Interesting tidbit the Sharks management and why DWil may not be fired

[li0lsh]

After Greg Jamison stepped down as the team’s CEO two years ago, the Sharks’ chain of command became murky. There is no CEO. There is no team president. There are six executive vice-presidents, including Wilson, who are listed alphabetically in the team directory. Presumably, those six vice-presidents all report to ownership–but to whom, exactly? Questions about the power structure are met with zipped lips.

This much, we know: There are 11 people in the Sharks’ ownership group. The general feeling is that two of the 11 owners–venture capitalist Kevin Compton and former VeriSign CEO Stratton Sclavos — have louder voices than the others. Compton is seen most often around the rink. Sclavos was the driving force in a layoff-strewn downsizing of Shark business-side personnel last summer.

However, while Compton and Sclavos are presumably brilliant businessmen, neither man has a hockey background. Wilson has been their No. 1 tutor in the sport.

Mark Purdy: San Jose Sharks have changes to make, but it probably won't start with firing Doug Wilson or Todd McLellan - Inside Bay Area

 

[potzer25]

 

[SJVP408]

I'm not worried about DWil staying as much as I am with how secure his job is, if that makes any sense. Fear of losing one's job is a great motivator in one performing their job.

 

[Cbrower91]

Purdy still sucks

 

[Stackem]

I wasn't aware of what a mess the chain of command is at the top. This doesn't bode well at all. Not that I really expected any kind of meaningful change, but still, what a cluster. Couple observations:

1. Without a designated CEO (or equivalent) am guessing key operational decisions are left to a vote at the VP level.

2. VP ranks are filled with business execs and investors, not hockey professionals.

3. These VP's will largely base their recommendations and votes on financial goals and drivers

4. As long as the organization is break-even to profitable, it is unlikely they would risk a change despite under-achieving on the rink or in the standings. Its all about the money.

5. Doug's fate then lies in has ability to sway opinion of his peers. He can make a pretty compelling argument of good performance by pointing to year over year positive financial results and numerous conference championship appearances.

If I were a VP or board member only concerned with the bottom line, why rock the boat? I can honestly not think of a worse scenario though from the perspective of a fan that wants only to see the sharks win a championship. Doug can pretty much run shit how he's sees fit with no accountability or risk of losing his job. That's never good, in any industry, or any situation.

I predict years of good mediocrity, meaning Doug will be Doug, the sharks will constantly tinker with the roster, they will make the play-offs more often then not, and they will hit their financial targets. Under this approach though, they will not win the cup. This will be viewed as good enough because the organizational top down goal is to run a good business, not win a championship.

Sucks to us.

 

[MacJ88]

This is incredibly alarming, wow. I feel like we might be in trouble here fellas...:help:

 

[RaiderZar]

So, when is his annual 'State of the Crap' speech? You know, the one where he hims & haws about how we fell short in the PO's & how he is going to make drastic changes in the coming season to take us over the top.

 

[madcap9999]

DW was on The Game last night, saying something like "we brought in a few guys at the trading deadline and these guys helped us get into the playoffs.." Ughh, really??

 

[sjrules99]

DW was on The Game last night, saying something like "we brought in a few guys at the trading deadline and these guys helped us get into the playoffs.." Ughh, really??

yeah, I commented on that quote earlier. the 12-12-3 record since the moore trade definitely helped. I also loved the 0 goals fro moore, and only 4 combined goals from all three acquisitions, less than Ginner had alone with his time in Col. I love the fact that the only reason they actually made the PO's was the return of havlat, who is the actual catalyst of the team. I admire DW's outstanding job bringing in the obviouslyly needed personnel who clearly fixed the broken PK.

To me, dougie tends to call it as it is. He might be evasive and keep his cards close to his chest, but he rarely makes a fool of himself. Saying that moore, winnik, and galiardi helped the sharks make the PO's is tantamount, to me, to saying that having players on the ice at all helped. There is just no way in hell that those three were better than the guys they replaced. No way moore is better than zues, galiardi better than mcginn. Maybe winnik over winchester, but not by all that much.

Dougie fucked up supremely royally last summer and especially in february. To claim otherwise is asenine and dumb. Just take the responsibility, admit that your moves failed, admit that you traded you only good NHL quality forward under 25 (excl. cooch), and move on while learning from the goof.

its so frustrating to hear that dougie thinks his moves were good because it makes me think he's gunna try to resign all these losers.

 

[Likewall32]

its so frustrating to hear that dougie thinks his moves were good because it makes me think he's gunna try to resign all these losers.

You know damn well he will try & resign the 3 of them. If for no other reason, just to justify that the moves were good and the say some BS like "A full year with the team, developing chemistry, will make this team much better" This team took 10 steps backwards with the Burns trade, and continued to walk backwards into a short-term unfixable mess with the rest of the trades in the process giving up mulitple draft picks and ALL of the prospects they had. Then add in that DWil NEVER signs big FA's which are fucking FREEE (yes they have a salary) and would rather trade for guys, giving up even more picks/prospects/players and filling one hole while creating anotherbigger one when he can just sign the damn FAs's and fill the holes needed. If he doesnt get Marleau to waive his NTC and get rid of him, then use that money to sign Paraise, next year is gonna be another unwatchable season.

 

[SJVP408]

Did it ever occur to you that signing a UFA, let alone a highly coveted UFA that many other teams are bidding for, is more complicated than just making a monetary offer? Getting players to move West, when they've played most of their career in the East is very difficult. Doug would have to overpay to lure them here and then we'd be complaining about how such a signing was overpayment.

It seems Doug has relied on loyalty to the players to make this a welcoming franchise to be a part of. Players who are disgruntled are willing to waive NMCs to come here: Boyle, Heatley, probably Nash (ugh). That is how Doug is getting the high end talent.

 

[Cbrower91]

Did it ever occur to you that signing a UFA, let alone a highly coveted UFA that many other teams are bidding for, is more complicated than just making a monetary offer? Getting players to move West, when they've played most of their career in the East is very difficult. Doug would have to overpay to lure them here and then we'd be complaining about how such a signing was overpayment.

It seems Doug has relied on loyalty to the players to make this a welcoming franchise to be a part of. Players who are disgruntled are willing to waive NMCs to come here: Boyle, Heatley, probably Nash (ugh). That is how Doug is getting the high end talent.

Stop using common sense it doesnt go over well with the locals

 

[Likewall32]

Did it ever occur to you that signing a UFA, let alone a highly coveted UFA that many other teams are bidding for, is more complicated than just making a monetary offer? Getting players to move West, when they've played most of their career in the East is very difficult. Doug would have to overpay to lure them here and then we'd be complaining about how such a signing was overpayment.

It seems Doug has relied on loyalty to the players to make this a welcoming franchise to be a part of. Players who are disgruntled are willing to waive NMCs to come here: Boyle, Heatley, probably Nash (ugh). That is how Doug is getting the high end talent.

it occurs to me, and ive said plenty of times (during heatly arguements) that I dont care what a player makes. Its not coming out of my income... You bring up overpayment to get players though, and since you did, look at all the overpayment on this roster. Marleau, Niemi, Murray, Zues, past shit with Wallin & Huskins etc etc. so dont give me that he doesnt sign them cause he'd overpay. And in terms of loyalty? HAH Seto took a low offer cause of Loyality and got shipped off. It was one of Wilsons actual GREAT signings and in return he kicked the player in the dick. Has it occured to you that Wilson has NEVER been aboard the plan of building good teams by buying players? He's said so himself many times. Players go where the money is and if overpaying for Paraise & Suter will get them here while moving Marleau off the books, then I am more then happy with that... Trading away the future does not build long term winners cause as ive said before, for YEARS he has filled one hole by creating another and every time he creates that hole he also mortgages part of the future too since there is always a pick, prospect or both included in his trades. And in terms of your overpayment arguement, Nash is way overpaid and people here (Wilson prob included) would rather trade for him and give up parts, then overpay for Paraise, that makes no sence at all. You trade for Nash, you create another hole in the already depleted forward lines.

 

[Cmon_WTF]

Seto didn't take any sort of discount. $3.0m for Seto was market value for him if not a bit of an overpayment.

 

[SJVP408]

Then add in that DWil NEVER signs big FA's which are fucking FREEE (yes they have a salary) and would rather trade for guys, giving up even more picks/prospects/players and filling one hole while creating anotherbigger one when he can just sign the damn FAs's and fill the holes needed.

Perhaps I should have quoted you so you knew which statement I was referring to.

I'm only referring to signing UFAs and how he has tried but failed. The biggest contract he's given out to a UFA is Handzeus at $2.5, not really high when you consider most of the top UFAs of any offseason are getting much more. I took the time to look up who the considered top UFAs were since 2006 and see where they signed and for how much. Bear with me.

2006
Chara BOS
Jovanovski $6.3 PHX
Arnott $4+ NAS

2007
Briere $7 PHI
Gomez $7 NYR LOL
Drury $6 NYR
Timonen $5.5 PHI
Souray $5.5 EDM

2008
Hossa DET 1 year, $7.4 million
Campbell 8 years, $56.8 million CHI
Ryan Malone 7 years, $31.5 million. TBY
Streit, 5 years $20.5 million NYI
Redden NYR

2009
Hossa 12 years, $63 CHI
Bouwmeester LOL contract CGY
Gaborik 5 years, $7.5 per NYR
Havlat current deal, 6 years $5 per MIN
Cammalleri 5 years, $6 per MTL

2010
Kovalchuk (insane contract) NJD
Ray Whitney 2 years, $3 per PHX
Tanguay 1 year $1.7 CGY
Gonchar OTT
Kubina TBY
Paul Martin PIT
Volchenkov NJD

2011
Brad Richards 9 year deal NYR
Erhoff 10 year deal BUF
Wisniewski CBJ
Gagne 2 years, $3.5 per LAK

What I'm trying to point out is not the bad contracts being signed to the top end UFAs, but where they sign. Nearly every one of those players went East or stayed East. It's actually a disturbing trend that does not bode well for our beloved Sharks. Or Kings, or Ducks. The only big UFA signed by any of those teams is Nieds and he wanted to play with his brother.

Doug can go over the top with say, Gaborik? Kovi? I don't see a good place Doug could have jumped in and won a bidding contest and we would have been okay with the money invested in that UFA. I see Whitney, Gagne (but he wanted to play with Richards), Tanguay, Havlat (got him)?

I just searched for UFA lists and went with the top UFAs. They all go East.

As for the rest of your response to me. It's really hard for me to take your argument about the Burns trade with a lot of weight. Seto is not lighting it up and my guess is he still doesn't know how to make defensive reads. Coyle is still a prospect and hasn't scored a goal for MIN yet. Meanwhile Burns is one of the bright spots of this season as far as I'm concerned. I'm not saying it's a win of a trade because if Coyle, Seto and whoever was picked with MIN's pick makes positive contributions to MIN, you can make a post about how you said this all along and remind us. I admit this was the first bitch move that DWil made in regards to player loyalty. Eh, got us Burns, I'm happy so far.

How will you move PattyJo without taking back salary too? Contenders are the only teams wanting the services of PattyJo. Few contenders can stomach a $7 hit. All so Sharks can overpay Suter/Parise? Remember, going top heavy is why the Sharks have depth issues.

I agree with you that UFA market is a good place to build a team. The draft is the only other place where you don't give up assets to get an asset. But overpaying with a salary cap can be debilitating to a team's cap. There are guys you do overpay for. Chara was one, Neids, not sure who else. Not Suter, not Parise imo.

 

[SJVP408]

Seto didn't take any sort of discount. $3.0m for Seto was market value for him if not a bit of an overpayment.

I'd say it was slight overpayment as well, but I can see why a GM might think potential is there for Seto to improve. Also, he was an RFA, which I consider different than had Doug signed an UFA then traded him a day later. That would be the ultimate bitch move and no player would ever sign in SJ then.

 

[SJVP408]

Likewall, in the long post I made, I'd like to consider DET and CHI part of the East. First, because it helps my argument and also because it is closer to the East coast than West coast even though they play in the Western Conference.

 

[SJVP408]

Perhaps I should have quoted you so you knew which statement I was referring to.

I'm only referring to signing UFAs and how he has tried but failed. The biggest contract he's given out to a UFA is Handzeus at $2.5, not really high when you consider most of the top UFAs of any offseason are getting much more. I took the time to look up who the considered top UFAs were since 2006 and see where they signed and for how much. Bear with me.

Started it off all wrong. Blake was the biggest UFA signing for Doug. He went LAK to SJ. Didn't move coasts.

 

[Likewall32]

Seto didn't take any sort of discount. $3.0m for Seto was market value for him if not a bit of an overpayment.

Yea ok, cause when he signed everyone was quite impressed at how low he signed for. and made a stink how he signed low for SJ then was shipped. Its was a great deal at the time, and still is.

 

[Likewall32]

far.

How will you move PattyJo without taking back salary too? Contenders are the only teams wanting the services of PattyJo. Few contenders can stomach a $7 hit. All so Sharks can overpay Suter/Parise? Remember, going top heavy is why the Sharks have depth issues.

.

Contenders arent the only teams wanting his services, young teams with caps space that would really appreciate a speedy forward who can score. They arent used to the playoffs, so his PO disappointments wouldnt really bother them, as making the playoffs is fine with them. I mentioned Edmonton already in another thread, who I think he'd fit in great with, with their young speedsters. Florida is another one. Tallon has plenty of cap room Those teams wouldnt require a salary takeback from SJ. Montreal & Toronto need to get something going to get into the playoffs, but im not sure bout their cap space.

The sharks have depth area problems in the top heavy dept are cause they never have any talented prospects to insert into the lineup because they trade them all away (besides Logan). Same with all their first rd picks. And usually the guys they trade those 1st rnders & prospects for are deadline deal rentals that they dont even keep. Some are good trades like Campbell & White. Campbell he tried resigning. Some are just retarded deals like Moore, Winnik & TJ. I mean look what they gave up for 3 guys who prob wont be on the roster next year (thankfully)