tom webster

Very good perspective. To be clear, I’m not necessarily advocating one side over the other but rather questioning whether either way is the correct approach all the time. I think a good leader is always going to want to learn, be adaptable and be willing to be challenged by his people.

Are you sure? Any hire had to be a “outside hire” at some point. And for you to be absolutely correct, all people in your organization are not doing anything to further their knowledge of their craft. What if this guy spent the last ten years immersing himself in the things that made other organizations successful and is strong minded enough to convince his superiors to change? My colleagues will tell you that my greatest strength was listening to everyone, taking their ideas and molding them into mind. Everyone that knows me well will tell you a story of how I fired someone and within two days changed a process we used based almost entirely on the argument I had with that employee. The guy was a moron but he actually gave me his best idea on the way out the door. I tend to believe you need to interview outside people but I don’t know that you necessarily have to hire them as long as the people you promote from within aren’t promoted just to be “yes” men.

But there must be metrics that answer the age old question, is there a discernible difference in success rate between hiring someone you have a previous relationship with versus someone you do not? It’s one of sports in particular and business in general last bastion of anecdotal statements made with unchecked research. Does history show that hiring someone you know is worse then hiring someone you never met till interview day?

It’s an interesting dynamic going forward on here. Nothing they do will make some people happy. Some want them to be progressive, think outside the box. Some want some Brian Burke type. You can continue to look at it as total old pal network, meaningless hire all designed to cut costs. You can look at it as then thinking outside the box. It might be both, it’s definitely a by product of them wanting a leaner organization. Funny thing is, history is of no real help. The Patriots were a laughingstock till they hired a coach with a losing record. Mike Ditka was a “God” in Chicago, neatly destroyed the franchise in New Orleans. “Money ball” was a joke till it wasn’t. Joe Salic was the guy you wanted to trade with till he wasn’t. Peter Chiarelli was “the guy” till he wasn’t. “Grit” was what was needed in the playoffs, till it wasn’t till it was again. Who knows. Twenty years from now Mendola may be the guy who saved the Sabre’s or he might be the guy you have to google to remember what he did.

Let me be clear for those who haven’t been paying attention. I like the Pegulas. I have been thrashed for defending them and their right to make money. I understand the games that are played to secure their share of revenue sharing. I understood the infamous “maintain our lifestyle” slide and I’ve even defended their attempts at turning this franchise around. However, I won’t let any cries of poverty or eight figure actual losses go without a rebuttal and I’m 100% confident that I can prove my point given the necessary time and motivation to do so.

TPEGS did not pay $500M and unless you can prove via first hand knowledge, I can find you as many articles showing the Sabre’s are not among those showing an operating loss as I can find listing them with some absurd number. I also never intended to imply that some businesses have been hit hard by the pandemic. It’s also amusing that the concessions and add on revenue never amounts to much until someone needs it to amount to much to fortify their argument. Additionally, while the Rigases was a corrupt enterprise, it wasn’t run much differently then any other organization. There is a reason ownership is hesitant to open their books and why labor negotiations usually hinge on what outside revenues owners bring in that they want classified as non-hockey revenue. In conclusion, while there is no doubt that the NHL operation pales in comparison to the big three sports, billionaires don’t pay a half a billion dollars to join a club that isn’t to their satisfactory return on investment, whether that ROI is classified as monetary profit or not. You all need to watch that episode of WKRP where Dr. Fever understands why Mrs Carlson would want to blow up a business that was finally about to turn a profit.

Businesses use events like this all the time to re-calibrate. There are several well written articles discussing why TV and digital revenue will go up, and up substantially despite the Pandemic. Until it’s in their benefit to show operating revenue, it is in their best interest to show paper losses. Its all a game. No one pays $500 million to join a club if 33% of the club is really “hemorrhaging” money. While the NHL is more behoven to ticket revenue, Buffalo still got $20M national TV money, $20 million MSG fees, at least $10M expansion fee. As for the shortened season, they kept most of the season ticket money and didn’t have the gist associated with putting on the games. Finally, a major part of their business model is generating “non hockey related” revenue in order to keep the money from the salary cap. As an example of the shell game that is professional sports, when the entity that ran the Sabre’s was forced into bankruptcy, their were actually over 40 businesses associated with running that business.

You’ve seen the books?

I’m going to make my retirement project to convince fans like yourself that the business model of sports franchises works.

The owners are fine. They are getting their share of the expansion fees plus TV revenues are expected to increase.

The Sabre’s would have as well.

A quick google search found two sites that had him ranked in the top 60 so it’s not like he wasn’t a prospect. Again, you can’t judge these things in a vacuum. I’m sure LGRM can tell us how many guys drafted after him are still legitimate prospects.

He should print this thread. It might be the last time anyone talks about him as a hockey player.

Tua is going to have to be a lot better then he was yesterday for them to win 10 but they are a team on the rise and with Houston’s first and second picks they should be really good next year, again depending on Tua.

Exactly. So many people assume that he must have a positive opinion, the same way people think that if players played together they must be friends or if a guy grew up in a certain place he must want to go back there. As for Mitts specifically, anything they get from him, either by him winning a spot on the roster or enabling them to better their roster through trade would be a huge plus because right now I’m pretty sure they aren’t expecting anything while still hoping to be proven wrong.

His father was an assistant at Navy and Belichek has always been considered a savant when it comes to the history of the NFL and football in general. He loved having Flutue drop kick an extra point and I’m sure the triple option intrigues him.

Well there is always that caveat, especially with so much uncertainty going forward. You don’t really think that they would give out all these one year deals and not fix the goaltending?

Ottawa is not spending that money and nobody is leaving Tampa for them.

This is all heading toward the perfect scenario for TPEGS. They are going to be near the cap but the actual cash paid out before escrow is still going to be $5/6 million below plus escrow plus 10% deferral if he wants it. And I know I’ve been a broken record but they will upgrade in net unless a confluence of events occurs that I’d bet are less then one percent of happening. Taylor Hall is a well connected as anyone in hockey. He doesn’t come here unless Raku explains how they are going to make this all work.

My believe that teams will be allowed to carry expanded squads so guys can practice with the bug clubs if there is nowhere for them to play.

Knox didn’t play. Think you mean Kroft. Teams are defending Buffalo exactly how they are defending KC, daring them to run. They’ll figure it out. I’d like to see the penalty on Davis TD. Allen also made bad read on third and short. Moss would have taken that to the house. I wasn’t crazy about the Allen draw either, or, for that matter the McKenzie sweep to the right that lost 12 yards but they left points out there on other drives as well. It really wasn’t that close a game after halftime.

Either Risto or Montour will be gone creating plenty of space.

Ugly win but 5-2 and 3-0 in the division. Can really put a stamp in division next week and it will only be the half way point.

Autocorrect and I was driving, sorry.

Not sure why it’s not on here