I had thought that Minnesota’s flirtation with TV analyst Pierre McGuire for their top hockey job was an aberration, but apparently a second NHL franchise is considering him as a potential general manager. John Boruk, who covers the Flyers for CSN Philly, tweeted that according to a good source, McGuire has now interviewed twice for the vacant general manager position in Tampa Bay (g/t SBN).
McGuire is not totally without actual hockey experience; he was an assistant coach in the NCAA before jumping to a similar job with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He also briefly coached the Hartford Whalers before being fired midway through his first season in the job. From Hartford he moved on to Ottawa where he spent a couple of seasons. He got into broadcasting after an unsuccessful season coaching the ECHL’s Baton Rouge Kingfish.
Damian Cristodero points out that Jac Sperling helped Minnesota hire their new G.M. last year and is heading Tampa Bay’s search to fill the position as well, which may give us an indication as to who brought McGuire’s name into the mix, but he also says that there’s no indication as to how serious the Lightning are about hiring McGuire. With the news that Dave Nonis is apparently out of the running, Cristodero leaves us with the other two names that have been bouncing around the rumour mill for some time: Detroit Vice President Steve Yzerman and former Wild G.M. Doug Risebrough.
Please someone give him a job and get him off announcing games. I hate watching games with him as one of the analysts.
LOL…I couldn’t agree more. Actually, he may have the kind of eye for talent that might make him a good GM. His so-so coaching resume does not necessarily mean he can’t succeed in that role.
I gotta agree with Greg, “The Monster” annoucer has to go but could you imagine how terrible of a job he would do running a team? The other GM’s would probably laugh him out of the league. A phone call from a Gm to Mcguire would go like so ” hey Mcguire I got a monster of a deal for you this guy plays like a monster, oh and all it will take is a guy like Stamkos, Mcguire would then say oh man I gotta have more guys that play like monsters on my team DEAL.” Worst choice ever as a GM/Coach/ anything to do with hockey EVEN Glen Healy would be better.
And here we thought this mad circus of Tampa Bay management was over with the new owner… I sure hope they don’t go that route – this team and fan base deserve better.
Mark- I’m not sure PIerre really has an eye for talent, not real hockey talent. His ‘monsters’ nearly always fall within 2 categories:
1) clearly far and away the best player on the ice, by any metric, during that game. While in this case he’s right, anyone who’s watched more than 200 games of hockey could point to that player during that particular game
2) some guy skating really hard and putting some hard body checks in people. Never mind that the guy doesn’t drive results, plays against the opposition’s worst, or is a defensive liability. He checks hard, so he’s a monster.
McGuire vs. Yzerman. Hmmm. Who would you rather sign with. There’s something to be said for the “x” factor. Neither man has been a GM, but you have to think that Yzerman has way more street cred, the hockey gods love him, everyone respects him, and he’s been on the job learning the trade in DET and with CAN for a while. I don’t know how McGuire even gets a call…maybe they are after another colour guy…even then it’s a bad choice.
please god, make this so… I’m sure Lightning fans will take one for the team here so that the rest of the hockey fans will be spared from listening to this clown for a while.
[...] Yzerman, Doug Risebrough and Dave Nonis. Then Nonis signed an extension with the Leafs, and he was replaced in the rumour mill by Pierre McGuire. Now, we know that a fourth person is a serious candidate for the job – [...]