Quote:
Originally Posted by Jester
Not just NHL front offices... front offices in all four sports seem to be woefully short on intellectual capacity. Thus why some NFL organizations are so noticeably superior to others (again, not rocket science). The NBA is just an abject disaster on this front.
Just take the Atlantic division.
Rangers - Sather is a disaster.
NYI - organization is a disaster.
Devils - Lou has struggled ever since the salary cap was put in place. More than a few terrible contracts, and he's done a terrible job replacing lost talent on the blue line.
Pittsburgh - I'm a fan of the job Shero has done. He's made some savvy trades, and, of course, won a Cup. Having the top heavy roster they have is both helpful and harmful to the GM, and think he's managing it well on the whole.
Philly - Holmgren has a strong eye for talent, but has struggled with balancing team construction. He's finally gotten forwards/defense balanced out, but we are going cheap in goal. As long as you have cheap options there that can play effectively you're OK with this formula, but as we saw last year the team unraveled due to that position. He's also gutted the farm system, which is another (and important) problem. Of course, there's also the notable cap management struggles the last few years... which maybe he's beginning to figure out.
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I think there's an "old boy" culture in the NHL that may be much stronger than it is in other sports which probably contributes to the fact that a lot of GMs in the league simply aren't very smart.
I think Holmgren is an outstanding judge of talent (which is a great attribute to have in a GM), but I don't think that makes him smart.
But I don't think there's an overabundance of intelligence in hockey in general. I mean, most of these guys may have a high-school education (and not even a great one) and that's that. Then, after hockey, these guys can end up in senior management positions. Some guys (Yzerman, etc.) obviously have some intellectual chops, but plenty of them don't.
Other sports have trended towards bringing in guys from outside hockey to run or help run teams, but I don't think hockey has made that leap yet. Of course, hockey is also a sport where a d-man who is below average defensively can be nominated for (and even win) the trophy for best defenseman.