If The Rumours Are True...

There's still a full season to be played before the Seattle NHL franchise gets to make some real noise, but there was a groundswell of rumours today that the newest NHL team will name its first general manager as former Carolina Hurricanes general manager Ron Francis. Francis is an interesting choice if the rumours are true due to the fact that he doesn't have the resumé or the experience of George McPhee when he was named as the new GM of the Vegas Golden Knights, but Francis has contacts in the NHL world still and he was working with Hockey Canada for the senior men's teams. Clearly, he's still plugged into the game on the managerial front, so this could be a very savvy selection if and when the announcement is finally made later this week.

After Seattle landed Alexandra Mandrycky as director of hockey administration at the NHL Draft in June, it was expected that Tod Leiweke and Jerry Bruckheimer would spend the next couple of months going over who they wanted for the general manager position with input from Mandrycky. Clearly, they didn't need a couple of months after Elliotte Friedman broke the news today via Twitter.

There will be detractors who may call into question the lack of success that Francis had as the man in charge in Carolina. There's no denying that the Hurricanes weren't as successful as one may have hoped when he was unceremoniously dismissed by Tom Dundon, but Francis was quietly putting the pieces in place for the Hurricanes to turn the corner. Rome wasn't built overnight and the Hurricanes didn't win the Stanley Cup this past season, but Francis did a good job in moving out aging stars and expensive contracts for younger, emerging players while opening cap room. That shouldn't be overlooked.

He also helped to put the structure in place for the Charlotte Checkers to succeed as many of the picks made by Francis over his four years at the helm in Carolina played integral roles in helping that franchise win the Calder Cup. While Sebastien Aho didn't need the AHL seasoning, players like Haydn Fleury, Jake Bean, and Alex Nedeljkovic were instrumental pieces of that Calder Cup championship, and the Hurricanes are slowly working pieces like Warren Foegele and Martin Necas into the everyday lineup.

Not everything that Francis did was rainbows and butterflies. There was the obvious miss with Scott Darling's contract, gambling on the solid backup campaign he put up in Chicago to continue in Carolina with an increased workload. That didn't happen, and the Hurricanes suffered with Cam Ward playing an equal number of games as Darling with more success. He allowed Eric Staal to walk as a free agent when it was pretty clear that Staal still had gas in the tank, but the goaltending conundrum in not being able to move Cam Ward while not being able to reel in a solid free agent goalie dogged Francis' tenure in Carolina.

The reason that Francis may thrive in Seattle is that he'll have the reins taken off when it comes to building a team and spending money. Francis, as stated above, has contacts throughout the hockey world thanks to his work in the NHL and with Hockey Canada, and it's very likely that he'll use the next year studying rosters from across the globe in finding elite talent. While the sentiment may be that Seattle won't have the same calibre of players available from which Vegas chose, there will likely be talent that Francis can select for a competitive team out of the gate.

Make no mistake that this hiring is a good one in this writer's opinion. Francis knows the game well, has learned from some wise men, and is continuing to hone his craft. He's worked for a team that operated on a shoestring budget, and now the purse strings are open and the money can be spent. While I don't believe that Francis will sacrifice smart spending in exchange for free-wheeling spending, Francis listens to his scouts when it comes to the drafts and does his homework when it comes to finding NHL-ready players.

This is a sound hiring for the team located on Puget Sound.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!