Brian Lawton

Jeff Gordon, of course, was a general manager for a long time, hired as the president of hockey ops there, but really not a ceremonial president.

You know, you have some people around the league that it might have been this or that, and they're not necessarily in it every day, you might think.

That's not Jeff Gordon.

He's in it every day.

He's very active.

He's not telling Kent Hughes what to do, but he's very hands-on, and I think that combination has proven to really work out well for Montreal.

I think in some things that's a fair statement, Bob.

You know, I talk about Michael Peterson every once in a while on this show.

You know, you asked me who's left for players, but who's left for staff, Michael Peterson, who was hired to run analytics in 2009.

And let me tell you, that was not a, it was not a popular decision.

Then a lot of people thought it was nuts.

Um,

Personally, I'm surprised it's taken this long to see more teams gravitate to that direction.

Right.

I know what my experiences were, and I'm a very, very good scout by the eye test.

I am not perfect.

And as a manager, I did not love that.

It felt like we were leaving some part of the process on the table.

And the teams that have picked that up, you know, it's very easy to identify them now, and they've gone on and won Stanley Cups now.

The teams that haven't, you know, there's a lot of circumstances that go into it, but I do think the Sonny Meta hire, who you guys have heard me talk a million times about,