First is that Red Deer Rebels owner Brent Sutter officially resigned today as head coach of the NHL's New Jersey Devils. Sutter cited his desire to not be so far away from his family and the Rebels as the reason for his decision.
So, does Sutter now move back into his GM role with the Rebels? Or will he take the vacant head coaching job with the Calgary Flames instead? The Flames job would keep him in the NHL while allowing him to be much closer to his family year-round. He still has one year left on his contract with the Devils so he would need the Devils to let him out of that contract in order to take another NHL job. NHL rules apparently do not permit compensation to be given, so the decision for the Devils is simply whether they want to make Sutter sit out the 09-10 NHL season or whether they're OK with him joining an opponent. Guess we'll see....if he's back in Red Deer, that's a big plus for the Rebels. And even if he goes to the Flames, you can be sure he'll have more of a hand in Rebels matters this coming season because he'll be a lot closer to the WHL action than he was in New Jersey.
And the other bit of news is also with the Sutter clan, this time a bit further south in Lethbridge. Apparently there was an impromptu Hurricanes shareholder meeting last night in Lethbridge attended by about 140 shareholders. Apparently the overwhelming majority of them expressed a desire to see Rich Sutter be the next GM of the Hurricanes, and there was even a petition signing to that effect.
This is exactly what I thought was going to happen....now we're going to see pressure on the board of directors to hire Sutter. And most of these people have not a single clue who else has applied for the job. Sam Pollock (*) himself could have put in a resume and it wouldn't matter, the board will be pressured into hiring Rich Sutter whether he's the most qualified applicant or not. For the record, I like Rich Sutter and I think he'd do a fine job but that doesn't mean he is the best applicant; he has little experience as an executive at any level of hockey. I don't know who the other applicants are and neither do most of the shareholders. So why are they making the pick for the job....sit down and let the board of directors pick the most qualified guy. That's why you elected them directors.
(*) Yes, I know Sam Pollock is dead. The point is that we don't know if somebody else who is more qualified than Rich Sutter has applied.
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