With a busy news week centered around Ron Francis’ removal from the general manager position of the Carolina Hurricanes, the Sunday Canes Chronicle returns with a roundup of articles on the move and the start of the process of replacing Francis.
Certainly, this reading list is not complete. If you happened upon another good article on the subject, please send a quick heads up via our web form, Twitter or email.
If you want something to listen to while reading the other articles, Jeff Marek joined Laughlin & O’Sullivan to discuss the move.
Local articles on Ron Francis’ transition to President of Hockey Operations
Tom Edwards from Section 328 offered a detailed chronicle of Francis’ history as general manager in terms of trades and the NHL draft before offering his thoughts on why Francis was removed from the general manager role.
In case you missed it, we at Canes and Coffee covered a couple different angles including the timing, the beginning of a potentially tumultuous offseason, the biggest fear and more.
Chip Alexander chimed in on Saturday for the News & Observer. The article is light on providing much new information or depth, but does offer a few more quotes from Dundon that offer hints at his direction and role.
Jonathan Wagner at CBTS Blog penned this article that started looking forward to what is next for the team after Francis’ transition.
Broader NHL coverage of Ron Francis’ transition
Elliotte Friedman from Sportsnet started his must-read 31 thoughts with an insightful interview with Tom Dundon on Wednesday’s move.
Tom Gulitti from NHL.com penned an article on the transition that also included a healthy helping of quotes directly from Dundon on the move, his role and the path forward.
Candidates for the Hurricanes general manager role
The search for the next GM begins…
Hearing that Carolina had preliminary phone call with Mike Futa (LA) Friday; also believe Hurricanes have reached out to former Canucks AGM Laurence Gilman. Belief is Carolina has reached out to Nashville regarding Paul Fenton and Tampa regarding Julien Brisebois, obvious names..
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) March 10, 2018
The short article at TSN that provides the same checklist is HERE.
Justin Lape from Canes Country offers short profiles for some top candidates for the Hurricanes general manager position.
This article is dated (2015), but this article from Josh Cooper at Yahoo! Sports still offers some insight into Michael Futa from the Los Angeles Kings.
(Subscription or free trial required) In September, Mike Halford from The Athletic wrote an article on former Canucks’ Assistant General Manager Laucence Gilman and his desire to find his next NHL role.
JustinG at SBNation’s RawCharge offers some insight on Tampa Bay’s Assistant General Manager Julien Brisebois in this article from October 29, 2017.
Go Canes!
I like Tom’s article, but I wonder how bad the team’ prospect pool really was when RF took over.
I, or someone, should sit down and take a close look at the Checkers at the time RF took over the reigns and what happened to their key pieces.
Zack Boychuk and Chris Terry were key pieces that didn’t work.
slaven and Pesce were already in the fold.
Beyond that I don’t really remember much of the Checkers team, which probably proves Tom’s reflection of the state of the prospect pool pretty accurate. There was the infamous Ryan Murphy, who never panned out. We’re hoping Fleury doesn’t go down that same route, I definitely think he is a lot better, and still feel he is performing adequately for his age and background with the potential for improvement, especially true of defensemen. Maybe that’s a fool’s hope.
It seems to me that defensemen and goalies take longer to adjust to the NHL speed and are harder to predict, which is why I’ve personally always leaned towards picking forwards in the first round.
I always remember not being impressed with Victor Hedman for quite a few years after Tampa selected him with a second overall pick. It wasn’t until 4 or 5 years when he really started coming into his own as an elite defenseman.
Rask played the full season of 2013-14 in Charlotte. Other tops players were the 2 Sutters, Jordan, Palushaj, and my favorite Jason Shugg(a-Bear – his nickname in Charlotte) who I think hit the post twice in his 2 NHL audition games. PDG saw his first professional games there that season as well. There were a number of AHL lifers, including a few still in the system.
Without sorting through all of the details, I think Tom’s assessment is on target. When Francis took over, the number of prospects with high ceilings was low, and the team had a good number of tweeners in that 22-25 range who start to look more like AHLers than NHL prospects.
I like hearing that Dundon wants people who disagree and will argue with him. If he has anyone reading C&C, I am always available!
As far as the level of talent in the organization, I reviewed the Checkers’ stats since 2011. Zach Boychuk and Chris Terry were productive. Still, it doesn’t appear that any of the teams had as many players who are as productive (and as young) as the current Checkers. And I don’t remember a time when other teams (or maybe more accurately other teams’ fans) coveted players in our system. On the Hockeysfuture message board there is frequent interest in Necas and Bean. But there are also commenters who want Carrick, McKeown, and some of the other players in our system. It appears we have more talent in the organization than many of the other NHL teams. But as had been mentioned, without having had a top 3 pick there has not been one or two players who have moved the Canes dramatically forward.
As an optimist, I think Aho is one such player. I believe Necas might be another within 2-3 years. As far as the rest of this season and next, I have stated before that production will have come from D-men. The blueline is often cited as the team’s strength. But as far as production, it is near the bottom of the league. I think we have six talented D-men. Somehow the coaching staff needs to better utilize their talent to create some goals.
Speaking of Checkers – at long last Zykov gets a recall. And it took this long because…
He can’t skate.
For the record. I think, first round misses aside, RF has done a good job with the prospect pool, especially when ham strung by a lack of top 3 picks.
The Checkers have gone through a bit of a carousel of coaches over the last 2 or 3 years which could have slowed down the development of some of the prospects.
But they certainly seem to be a team that will make the AHL playoffs and hopefully make some noise too.
Some folks here recommend keeping the players down there and help breed winning expectations. I think that’s a good perspective but one that an be mixed with a set of rotating tryouts. But that’s a topic for a separate discussion.
I have no real problem with his drafting. He just never made that one move that said I believe in this team and I am adding to it. Never made an aggressive move. Slow and steady. Can’t be afraid to pull the trigger if right deal comes.
How would a Faulk-Hall trade look right now. (exactly)
NJD seems to have gotten the better of that trade, but has it ever been confirmed that we turned down Hall-Faulk? Maybe EDM turned it down. Eventually, some of the trades on the GMRF deals-that-never-happened list will become public.
If EDM would take Larson who is a stay at home Dman they would have taken Faulk who at the time was a solid Dman and #1 PP point guy. Either way RF missed the boat.