The Puck Stops Here
On The Winnipeg ?‘s Hiring GM Kevin Cheveldayoff
by PuckStopsHere on 06/11/11 at 01:20 PM ET
Comments (1)
On Wednesday the new Winnipeg NHL team hired Kevin Cheveldayoff as their first general manager. I would like to comment on this, though I let it go because of the Stanley Cup finals.
My first somewhat unrelated comment is that I thought we were going to find out what the team would be called after they sold 13,000 season tickets. One week after they achieved this goal we still don’t have a name. What is the delay?
As for Cheveldayoff, it is probably a good hire. He was a very successful minor league general manager with the Chicago Wolves. At first they were an IHL team nut they moved into AHL. Under his run, the Wolves won the IHL Turner Cup twice and the AHL Calder Cup twice. In 2009, he was hired as the Chicago Blackhawks assistant GM, where he won the Stanley Cup.
Cheveldayoff earned the reputation as the best AHL general manager. As such, his job was to fill out his team’s roster after taking on the minor leaguers sent down from their NHL affiliate. He was a very aggressive astute judge of AHL talent. He always had a strong group of career AHLers who were no longer considered NHL prospects because they were well into their 20s or 30s. The Chicago Wolves were the Atlanta Thrashers AHL affiliate and offered few quality players. Cheveldayoff was criticized for not developing Atlanta prospects. He often gave his career minor leaguers who were only under contract with the Wolves far more ice time. This was not his mandate. Chicago is a competitive market where there are many options for fans money and they needed a winning team to draw fans. The Thrashers were misrun and did not seem to care that their prospects were not given much of a chance. Winning multiple AHL titles with little help from their NHL affiliate earned Cheveldayoff a reputation as a great AHL GM.
It isn’t much of a surprise that the Winnipeg ?‘s owners from True North Sports and Entertainment would be aware of and interested in hiring an esteemed AHL GM. After all, they have owned the Manitoba Moose in the AHL and have been aware of (and likely jealous of) Cheveldayoff’s work.
When hiring a general manager with no experience as a general manager, it is hard to know what you are going to get. Kevin Cheveldayoff has a two year run as the Chicago Blackhawks assistant GM. It is hard to argue that he has been responsible for their success, as the Stanley Cup winning team was largely built before he arrived. His AHL/IHL tenure is second to none. Kevin Cheveldayoff is the best AHL general manager available. He has earned his shot as an NHL GM. There is a good chance that he will do a good job.
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Agree. I hope he builds the ?s into a winner.
Plus, I’ll tell you why I think True North is delaying the reveal—I’m guessing they wanted to call the team something other than the Jets, and now they’re getting cold feet because they’re afraid of the public backlash.
Posted by Sven22 from Grand Rapids on 06/11/11 at 04:04 PM ET