New Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon is ready to change things up. The team has announced that Ron Francis, the General Manager and a legendary player for the franchise, will transition to a new role as President of Hockey Operations. A search will begin for a new GM, who will report directly to Dundon.
While the move may sound like a promotion, in reality it is not. Dundon more or less made that clear, saying “There are a lot of good people working in the organization, but I feel that a change in direction is needed when it comes to hockey personnel decisions.” He adds that “Ron is a smart and talented hockey man. I am glad that he will continue to be a part of the team, serving in this new role”, but Dundon apparently wants his own hire to be in charge of roster operations.
Francis served as GM of the Hurricanes for four seasons and has built a solid team, including one of the deepest defensive units in the NHL, but Carolina is on the outside of the playoff picture yet again and have a good chance of extending a league-worst postseason drought to nine years. While Francis has hardly been a bad GM, he hasn’t done enough – he didn’t make a single player-for-player trade in his tenure – and some of his mistakes (read: Scott Darling) have drawn much ire on the local and national scale. The new hire will face the daunting task of both fixing the goaltending situation and somehow acquiring the star forward that Carolina desperately needs. The GM decision could also lead to questions about the job security of head coach Bill Peters. In terms of evaluating talent, the Hurricanes have been known to be one of the leading front offices in terms of analytics, but it is unknown right now whether or not Dundon will continue to steer the team in that direction with his next hire.
Much is still up in the air, but it’s clear that things are changing in Raleigh. For a franchise that has lacked success in the standings and at the box office for too long, that could be a good thing. The Hurricanes will now be one of the more intriguing teams to watch in the approaching off-season.
I’d like to formally submit my application for employment
Horrible move. Ronnie was never able to show his hockey mind with Karmanos as the owner. He wasn’t allowed to spend money!
And you can’t say Darling was a bad signing. Every team in need of goaltending targeted him as the guy. Ron traded for his rights, and signed him like a lot of other GMs wanted to do.
Big mistake by Dundon, who admits he’s not a hockey guy. I wonder who he’s listening to?
I think Dundon has somebody pretty specific in mind. Otherwise, why bother doing this now instead of the off-season?
I would like to apply. I know tons about hockey. So much I the commissioner of my hockey league even named me the official statistician.
Wow Holtby, you get time off from the crease and now you are applying for Hurricanes GM.
I’m not Braden Holtby, just a big fan of him. Thats why it says “Fan” (No emotional harm or mean tone of voice intended)
That’s just what you want us to think, Braden. If we knew the truth you would get special treatment in here and you don’t want that. We all know the truth. :)
I was joking obviously I know you aren’t the real Holtby (or are you)
They need a new voice behind the bench. Francis’ drafts have been middling perhaps and his seemingly annual search for a goalie to supplant Ward never work out, but really is there a GM out there winning with a payroll under 60 million? If they’re spending to the cap like these other teams that’s 3 additional 5 million dollar players. That’s huge. Much of the same with the next GM if they don’t increase spending. Could get worse.
Big mistake. Especially the timing of it. They’re right in the playoff hunt… what kind of message does that send to your coach and players? I would imagine he’s going to be Ed Snyder 2.0 and constantly meddle with his GM. Good luck to whoever accepts that job. It’s career suicide. I guess Peters is gone at the end of the year.
Well, the coach should have been fired first. Not every coach from juniors can jump to the NHL and Peters is the poster boy. I’m so sick of him running Derek Ryan out there…..especially in overtime, as Jeff Skinner sits on the bench.
The message from Dundon is probably something along the lines of “Your report to me now and I make the final decisions, Ron. If you don’t like it then the door is over that way.”
Ronnie Franchise has had 4 years to build a winner, which he has failed to do.
How can he build a winner with limited resources?
The new GM will bring his own coach. So coaching, bad goalie, and personnel decisions? If those aren’t working…then you need a new GM.
When a GM has sooo much prospect power bursting at the seems and doesn’t make any kinds of trades to make the team better? Scared to be a GM? Time to change. He’ll still be there…
Best of luck to whomever gets the job. If I was the GM I would aggressively recruit a front office: I’d get former players, scouts, statisticians, and bright graduates (not the owner’s nephew type of graduate; these front offices should actually go to universities and recruit stat and actuary majors)