to be more volatile. Doesn’t necessarily equate to actual job performance. The ‘public opinion vs fan base’ is interesting in concept but without adequate statistical power, it’s unclear whether it is significant.

[Cali Panthers Fan]

May as well just post the standings. It seems to correlate pretty closely with these fan confidence things. Kinda silly if you ask me.

[bubbsy]

Am curious when the polling is done (during last season, during the playoffs, after the cup, after the draft, after ufa period dies down)??

[VilleN]

Why bother polling the general public? If you don’t identify as a fan you probably know absolutely nothing about the team and are most likely guessing.

I also agree that Canadian fans are likely to be much more volatile in their opinions on management.

[moncton golden flames]

front office hockey operations confidence (treliving and co) - very high
front office business operations (king and co) confidence - very low

[Rtown]

So just so I got this straight the Leafs management is second best in the league because they won a lottery and Tavares decided he wants to go home? I’ll give full marks to Tampa but the Leafs? C’mon.

[Vinny01]

Interesting.

My confidence in the front office has been fully restored with a phenomenal summer for Treliving. I think he is one of the better trading GM’s in the league but I can see how the perception of both the Hamonic and Hurricane blockbusters could be viewed negatively.

A lot of teams had massive disappointments this past season. Flames, Oilers, Stars, Hawks, Blues in the West with the Habs, Sens, Islanders to name a few in the East. Of those teams Calgary has been the most aggressive at improving their roster and making changes. I guess it depends on how you view it but the Lindholm, Hanifin, and Neal pickups were all great moves imo. .

[Ashasx]

I think it's amazing how poorly fans around the league think of Canadian teams. It should be absolutely damning to these managers and the owners to instill a complete culture change in the majority of them.

It's quite unfortunate for the fans as well because Canadians are likely the ones to care the most.

[Erick Estrada]

Cap management seems a little low. Flames have a lot of their young guys on solid contracts compared to a lot of the league. Sure the Brouwer contract is a stinker but I think this has been a strength for Treliving for the most part.

[Strange Brew]

Although there are very few "bad" contracts on the Flames, it still feels odd to me they are so tight against the cap.

There are no super elite players on the team earning the very big money, so I do wonder if Flames have too many $3 to $5 million players in supporting roles.

[burnitdown]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

Although there are very few "bad" contracts on the Flames, it still feels odd to me they are so tight against the cap.

There are no super elite players on the team earning the very big money, so I do wonder if Flames have too many $3 to $5 million players in supporting roles.

I agree...with 14+ players making $3M per year or more (doesn't include Tkachuk), yet no huge contracts, we will likely always see value in our top 2 lines but a handful for 3rd/4th liners and 5/6 D that are quite overpaid for the role they're playing. Not necessarily a bad thing but minute availability alone will prevent some guys with big contracts from being able to produce what we hope.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by TheKurgan

Really sad to see how mismanaged most Canadian teams are.

Except the Oilers of course... E=NG

There is some mis-management for sure (Edmonton and Ottawa), but it is probably more reflective of Canadian fan sentiment that it is about actual management.

I don't see this as an indictment of the management of the Canadian organizations, I see it as a reflection of how Canadian fans view their teams.

[Willi Plett]

Timing is everything on this and it doesn’t indicate when the poll was taken. After just coming off of a very disappointing season the low scores for us are somewhat expected. Yet, we all know Treliving tried hard to make trades sooner.

Even now, we are waiting to see what the Hanifin deal looks like and how Tre manages the cap space.

Personally, the fact that he recognized and acted on major shakeups heightened my confidence. Remember the fool me once, fool me twice and just keep fooling me we had prior to this?

Trading Hamilton was gutsy and not well received by some. That said I sincerely believe they needed to. Really like the shake up so far.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Cap management seems a little low. Flames have a lot of their young guys on solid contracts compared to a lot of the league. Sure the Brouwer contract is a stinker but I think this has been a strength for Treliving for the most part.

Exactly. Which, to me, is reflective of the fact that a poll like this is more of a popularity contest than anything else. As soon as a team starts having success, their 'cap management' will suddenly score higher.

Polls like this are meaningless, other than to get a barometer of fan sentiment.

[Willi Plett]

Brouwer on waivers for buyout... please increase scores. Thanks