A Wish Granted?

Back in 2019, I had asked that someone prevent Pierre McGuire from taking a network TV analyst position away from someone more qualified. While he's been in hockey forever, his knowledge of the game borders on ridiculous while often drifting into the realm of stupidity. There's no doubt that McGuire would likely win in a big way at "Obscure Hockey Trivia Night" at the local pub, but one has to wonder how much actual hockey knowledge he possesses in assessing and evaluating players. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

The 59 year-old McGuire was hired today by the Ottawa Senators - read: Eugene Melnyk - as the senior vice-president of player development. His role will be to assist current Senators general manager Pierre Dorion in evaluating talent within the organization as well as identifying players who could help the club from outside the team's current structure. He'll also be in charge of Ottawa's AHL affiliate in the Belleville Senators as part of his role.

The one part of hockey that has seemingly baffled Pierre McGuire in his time as a broadcaster has been the new emphasis placed on analytics, so I'm not sure what the Ottawa Senators plan to do on that front. McGuire seemingly questions anyone who can provide anything but an eye test and a story about a player's minor-hockey tournament exploits in Springfield, Massachusetts when the player was nine, so it will be interesting to see how McGuire fares when presented with numbers that show trends and extrapolated outcomes.

Whatever the case may be on that front, it sounds as though Pierre McGuire is over the moon to be employed by an NHL hockey team once again.

"This is something I've been looking forward to, in terms of joining this family for a long time," McGuire said via Zoom today. "I've always had a real drive toward Ottawa, the people there, the community, the hockey passion that people have. It's meant a lot to me to have this opportunity."

Pierre Dorion seems very comfortable with the hiring, stating to reporters, "We all want ambitious people, people that are driven, to work with us, and there's no denying the fact that Pierre is ambitious and driven. And I think that only makes us a better team and makes me a better general manager."

What bothers me most about this hiring isn't that McGuire somehow landed on his feet in hockey once more or that someone found a reason to give him a front office job despite his past transgressions. It's the fact that McGuire clings to this belief that he had some major impact on the Penguins winning the Stanley Cup in 1992 before being embarrassed as a coach with the Hartford Whalers and finding himself on TV in 1996. And since that time, he's done background and scouting work on players for broadcasts, not for building a team.

While he's not wrong about having some great, young talent in Ottawa with the likes of Thomas Chabot, Brady Tkachuk, and Tim Stützle along with solid prospects like Jake Sanderson and Tyler Kleven, the fact of the matter is that it takes more than just first-round picks to win a Stanley Cup. The depth players are normally found in places like the AHL and ECHL, and you have to wonder if Pierre McGuire has the skill to evaluate talent both in the present and for the future when it comes to making trades and signing players.

His recommendations will carry weight when it comes to Pierre Dorion doing his job well, and it would seem that you'd want someone who has worked through those levels rather than a broadcaster who spent more time worrying about what Player X ate for breakfast in his junior year of college. Knowing those leagues would be a huge boon to Dorion who likely doesn't have much time to be scouring the minor leagues for those players.

I guess this is why I don't run an NHL team. And it's probably why Eugene Melnyk shouldn't run a hockey team either when it comes to hockey decisions. It's not like anyone in Canada looked at Bob Cole when he retired and thought, "He's been around hockey forever, so he'd make a great vice-president of player development!"

Congratulations to the Ottawa Senators for finding the guy who will find the guys to put them over the top. It seems like the exhaustive search they performed in finding the right candidate for this role was done with care, so they should be in good hands.

And, if not, they can have a guy put on back on TSN regional broadcasts for Ottawa Senators games because that's the only job he should have been hired to do. The only benefit I see in this hiring is that Pierre Mcuire likely won't be on TV calling games any longer.

Who would have thought the Ottawa Senators would make my wish come true?

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!