Fenton fired as Wild GM.

[GASabresIUFAN]

Crazy.  Just 14 months into the job.

http://www.startribune.com/wild-general-manager-paul-fenton-fired-by-owner-craig-leipold/513393392/

I didn’t think he was doing that bad of a job, but aging core and missing the playoffs isn’t a recipe for success.

[miles]

I follow the wild as my second team. I disliked him trading away some really good players midway through the season.  

Essentially they will need to rebuild with what they have now. I think he got rid of too many players 

[WildCard]

Gotta give them credit for cutting the cord on a clearly bad GM as early as they can instead of 2 years down the road like some teams would

[That Aud Smell]

I saw a Tweet - can't track it down now - to the effect that "things" were just bad within the organization - something about dark clouds looming over the locker room, etc.

[mphs mike]

Just two years ago Fenton as GM and Housley as head coach were the hottest names possible.

[WildCard]

4 minutes ago, That Aud Smell said:

I saw a Tweet - can't track it down now - to the effect that "things" were just bad within the organization - something about dark clouds looming over the locker room, etc.

It's a quote from the athletic that I put in the Around thread

[darksabre]

The Wild are such a weird team. They've had pretty good talent for years and are just totally uninteresting. When was the last time anyone gave a ***** about the Wild? 2013?

[darksabre]

I think if I had to rank the least interesting teams in the NHL it would be Minnesota, Florida, and LA. I would watch any other team in the league play a hockey game over those three.

[WildCard]

1 minute ago, darksabre said:

I think if I had to rank the least interesting teams in the NHL it would be Minnesota, Florida, and LA. I would watch any other team in the league play a hockey game over those three.

Minnesota, Anaheim, Ottawa

Florida has players and coach Q, LA has Doughty at least

[Derrico]

A bit different with carlyl gone but ducks have to be top 3 imo.

[darksabre]

I think Anaheim's roster is at least a little bit interesting, but I can see the argument.

[woods-racer]

Tim Murray is looking through his contact list right now wondering if he has that number for the Wild.....

[Huckleberry]

17 minutes ago, woods-racer said:

Tim Murray is looking through his contact list right now wondering if he has that number for the Wild.....

He probably would do a better job than fenton.

[Tondas]

I love the title of this thread.  "Fenton fired as Wild GM".  Maybe they will be looking for a tamer replacement.

[Taro T]

Bummer.  There goes 1 trade partner.

[Brawndo]

 

[GASabresIUFAN]

10 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

 

Incompetent 

[OhMyDahlin]

4 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Incompetent 

If Tim Murray was "incompetent," that says a lot about Jason Botterill then.

[darksabre]

13 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

 

So basically he wasn't interested in actually running the team. That's always good. 

[WildCard]

21 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

 

 

10 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Incompetent 

 

5 minutes ago, OhMyDahlin said:

If Tim Murray was "incompetent," that says a lot about Jason Botterill then.

Murray is a great scout and a bad GM, same as Whaley was. There are a ton of those that exist throughout leagues, same as there are better assistant coaches than head coaches, that doesn't make them incompetent 

4 minutes ago, darksabre said:

So basically he wasn't interested in actually running the team. That's always good. 

Pretty much this. Murray wanted to GM an NHL team the same way we'd run a fantasy team, but there's so much more to it than that

[dudacek]

Sorry for posting a gated piece, but this really feels like what Pegula would have said when he fired Murray, if Pegula was as articulate as Craig Leipold and on top of the culture of his organization as Craig Leipold.

https://theathletic.com/1107006/2019/07/30/why-paul-fenton-was-fired-and-where-the-wild-could-turn-for-their-next-gm/

“Leipold acknowledged that he started to really wonder after the season if he made a dire mistake. Exit interviews with players gave a sense that “things weren’t all right.” Several staff members, from the hockey ops department to the locker room, have been unhappy with the way they’ve been treated for some time. Leipold hoped he could work with Fenton this summer to improve on some of his weaknesses heading into next season.

But when it became apparent to Leipold that nothing was changing, that players were still unhappy, that the morale of his front office and coaching staff and locker room staff was low, he decided it was necessary to admit error and pull the trigger before further damage could be done.”

[GASabresIUFAN]

On 7/30/2019 at 6:34 PM, OhMyDahlin said:

If Tim Murray was "incompetent," that says a lot about Jason Botterill then.

It does. Jbot has a job. 

[Drunkard]

10 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

It does. Jbot has a job. 

For now.

[steveoath]

Chiarelli interviewed for this. Seems wild are going full on tank then...

 

https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/report-former-oilers-gm-chiarelli-interviews-wild/

[WildCard]

Some tidbits from athletic article per reddit user

Quote

]

The wild had the best analytics department in the league with two founders of WAR on ice working for them. they weren’t invited to the trade deadline meetings. both of them no longer work for the wild

the team didn’t scout victor rask before they traded for him. they didn’t even ask staal about him

fenton would go nuts on whoever he was with when news leaked out, putting basically everyone on eggshells when even minor stuff came out

fenton promoted his son to head of amateur scouting without much of a body of work

fenton tried to fire boudreau multiple times after letting his friend go so that fenton could hire his own guy as an assistant

fenton alienated many of fletcher’s people to the point that they left without any good replacements

this is just some of the stuff in the article. there is more that i haven’t mentioned

“There were a number of people inside the organization who were worried that over that month leading into the trade deadline Fenton became too singularly focused and “obsessed” with getting Fiala, whom he feels could become a game-breaker. It apparently took some convincing from his staff to keep Fenton from giving up more than Granlund and even retaining salary.

“There was just frustration beyond comprehension,” a source said.

To land Kevin Fiala, Fenton traded an established 50-plus point player in Mikael Granlund. Fiala is only 23, and the Wild hope he can develop into a player that will make that trade a win in the long-run.

Fenton was proud of his one-for-one “hockey trade,” but very rarely in the NHL is a known quantity like Granlund traded for an unproven player without getting another asset back. It sure sounds like Fenton’s old mentor, David Poile, strung him along for a month to the point that Fenton thought he was getting a steal when Poile finally agreed.

“David knew he had him and played mind games with him all the way to the deadline,” a league source said.”

https://theathletic.com/1112113/2019/08/02/the-downfall-of-paul-fenton-inside-the-gms-turbulent-14-months-with-the-wild/

Edited August 2, 2019 by WildCard