00:00Is the Wings GM gig a good job or a bad job? That's our question this morning.
00:062, 4, 8, 5, 3, 9, 97, 97. I said it's a bad job. It's clearly a better job than
00:12when
00:12Iserman took over, but it's still a tough spot. You're in a brutal division with a bunch of young
00:18teams that have lapped you and a couple older teams that are entrenched. Like good luck with
00:23Tampa and Florida, but also, hey, Buffalo and Montreal and even Ottawa's ahead of us.
00:30This is the toughest division in hockey. How do you compete? Did Iserman leave you
00:34with an elite prospect pool? Well, you have six top 100 guys, but only one in the
00:38top 50. And none of them are tier one or tier two. This is from the
00:41athletic. You're not a big free agent draw. So the cap space you do have,
00:45how do you weaponize it? You haven't been a good free agent draw. It doesn't mean
00:50you can't be moving forward. Well, and that gets to the allure of hockey town. And what does it
00:53actually mean? 2, 4, 8, 5, 3, 9, 97, 97. Let's get to Travis. You're up. You're on 97.1.
01:00Hey, how's it going, boys? Thanks for having me. What's up?
01:04So I'm thinking the clear candidate for me is going to be Brett Peterson, the Florida Panthers,
01:09assistant GM. And my reason is over the last five years, Florida has been one of the top,
01:16I would say a top three to a top two team over that period. And I think that's the only
01:21way we
01:22get back to being hockey town is trying to copy success that other people have had,
01:28but doing it in the hockey town way.
01:33Okay. Can you expand on that a little more? Like, what are some specifics you want to see from them?
01:38Well, I think if you look what Florida's done, I mean, they go out, they're not afraid to make a
01:44big trade.
01:45And they're also not afraid to extend their, extend their elite stars. And I think if you bring him in,
01:52I think that would make somebody like Larkin happy because if you bring him in, I think instantly he
01:58would do something, try to make the roster better. Now, I don't know exactly what he'd do, but I think
02:02that, that checks the box for me.
02:05Yeah. They wheel and deal down in Florida. They built that team aggressively. They had the chance
02:11to spring to get the first Kachuk, which helped them get the second Kachuk. And they won a couple
02:15Stanley cups along the way. They had Barkov, which was the prize of years and years of losing. And he's
02:22one of the best centers in hockey, especially playoff caliber hockey, their defense. They built it
02:29kind of unique and aggressive. And, but you know, Eckblad was a top pick. They had built a machine
02:35and now they're able to keep their guys at discounts. And now they're able to take some
02:38bigger swings. They got the ball rolling. The wings have the uphill climb. They got to get the
02:42boulder to the top of the hill first. They do. I mean, there's clearly some work to do.
02:48No kidding. Yeah, not clearly some work. There's a lot of work to do. And so if you're looking at
02:54this just as, well, can I step in and win? Then if that's your, if that's your bar, then
03:01no, it's not a great job, but you do have some assets that you can utilize. You do have
03:06the fact that it is the Detroit Red Wings and it may not carry weight with 20 to 25 year
03:12olds because all they know is a, this team, if they're 25, this team's been losing since
03:18I was 15 years old, since the, since I've been a huge hockey fan, faint memories, maybe
03:25of the 08 cup, but who you bring into that position can determine how much this could
03:33be a free agent draw. So how long does this person get? Like let's address the elephant
03:39in the room. You said one of the first things this fan base is impatient. And I, and I want
03:45to clarify, we had been patient, grew impatient, and now we're not going to wait around forever.
03:51So how long does this new person get before we're like, Hey man, you got to be knocking
03:57on the door.
04:00It's a hard one to answer. And somebody may say, you know, say three years, five years.
04:05I don't know. I don't think it's going to, I think it's somewhere in the middle there,
04:08but it's about how he goes about his business. When he gets here, does he hold on to Todd
04:12McClellan? Because that could be something where it extends the patience level. If you
04:20keep Todd McClellan and then after a year, okay, well, you know what? Hey, it didn't work
04:24out. I learned about this team. I learned about the organization. They bring in their
04:29guy. And then does the clock start then right first hire? Well, there's a difference in when
04:35a guy would be fired versus when a fan base would turn on a guy. Right. But what I'm saying
04:40is it does the general manager get a mulligan on year one? Oh, of course. Every GM taking
04:49over a bad situation. Your clock's not going to start until you, you know, if you bring
04:54in a coach to start things off, I think the clock starts quicker for the fan base.
05:00Yeah. I mean, some of this is going to dictate, it'd be dictated by what they do with Dylan
05:06Larkin. Yeah. If they keep Dylan Larkin, the expectation is like, Hey, within two years,
05:11are you a playoff team? Cause this year would be hard. He didn't get a true off season, but
05:15it would be, Hey, within two years, you're going to be a playoff team. If they trade Larkin
05:17for a more futures based return, which I think is the more likely scenario, right? I think
05:21a minimum of three years, right? Which hurts to say, I know. And we say knocking on the
05:28door. What is not going to, is that playoffs then? Yeah. Well, I mean, in this division,
05:32like, I mean, how many points does that take? Are you going to have to get the 98 points?
05:35So I tell you, you're taking over a job and most likely you're going to have at least
05:38three years before your laugh team. But that in and of itself doesn't make it a bad job because
05:45I mean, the good jobs don't become available. Like you don't, you don't walk into a situation
05:50with a superstar and you're like, Oh, okay. Hey, well, we're, we're, we're standing up
05:54contenders. Now that would be the ideal job, but you, you take over jobs in organizations
06:00that have faltered about this. What's the better job? Toronto hired a GM this off season.
06:06They have Austin Matthews. They had the number one pick in the draft. That's a better job
06:11than Detroit. That's in this division. They have the same challenges we do. That's a better
06:14job. That's a bad team. That's a better job than ours. Yes. Cause you're inheriting a
06:19superstar. That's my point though, is there are situations where you don't just walk into
06:23Connor McDavid, but you take over a bad team and it's still a, it's still an exciting job
06:28with upside the wings. You're, you're not at ground zero, but you're not, you're talking
06:34about that organization. Did they, did they make the right hire at GM? One that would have
06:40excited the fan base versus create controversy amongst the fan base. It's a hotly debated hire.
06:45I'm not saying they got the hire, right. I'm simply just saying the job itself, two, four,
06:49eight, five, three, nine, 97, 97. Uh, tech says it's not a desirable job because
06:53Iserman is still in the building. He needs to be completely gone. I have a feeling he's
06:57transitioning out. This is what they did to Ken Holland, the promotion, which is one
07:02foot out the door. He'll be gone. Uh, another tech says the new GM has the benefit that
07:07Iserman didn't time. He can start a mini rebuild. The fans will have more patience
07:12than they did with Steve at the end. This is one of the best jobs to walk into maybe of
07:18all time. Really? That's a text. We just got says no top 50 prospects. Depends where
07:23you look. Some give us four in the top 50. Uh, I had one from the athletic Axel
07:29Sandin Pelica checks in at like 47. Uh, it's not my list. It's, it's, you know, one of the
07:36more relevant publications. Yeah. Um, says Iserman was the fall guy. I don't think he was at
07:42fault. This is a Chris Illich thing. All right. I don't know why we get these calls
07:48and it's, it's, I don't even want to be the guy that defense Chris Illich. I really
07:51don't, but I don't know how it's his fault. They've spent near the cap in this Iserman
07:57stretch and they just haven't been very good because Iserman didn't make good
08:00decisions. Salary cap sport. They've been within a million or two of the cap during
08:05the Iserman tenure. It's not been, uh, Chris has been sitting on 20 million every year.
08:10He won't spend on his hockey team. Again, I'm not even trying to go to bat for ownership.
08:17That's such a misguided opinion, right? Ownership is they're in place to hire people that know
08:24what they're doing. He thought he had. All right. Eight o'clock hour. How often do you eat in your
08:30car? This feels like a sad cry for help. We'll do that at eight 35. Talk tiger baseball next 97
08:35one.
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