Dudley expected to join Canadiens as asst. GM
 

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=395223

Even if they still had faith in Regier and want to keep him as GM, I wish Pegula and Black would have considered the need for adding winners from the outside to their managerial staff - they could have approached Dudley under the context that he'd be an assistant to Regier. Not only would that have put a fresh voice and perspective into the Sabres' decision-making process but, inherently, the security blanket Regier has been comforting himself with the past 15 years would have been removed. And, if Regier can't bring the team to the next step in his personnel choices, Dudley would be ready to step in.

I think even the quintessential company yes man Darcy Regier would have quit had Pegula forced Dudley into the equation like that.

Regier ended up picking his own guy, Kevin Devine, for the job.

You wonder if the French thing wasn't such an issue if Dudley would have gotten the top job.

No doubt, it does appear that the ownership had a smart game plan in mind: hire a young, rookie GM with connections to the city and who speaks French, and back him up with an experienced assistant that can guide a lot of key personnel decisions behind the scenes and out of the spotlight. As harsh as the media there can be, they'll probably allow Bergevin some margin for error during his "learning on the job".

What will be curious to watch, with Dudley waiting in the wings, is how much slack Bergevin gets for his decisions and whether or not ownership there opts eventually to replace Bergevin with Dudley, despite the latter's English-speaking background.

It would be an untenable situation. All it would do is commence the When Will Regier be Fired watch. Gleason would dedicate a weekly piece to why Darcy should be brushed aside in favor of Dudley. If they ever bring in Dudley, it would have to be after Regier was dismissed.

With the amount of rage and vitrol that was thrown at the organization for having Cunnyworth as the coach, I can't imagine there would be anyone pushing for Dudley to be the full time GM if he can't speak French.

Dudley looks like a porn star from the 70s. A Burt Reynolds type from Boogie Nights.


In all seriousness, I think he's a good choice.

Except for the fact that Cunneyworth was a rookie coach with nothing on his resume to insulate him from criticism or give him the benefit of the doubt - making the language issue an easy one to latch onto. It wasn't as if he had earned some slack for past accomplishments.

Dudley has one Cup on his resume and is often acknowledged as having built the roster that Tampa won the Cup with in 2004. If Bergevin fumbles on some of his decisions - also as a rookie GM - I don't think the media there would be strongly opposed to accepting Dudley as a more proven replacement even if he can't speak French to them. A winning team creates for more storylines and public attention to the media than a losing one does.

The media contact on a daily basis also tends to be with the coaches of teams more than with the GMs.