Interesting from Friedman:

32 THOUGHTS

1. If the Canucks do eventually consider any changes, it comes at a time when organizations are extremely nervous about the challenges of properly vetting candidates for current/future openings -- and consequences for failing to do so. Anaheim and Chicago absolutely cannot afford mistakes. The league office holds major influence in these decisions, and I’m not sure that’s going to change much. But I can see more and more teams turning to outside entities in search of fresh perspectives, or to make sure they aren’t missing anything. It’s extremely common outside the NHL, and inevitable within.

One influential name many of us wouldn’t know is Mike Forde, executive chairman of Sportsology, billed as bringing “a wealth of strategic, performance, creative and technical expertise to help your organization realize its full potential.” Last April, The Ringer’s Yaron Weitzman billed him “The NBA’s GM Kingmaker.” A former Premier League executive with Bolton and Chelsea, he created his current business at the start of 2014. It has a worldwide reach among several different sports. New Jersey’s parent owners, Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment, is one client, which meant Forde had a role in the process that led to Tom Fitzgerald being promoted to full-time manager. Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis used Forde to oversee the NBA Wizards’ GM search in 2019. “Mike was recommended to me by (NBA Commissioner) Adam Silver,” Leonsis said via email. Forde taught him “not to be bound by doing the same old things in the same old ways. We took our time to build a leadership group with complementing talents and skills. Traditionally, front-office searches look for the ‘one great person,’ and I approached the process thinking about how to bring together great people around ‘one big goal' of winning a championship.”

Interestingly, both of those situations resulted in promotions for internal candidates, Fitzgerald with the Devils and Tommy Sheppard with the Wizards. “Everyone says, ‘Well, that was a long process to get someone who was in the building,’” Forde said on this week’s podcast. “Actually it was a great process because (Leonsis) could say, ‘I looked around, I spoke to multiple people, I saw where the market was, I saw what our needs were, and hired two or three different people around (Sheppard), built a braintrust that hopefully now is going to take him in year three to great success.’ That’s the silhouette of the future for me and it starts with the curiosity of the owner.” That’s the thing that intrigued me most about Forde’s work. It’s not simply “We have to get rid of the old,” because that doesn’t always make sense and, in the media business in particular, it’s led to terrible mismanagement. It’s “we have to find the new and merge it with the old that still works.” It’s early, but the Wizards currently lead the NBA’s Eastern Conference and the Devils, who are fun to watch, show real signs of progress. That Dawson Mercer looks terrific.

2. Forde isn’t crazy about Sportsology being called a “search firm.” If anything, what he wants to do is ask owners to slow down the process when they search for someone new. He says that, for example, the average coaching/GM search in the NFL lasts 17 days. “(What we do is) less about coming with the latest piece of wearable tech or face-recognition technology, it’s about suspending judgement,” he says. “And in 17 days it's pretty impossible to suspend judgement, do a deep dive to learn best-practices, next-practices etc., and then come out the other side. So what happens is people go, ‘I want to move past x individual, I think I’m going to take some time,’ and they get pushed into the next thing which is to go to a Super-Bowl winning program, find a number two and hope by osmosis that creates success.” His experience is “you have more time than you think."

3. “The first thing is, can you just allow the owners to take a deep breath?” Forde adds. “To not listen to the media, not listen to agents, not listen to other executives, to say you have to hire someone in three days.” The Wizards took four months “just to understand what the future could look like before (Leonsis) decided on the front office. Not everyone has the luxury of that time, but they certainly have (some) time. We’ll encourage ownership groups: stop, stand still. Don’t think there’s a unicorn at the end of this, one person who’s going to run it to change the future of the franchise. It’s probably going to be built around several people in a braintrust. We go through different phases of transformation. It might be re-imagining strategy, re-imagining the front office, re-imagining the type of people that could work for that franchise, re-imagining a target operating model or different processes, it could be re-imagining anything that could do with data or technology.”

I loved his take on five-year plans. “In our experience, that is four years of trying things and then in the fifth year, you throw a lot of things at the wall and see if it sticks. Right? The challenge of an owner is, when they hear that -- and an owner said it to me in a different sport last year -- I’ve had two of these guys before, now I’m eight years in and I’m still where I was on day one. So how can your business plan as a GM fit the needs of the business, not this sort-of utopia four or five years from now?” He also says head count has zero correlation to winning, and refreshingly, has little time for the analytics vs. eye-test debate, because he doesn’t think either is the most important skill. “The people who do this job successfully year-after-year…their ability to communicate up and down a vertical is non-negotiable.” MLB Oakland’s Billy Beane, immortalized by Brad Pitt in Moneyball, had the gift of being able to translate the information he considered valuable to the people who needed to understand it.

Johan Fransen called Mike Babcock the worst person he'd ever met. He also calls him the most prepared and detail oriented coach he's ever had, great systems.

I think he did far worse things in Detroit than TO where he was more under the microscope. There's also a chance he'd still be coaching if Lou was still GM in Toronto although it certainly would have required more success.

Regardless, people deserve a 2nd chance and putting up a list by one of your cocky young players doesn't mean that much to me. Wasn't that a question about defensive effort? That's the kind of poop that should stay in the dressing room. New management fired the coach and brought their guy in.

I'd give him a 2 year mandate (this and next) to make the playoffs and win a round.
- golfingsince

I think people have said he's said he's committed to his current coaching contract – not available right now.

Interesting from Friedman:
- NewYorkNuck

That's the thing about firing your GM and coach at the same time. A GM's position involves knowledge of hundreds of people or their files. A coaching position requires knowledge of dozens.

You have to allow for some stability mid-season. If not it's a half-season lost of evaluation. A new GM can handle a coach for a season+ while he finds his person.

I think people have said he's said he's committed to his current coaching contract – not available right now.
- NewYorkNuck

Regina? poopty.

He's still my choice right now. BB might be good for 2 years.

Nucker must be at the game.
- VANTEL

Case in point - Calgary.

I sh!t on the hiring of Sutter at the time and even this year.
I was wrong



- dbot

Hasn't CGY lost 5/7 so far in November?

Good thing they had that killer start lol

“The Vancouver Canucks are on pace to have the single worst penalty killing efficiency rate since the stat started being by recorded in 1963-64.”
- LeftCoaster

Man I got hammered by the Flames and Oiler fans out for wings with the boys at the Pub last night. Don't even have moral victories for this team right now lol.

One guy asked me how does a club with all that talent be so bad? I literally had no answer...

Kraken lose to the Hawks.

Canucks move to 28 th spot.
- VANTEL

Nice.

Nowhere to go but up.

Lots of Hockey left.

Johan Fransen called Mike Babcock the worst person he'd ever met. He also calls him the most prepared and detail oriented coach he's ever had, great systems.

I think he did far worse things in Detroit than TO where he was more under the microscope. There's also a chance he'd still be coaching if Lou was still GM in Toronto although it certainly would have required more success.

Regardless, people deserve a 2nd chance and putting up a list by one of your cocky young players doesn't mean that much to me. Wasn't that a question about defensive effort? That's the kind of poop that should stay in the dressing room. New management fired the coach and brought their guy in.

I'd give him a 2 year mandate (this and next) to make the playoffs and win a round.
- golfingsince

All true. When Babcock coached Red Deer College here in the late 80's/early 90's he ran our practises for a month to get our Junior Team ready for PO's/Provincials and Westerns. Got our PP/PK right on track in about three weeks. Hard to say how he would have been with some of the arrogant players we had in game situations but man he ran a damn good practise. But yes he was abrasive to alot of the College players here albeit those were different times too.

Don't think Babcock would be a good fit here consdering the ego's in the room. It was reported that Datsyuk and Zetterberg both personally went to ownership/MNGT when they were all in Detroit and said basically 'if you re hire Babcock here we are gone'. Lol says something

Flames have played the 2nd most road games this year.
- K-man25

Blaming the schedule for losing 5/7 in November so far?

Ironic here don't you think?

Nice.

Nowhere to go but up.

Lots of Hockey left.


- LordHumungous

I've got bad news for you... #thirtytwoteams

I've got bad news for you... #thirtytwoteams
- NewYorkNuck

Soon to be 36 if Bettman gets his way...

Is Jim Benning a broken clock? Is “the bubble his “once a day”?

Interesting from Friedman:
- NewYorkNuck

Interesting read. Thanks for sharing.

Interesting from Friedman:
- NewYorkNuck

Yeah, this was the interview I referenced on Monday

Interesting read. Thanks for sharing.
- Reubenkincade

I thought of you as Huggy took that childish penalty.

What a garbage team.

I thought of you as Huggy took that childish penalty.

What a garbage team.
- Marwood

Careful now, you're working your way onto Aqua's hit list with negativity like that

Careful now, you're working your way onto Aqua's hit list with negativity like that
- NewYorkNuck

Huggy then blames the PK for not doing enough. You can't make this shit up.

https://www.vancouverisaw...nk-you-jim-jersey-4770490

Lordy and Nucker might want to read this.

Johan Fransen called Mike Babcock the worst person he'd ever met. He also calls him the most prepared and detail oriented coach he's ever had, great systems.

I think he did far worse things in Detroit than TO where he was more under the microscope. There's also a chance he'd still be coaching if Lou was still GM in Toronto although it certainly would have required more success.

Regardless, people deserve a 2nd chance and putting up a list by one of your cocky young players doesn't mean that much to me. Wasn't that a question about defensive effort? That's the kind of poop that should stay in the dressing room. New management fired the coach and brought their guy in.

I'd give him a 2 year mandate (this and next) to make the playoffs and win a round.
- golfingsince

WTF

Guy has a loooong track record of being a POS but yeah he deserves a "2nd chance"

28th

28th
- A_SteamingLombardi

We need our prospect posters to switch from their canuck hats, to their 2022 nhl prospects hats.

28th
- A_SteamingLombardi

TG "We did a lot of good things tonight"

TG "We did a lot of good things tonight"
- VanHockeyGuy

He says that after every loss.

Some of the kids are part of the toxicity
- Reubenkincade

That's why I said the core 5 should be moved.
All the Summer movement left this Team with no Leadership left in the Room, JTM, I think not.