[News] Feaster and Weisbrod relieved of duties. Burke will hire a new GM

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Freeway

My impression was that Burke spoke to many people about Feaster and Weisbrod, and his impressions were poor enough based on those conversations to terminate both of them.

Reverse psychology? Feaster and Weisbrod are secretly excellent, and Burke was tricked by the enemies of the Flames?

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Phanuthier

I wonder if the ROR debacle is the one that gave people around the NHL that Feaster/Weisbrod "thought they were smarter then everyone else" ?

Yeah and I just think the reaction would be, like it was to many here, "Why wouldn't you just take 5 minutes to call and find out to make sure?"

Someone posted some behind the scenes thoughts of Ken King that sort of mirrored this belief.

[Roughneck]

Originally Posted by nik-

ROR and the Iginla trade are likely two instances that would have outside staffs saying "wtf"

While picking Jankowski probably didn't do much how they went on about him after the fact probably had some people rolling their eyes more than they normally would I would imagine.

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by nik-

Yeah and I just think the reaction would be, like it was to many here, "Why wouldn't you just take 5 minutes to call and find out to make sure?"

Someone posted some behind the scenes thoughts of Ken King that sort of mirrored this belief.

Arrogance? Knowing you are right and you will probably win....

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Phanuthier

Arrogance? Knowing you are right and you will probably win....

Either arrogance or incompetence. But yeah, judging by their attitude on other issues, it's likely arrogance.

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by nik-

Either arrogance or incompetence. But yeah, judging by their attitude on other issues, it's likely arrogance.

Arrogance is ok, as long as you end up being right. But arrogance mixed in with incompetance? Thats the career track for an underwear basement blogger.

[Calgary4LIfe]

Originally Posted by Roughneck

While picking Jankowski probably didn't do much how they went on about him after the fact probably had some people rolling their eyes more than they normally would I would imagine.

That pick raised a few eyebrows - was both lauded and criticized at the same time - but made everyone roll their eyes at what Feaster said. It really, really made me miss Sutter's mannerisms.

Not to mention that is a whole lot of pressure to put on a kid. It is one thing to tell a kid that quietly to the side, it is another thing to announce it to the world. I actually took what Feaster said as him creating distance between him and Weisbrod in case Jankowski didn't pan out, as he made a point to say: "Weisbrod feels he will be the best player in the draft in 10 years."

However, I also thought he was always a bit of a 'sneaky' and self-serving GM - the GM in Tampa started not to get along with Feaster as AGM, and eventually Feaster won out, and replaced him (I remember reading that he undermined Rick Dudley frequently, causing a huge rift - anyone remember the full story there?). Eventually things didn't work out for Feaster, and he was gone for a few years.

Suddenly he reappears as an AGM in Calgary under Sutter, and once again replaces the GM (and then goes on to say a few snide remarks about his predecessor). He seemed to always be more about more himself than anything else, and I never grew fond of him.

Just my take on him anyways. I didn't want him let go because he was at least letting the 'experts' handle the drafting and development side of things. Burke is a bit 'scary' to me, but at least he has never struck me as one of those 'sneaky' guys. Very honest and up-front, but seems to be a bit of a bully. Scared to see what changes he implements in the drafting and development side of things, but also look forward to some good trades for once.

[DionTheDman]

Originally Posted by Calgary4LIfe

... look forward to some good trades for once.

I don't think Feaster was that markedly poor with his trades. He landed us some good assets with our middle round picks lately.

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by DionTheDman

I don't think Feaster was that markedly poor with his trades. He landed us some good assets with our middle round picks lately.

He made a few really good trades with middle round assets, but as Burke said in the presser, Feaster was fired because he terrible at getting full value for our best assets.

To show for our core of Iginla+Bouw+Regehr+2nd, the best asset we got were two late 1st round picks, Hantowski, Agostini, Berra, Cundari, Butler and Byron. That is downright embarrassing. IMO in a few years, Feaster will go down as one of the worst GMs in the NHL of the past decade when it came to trades.

[gunnner]

Originally Posted by troutman

Reverse psychology? Feaster and Weisbrod are secretly excellent, and Burke was tricked by the enemies of the Flames?

Very secretly excellent, so secretly excellent that he purposely made awful trades, attempted to sign an ineligible player sending our franchise back 3 more years, and made insane claims like Jankowski will be the best player in the draft all just to keep his secret identity as a competent GM hidden from the real world.

The more intellectual members of CP were not fooled though, and saw right through this charade by making claims like "I disagree with 99% of the able bodied population, I thought feaster was doing a good job".

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Phanuthier

He made a few really good trades with middle round assets, but as Burke said in the presser, Feaster was fired because he terrible at getting full value for our best assets.

To show for our core of Iginla+Bouw+Regehr+2nd, the best asset we got were two late 1st round picks, Hantowski, Agostini, Berra, Cundari, Butler and Byron. That is downright embarrassing. IMO in a few years, Feaster will go down as one of the worst GMs in the NHL of the past decade when it came to trades.

You can blame Jarome Iginla, and the man-crush Murray Edwards and Ken King had on him, for getting a poor return for Iginla. What's Feaster supposed to do when Iginla balks at going to Boston? Cancel the rebuild and re-sign him?

There may have been a better deal for Bouwmeester out there. But as for getting higher first-round picks, the only teams trading them last year were teams high in the standings.

And what's full value for assets? You need two parties to make a deal. You can set a value for a player, but if nobody will meet it, you have no deal. I think fans have a funny idea about how pro sports trades work, like it's some kind of wheeling and dealing dramatic art where you cunningly trick other teams into giving you more than they want. Teams have a value for their own players. They have a value for other players in the league. When there's opportunity, and both values match, there's a deal.

[icecube]

If Brian Burke were GM at the time, I'd bet my life that we'd have a MUCH better return than Hanowski, Agostino and the other nobodies Feaster collected for our best assets.

[DionTheDman]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

You can blame Jarome Iginla, and the man-crush Murray Edwards and Ken King had on him, for getting a poor return for Iginla. What's Feaster supposed to do when Iginla balks at going to Boston? Cancel the rebuild and re-sign him?

There may have been a better deal for Bouwmeester out there. But as for getting higher first-round picks, the only teams trading them last year were teams high in the standings.

And what's full value for assets? You need two parties to make a deal. You can set a value for a player, but if nobody will meet it, you have no deal. I think fans have a funny idea about how pro sports trades work, like it's some kind of wheeling and dealing dramatic art where you cunningly trick other teams into giving you more than they want. Teams have a value for their own players. They have a value for other players in the league. When there's opportunity, and both values match, there's a deal.

I was going to say the same thing. In the end, I wonder if it comes down to the Art of Trading, where you learn how to play GMs against each other, how to drum up interest in the players you're trading out, and how to play down the players you want coming in.

In the end, it most definitely does take two to tango, and Feaster's hands were tied when it came to the Boston vs Pittsburgh deal. In fact, I think it's actually commendable that he got the deal done when Pittsburgh could have bent us over the table even more if word got out that Iggy wasn't going to accept a trade anywhere else.

[flamesfan55]

Originally Posted by icecube

If Brian Burke were GM at the time, I'd bet my life that we'd have a MUCH better return than Hanowski, Agostino and the other nobodies Feaster collected for our best assets.

While I agree lets see how he handles Cammy, if Burke is as good as everybody is making him out to be then he should be able to land a decent trade for him. That's when we will see what kind of return our players are worth.

[PeteMoss]

The Bouwmeester trade was terrible. If that was all you were going to get back... might as well just keep him until the off-season when more teams could potentially be in the bidding for him and you could take back salary to help teams fit him under the cap.

[calgARI]

Originally Posted by icecube

If Brian Burke were GM at the time, I'd bet my life that we'd have a MUCH better return than Hanowski, Agostino and the other nobodies Feaster collected for our best assets.

Absolutely. I'm pretty sure Burke would have gotten Iginla to agree in advance to a list of teams so he could get some bargaining leverage. Extremely amateur move that he negotiated a deal with Boston before getting Iginla to fully agree to a trade there. Then he went on to publicly acknowledge his idiocy almost blaming the player. I guess it's just "academic" but Feaster proved himself totally incapable on multiple occasions. Should have been fired immediately after O'Reilly incident. No GM would have made some of the oversights he made.

[calgARI]

Originally Posted by DionTheDman

I was going to say the same thing. In the end, I wonder if it comes down to the Art of Trading, where you learn how to play GMs against each other, how to drum up interest in the players you're trading out, and how to play down the players you want coming in.

In the end, it most definitely does take two to tango, and Feaster's hands were tied when it came to the Boston vs Pittsburgh deal. In fact, I think it's actually commendable that he got the deal done when Pittsburgh could have bent us over the table even more if word got out that Iggy wasn't going to accept a trade anywhere else.

Why did Feaster negotiate a trade with a team without knowing if the player would accept it? He said himself he should have gotten it in writing beforehand. Completely inept.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by calgARI

Why did Feaster negotiate a trade with a team without knowing if the player would accept it? He said himself he should have gotten it in writing beforehand. Completely inept.

Crippling mistake borne of incompetence? Or ultimate gesture of appreciation to a player who left his indelible mark on the franchise? I believe that the truth is somewhere closer to the middle.

[calgARI]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

Crippling mistake borne of incompetence? Or ultimate gesture of appreciation to a player who left his indelible mark on the franchise? I believe that the truth is somewhere closer to the middle.

But the issue as was made public wasn't that Iginla ultimately had the choice. Feaster directly insinuated that he had the deal worked out and Iginla balked specifically because he had not gotten the team approved ahead of time. No matter how much they respect him, Iginla would surely understand the desire of a team to get the team he would be traded to in advance not after deals had been negotiated. Feaster acknowledged he should have gotten it agreed to ahead of time; he did not say they let him choose out of respect. It was a mistake and a stupid one at that.

[DionTheDman]

Originally Posted by calgARI

Why did Feaster negotiate a trade with a team without knowing if the player would accept it? He said himself he should have gotten it in writing beforehand. Completely inept.

My understanding was that Iggy's "list" included Boston initially, and so Feaster was working on trades with those teams. However, when it came down to it, Iggy basically threw the list out and would only accept a trade to Pittsburgh. I thought that was the generally-accepted version of what happened? Correct me if I'm wrong.