Darren Dreger

We knew it was true that they had hired the coaching agency, which is Neil Glassberg's company.

I guess the formalities and the paperwork and the lawyering has been done, the contracts have been signed, and now it's official, so they announce it.

Right.

I mean, it's a corporate approach, right?

I mean, corporate America does this all the time.

It's unusual.

But for hockey teams?

teams?

It's unusual for an NHL team to do it.

It's not the first time that it's been done, but it is somewhat unusual.

But I do think, as Keith Pelley acknowledged in his media availability, they're taking a non-traditional approach to the hiring of this individual or these individuals anyway.

right i mean if it were as simple as having the alignment and the structure and the history okay then you you keep what you had in true living and craig berube and maybe you don't fire brendan shanahan but we know that that's not their approach but i think that much has been made over the analytics dynamic and how important it's important trust me that's not just lip service that pelly paid but i think we look around some of the current general managers

And the guys who are highly educated, like Billy Zito comes to mind for me.

This guy was a lawyer.

He's a player agent.

He worked his way up through management of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

And then he got the job with the Florida Panthers, right?

So beyond data-centric people, I do think that that's what Pelley and company are looking for.

And maybe that's why you need a search firm to help bring in candidates that aren't so obvious to you in the hockey world.

I think that's exactly what it looks like.