Please pardon the interruption. After posting the second part of my State of the Penguins I saw a very interesting article from Dan Kingarski. According to Kingarski, a call precipitated the firings of Jacques Martin, Sergei Gonchar, and Mark Recchi. Accordingly, that call was between owners Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle and senior Penguins Management.
The first thing that struck me was the following quote;
“Our source, who was not on the call, paraphrased the conversation as the Penguins hockey operations were ‘allowed’ to keep head coach Mike Sullivan, but the others would not be back.”
The stress on the word ‘allowed’ was what caught my attention. Perhaps it is just my exaggerated ego searching for vindication, but those stress marks appear to me to be a sign that ownership is just as frustrated with Penguins operations as I am. Those stress marks to me would indicate that both Coach Mike Sullivan and even GM Jim Rutherford are on short leashes.
The article continues.
“The Pittsburgh Penguins ownership is not happy with the growing trend of playoff failure. The Penguins have deficit spent in each of the past two seasons and the flameouts not only caused embarrassment but cost the Penguins millions in revenue. Because of the lost revenue, sources told PHN this week there is a question if the Penguins will spend to the cap limit next season.”
This paragraph would seem to reinforce the idea that Sullivan is under the micro-scope for the wins and losses in the playoffs and Rutherford is joining him on the hot seat for wasting money on under-performing veterans.
The article also suggested that part of the problems the Penguins have suffered through were not due to the much-publicized Sullivan/Phil Kessel rift but potentially to a Recchi/Sidney Crosby rift.
“ For those not familiar, Recchi was one of the veterans who had a row with Crosby during Crosby’s rookie year and reportedly treated the rookie harshly. Veterans felt the new face of the NHL was immature. However, then head coach Eddie Olzyck firmly sided with Crosby. Olczyk confronted the veterans.”
Perhaps I did know this, maybe I have been on an extended senior moment, but honestly, I feel I am one of those to which Kingarski was referring as not being familiar with this story line.
Hey Coach,
” May not spend to the cap limit !! ” Does that surprise anyone?
The Pens are a small market team and the ownership group,while very well off by my standards are not in the same class as many teams such as New York,Boston,Toronto,Montreal, LA,the Walton fortune that owns Colorado, Detroit and a few larger markets.
I am reminded that Mario said a few years back, ” We need to make it into the Second Round of the play offs before we start to make ANY money.” Translation, I need 4+ home play off games to pay the bills. That is what is happening here. This year the Pens LOST MONEY. A lot of money.
Last Year they lost money.
Ron Burkle ,the real money man behind the Penguins does not keep money losing businesses very long.His past 25 year track record in California shows he buys under valued, under performing businesses then comes in and cuts the fat to the bone,adds proper management and usually the businesses then make a profitable turn around. If they don’t,he sells them. He moves on.
Imagine for next season the owners saying Jimmy, you have 90% of the Cap to spend. Period! That is 8.1 million dollars less than this year Coach.
The Pens are screwed ! They would have to dump the over priced, under performing talent.
Burkle will NOT lose 10 to 20 million next year if they do NOT make the play offs.That is why they may cut the salaries budget for 2021. Do not forget the increase in ticket prices and concessions as well for 2021.
They will be coming for sure. Cut costs and raise revenues !! Business management 101 .
They have no choice and maybe the rebuild has already started. Just in a different manner.
Again I am reminded that Ron and Mario tried to sell the Pens after they won their second cup in 2017. They could not find ANY takers at the over priced amount they wanted. So three years later Coach, I wonder what the team is worth today ?? A lot less than 2017 for sure.
That is what is going thru Ron Burkle’s business mind as well.
Great article OTR. Opened my eyes.
Cheers
Jim
Hey Jim,
I too remember that ownership said they had to make the 2nd round to break even. Complicating matters even more this past season and the coming one, the seasons will be shorter, less games and this past playoffs there were no home games. Financially, the team is hurting for income.
At least had Sully and JR not blown it they could have some merchandising revenue How many people will be buying the Jerseys of teams that lose to the 24th team in the league? How many people are clamoring to buy Jerseys with Jack Johnson, Dominik Simon, Conor Sheary, Evan Rodirgues, Zach Aston-Reese or Nick Bjugstad’s name on it? Or even a Markus Pettersson’s, or Juuso Riikola’s?
Had the team won the draft lottery, they may have been able to sell Jersey’s with Lafrenière’s name on it.
As you have said many times, Hockey may be a game to the fans, but it is a business to the owners. They may want to be able to manipulate the books to look like that aren’t all that profitable for tax purposes, but they definitely aren’t in it to truly lose money.
The bottom line is that the team/GM JR should always (past, present, and future) avoid bringing in high priced old guys. Instead they should be looking to trade off old talent still in its prime, on the back end, but still when its talent is high enough to bring in good Draft Picks and/or Prospects.
So what did JR do this year? He traded a draft pick for Marleau. Because it wasn’t a high draft pick, some argue that it was worth the gamble but now look where we are.
He also traded Kahun a young middle 6 rising star for Sheary, an older veteran relegated to 4th line in Buffalo and a not as old but still older Rodrigues also playing 4th line.
Some argue that the move was to save salary because Kahun was RFA and they couldn’t re-sign him. That doesn’t make sense since Sheary is UFA and Rodrigues is RFA. No matter how you sliced it the team traded down in talent for FAs that would need signing. Rodrigues made $2 million this past year and will be looking for more, Kahun only made $925,000. Because of where they were starting, Kahun probably will be asking for less that Rodrigues.
It find it hard to believe the trade was a money saving deal. Instead of paying the final 8 or so games of a $925,000 contract for young legs with a lot of upside, JR paid for 8 or so games on a $3 million dollar contract and a $2 million dollar contract for 2 players that made no difference what so ever in the playoffs.
Our friend Caleb may argue that Rodrigues can be a middle 6 player and there may be some evidence that he was being held back in Buffalo, but Rodrigues is 27 and Kahun is 25, Kahun’s future still looks brighter and for next season, cheaper.
I saw someone arguing about how all GMs hand out bad contracts, trying to defend JRs gift to JJ, but JJ isn’t the only horrible deal JR has made with his $$$ decisions but I already talked about some of those decisions and will go over that in more detail later when I continue reviewing the State of different Positions.
As always Jim, thanks enjoy the rest of the weekend
Do you have OCD, it seems like it since you go on exactly the same rant every time you write.
You just don’t get it, do you. JR has orders from the top to win now. The Pens are not trading players for futures because that’s not what Burkle and Lemieux want.
As far as his contracts are concerned, JJ is not near among the league’s worst, which I posted in your sane partner’s thread.
You are quite hypocritical. You go believe Kingerski’s revelation about a phone call but ignore his column showing the Johnson had little or no blame for the goals scored while he was on the ice.
Lastly, Sullivan has been crucified for losing to Islanders and Flyers. So what’s happening now? The Islanders are about to sweep the Caps and the Canadiens are proving to be a very tough out for the Flyers, who are better than the Penguins. I think everyone owes Sullivan a big apology.
I think everybody owes Sullivan a pink slip
Amen Dave!!!
Hey All,
I think firing the assistant coaches was a mistake. It should have been all or nothing. Sully should have gone, too. It’s sort of like sweeping the floor but leaving the dirt pile in the corner.
I’ve been reading everything I can just to see if I can make some sense of the dismal failure of the qualifying round, and now the firing of the assistant coaches. I got nothin’!
I do, however, fear that too much interference from high up (Lemieux and Burkle) will be bad for business, if that is indeed the case. It’s no solution to state, or even imply, Sullivan and Rutherford are on a short leash. You have to completely trust those you’ve hired to do the job and let them do it. If you can’t, which a “short leash” implies, what’s the point?
Furthermore, I don’t trust that Sullivan will change and next year will be more of the same.
— 55
Hey 55,
I agree that you either trust or fire! You don’t put an employee on a short leash. Unfortunately, I don’t see a whole lot of people willing to trust or fire. The short leash, in the end, results in firing. The employee becomes too timid – second guessing himself and fails.
The only benefit that I see in dragging your feet before the inevitable firing is allowing yourself time to find the right replacement and there is something to be said for that. In fact, I may even use that tactic, however, I would have started this process a long, long time ago.
The team has been going backwards for quite awhile.
Agreed Coach,
PSS–If you haven’t read it already, there’s a really good article on the Trib by Tim Benz…”For a guy who always talks about moving forward, Mike Sullivan’s Penguins keep moving backward.”
An excerpt:
Sullivan didn’t have many answers. He was asked whether he found the results “puzzling” because the team got off to a great start in the regular season despite having lots of injuries.
“For sure it does,” he said. “Because for such a significant portion of the season, we felt really good about our team, the direction it was going and the results we were getting.”
I feel exactly the same way. For a good portion of the regular season, I felt really good about the way the team was playing. In re-reading some of my posts, the same themes kept recurring. How well were playing as a team and competing, how guys stepped up in the wake of injuries, how we were getting contributions up and down the lineup. Really encouraging.
Then it just stopped…like someone ripping the needle off a phonograph record. Frankly, I can understand Sullivan being at a loss to explain it. I am, too.
Benz also mentions that the Marleau and Sheary trades were totally unnecessary and may have screwed things up. I concur.
Rick
Hey Rick,
I may not get to reading that until tonight. I have a pretty long day ahead of me with clients. But you know my thoughts; I think we were winning because of our injuries not despite. I think the injury bug forced Sully to play players not of his choosing. Once he had them available agian, things went south.
Hey Other Rick,
Great stuff…I read Kingerski’s article, too. Eye opening.
Several posts back, 55 on Point commented that this feels a lot like 2014, when ownership cleaned house in stunning fashion following a dismal come-from-in-front second round loss to the Rangers. I agreed. It just has the same unsettling feel.
I opined in a recent article that neither Rutherford or Sullivan appear to be on solid ground…especially Sully…and this definitely seems to be true. You wonder how much input he’ll have into picking his new coaching staff, or if will be selected for him…with a ready-made replacement among the bunch.
It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.
My only fear is it’ll distract from the real task at hand…making the proper moves, personnel wise. Now more than ever, we’ve really got to be on point with our decisions. There just isn’t a whole lot of room for error.
Rick
PS–Wish Arizona would fire Rick Tocchet so we could hire him back.
Thanks Rick,
This team does have the same fetid stench that the 2014 team had. Perhaps even a worse. Maybe if the team had put up some sort of fight as late as the elimination game against Montreal but they meekly rolled over and played dead – barely getting over 20 shots and pretty much all from left field, rarely from real scoring range.
I do hear you about distracting from the task of repairing the personnel make-up of the players, but I am just afraid that it will be more of the same old, same old. I honestly don’t want JR or Sully making decision about who plays on this team or not. They have already been playing like they were trying not to lose for so long I think they have forgotten how to try and win. i.e. Marleau continued playing thru the entire playoffs simply because he was a veteran.
Now if Kingarski’s article is true, it may make the two of them even more timid in their decisions.
I hear ya about Tocchet, and not only me, but if I recall a lot of our regulars here on Penguin Poop share in your thoughts. Right now it sure seems like a better choice than what we have.