With Jacques Martin now in Montreal, the Florida Panthers should go back to the future for its next general manager.
Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to the new coach of the Montreal Canadiens: Jacques Martin.
Has a nice ring to it doesn’t it?
I mean after all, it’s the Canadiens, and that’s a coveted plum in National Hockey League circles, a spot behind a bench once occupied by legends like Toe Blake, Dick Irvin and Scott Bowman. There are legions of coaches, some currently working for other NHL teams that would love to have that title on their resumes.
It’s also a nice fit for the Canadiens.
General Manager Bob Gainey gets an experienced hockey coach (a rarity in Montreal in recent years), a guy he can (and has) worked with in the past and he settles the always crucial (in Montreal media at least) requirement that the coach be able to converse easily in both French and English.
Martin, the former head coach of the Ottawa Senators, seldom says anything noteworthy, but at least he’ll be able to do it in two languages which will keep all parties happy.
But if it’s all good, ask yourself this: why would a man who has risen to the level of a sitting general manager of an NHL team step away from that relatively cushy job to go back behind a bench? And while we’re asking questions, why would he do it with a team that has more than half its roster up for unrestricted free agency, a captain, Saku Koivu, that has all but announced he’s walking away no matter what and a goaltender with a crisis of confidence and no real experienced backup waiting behind him?
Not to mention, this would be for a team that may well be sold soon, putting his job and perhaps even the job of the man who hired him in jeopardy.
If you’re looking for a drop dead, no doubt about it answer, you’ve come to the wrong place. No one, especially Martin, is going to address those questions, but if you want an educated guess it would be because things are so bad in South Florida that Martin the general manager jumped at the chance to be Martin the coach. This leads one to believe that Martin opted for the lesser of two evils, a decision that doesn’t exactly imply good things about the Florida Panthers today.
Now that might go against the "it’s all good" gospel being thumped by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, but there just might be something to it.
For starters, the Panthers are a lousy team, one that makes the playoffs about as often as the Calgary Flames win a playoff round. They are also a franchise that does things backwards (like be in the market for a GM after all the other positions a GM would fill are already inked to long-term contracts. Add to that the fact that the Panthers are likely to get worse based on the presumption that star defenceman Jay Bouwmeester is poised to walk away via free agency with the franchise getting nothing in return.
Martin the GM had a role in that, but don’t put it all on him. Bouwmeester likely wasn’t to sign with hockey’s version of the L.A. Clippers no matter what was or might have been offered. The Panthers could also lose a standout young player in David Booth, who enters the restricted free-agent market come July 1 and could well draw the attention of at least half a dozen NHL teams. They might also lose up and coming goalie prospect Craig Anderson as an unrestricted free agent.
What Martin did do, however, is get out of a contract with three years remaining to take a step down and that would lead one to believe that ownership was happy to see him go.
Not that the timing was all that good.
Had this happened a few weeks or even a few days ago, it’s possible the Panthers could have dangled the job (hey, at least it comes in an income tax-free state) in front of the obviously desirable Chuck Fletcher or even the most recently desired Joe Nieuwendyk, but one gets the sense that owner Alan Cohen isn’t overly concerned with that.
He’s appointed former New York Islanders boss Bill Torrey to head the search committee and Torrey could always go for one of the two deposed GMs in Dallas, Les Jackson or Brett Hull. He could go for what appears to be Minnesota’s first runner-up, Pierre McGuire and he wouldn’t be badly served.
Heck, if Patrick Roy straightens out his family issues, even he could be a candidate now that the Montreal job has gone to a man who over his career has fallen a little bit short of sainthood. Chicago assistant general manager Rick Dudley should be high on anyone’s list. Rest assured former Tampa GM Jay Feaster is likely to apply.
But could and should are two different things and if Cohen wants to do something that should work AND perhaps even appeal to the limited number of fans the franchise has left, it would be to hire my Sportsnet and Fan 590 colleague Doug MacLean.
Stop laughing, I’m serious (really Doug, I’m just kidding about the laughing part) and to be up front, MacLean obviously is a colleague, but I have no vested interest in his leaving Sportsnet or the Fan and I have no desire to go to Florida.
I write this only because he would seem to be a fit.
MacLean the GM hasn’t established a legacy along the lines of Sam Pollock in Montreal, but in his time spent in Columbus he had his successes.
Admittedly it wasn’t in terms of making the playoffs and it didn’t take a genius to draft Rick Nash or even Steve Mason, but MacLean knows a little something about team building and one could argue a heck of a lot more about contract negotiation and getting the right pieces in the right places than Martin did.
It’s also fair to say that he is not only a recognized name in South Florida but he remains a popular one having coached the team to a Stanley Cup final appearance when he was behind the bench. Now, I wouldn’t begin to suggest that MacLean replace Pete DeBoer, the coach who fairly or unfairly represents the best thing Martin ever did for the Panthers, but we’re talking hockey operations here and he has a record that has more going for it than Martin or his predecessor, Mike Keenan did.
MacLean knows the business side of hockey and he was more than competent in building a following for hockey in Columbus, a town that had a smattering of hockey knowledge before he arrived, but became a business success story by the time it opened its doors with MacLean as president, general manager and coach.
He did get fired there, but hey, last time I looked he wasn’t any great shakes worse than Hull-Jackson in Dallas, Keenan or Martin when they were in Florida or even Gainey in Montreal and he never did (and likely never would) trade away Roberto Luongo.
If MacLean had one big mark against him in Columbus (other than some legendary go-rounds with media) it was his inability to put a competent coach behind the bench there, a situation that is already under control in Florida.
Given everything else the Panthers need, well, McLean has been there and done that. He’s got experience, he’s a recognizable face and he’s an experienced hand at making a franchise work. That, even more than Bouwmeester, is what the Panthers, need right now.
He would also be willing to go there and for a franchise as sad as this one has been almost since the day he left, that may be the most important consideration of all.
