Frank Seravalli

They made the choice.

Francesco Aquilini met and went with Jim Rutherford and convinced him to come out west and take the job.

It was kind of as simple as that.

So now to think that there's going to be this, hey, we're going to do this totally differently than we've ever done it before, I don't know if I buy that.

Yeah, and Bob's your uncle.

I mean, that's basically how it's worked.

And so that's why when we initially heard Rian Johnson, you thought, okay, maybe this is a fait accompli.

Maybe this is just something that's preordained to happen.

But I would argue the fact that it hasn't happened already clearly means that there's some kind of wrinkle here that we're not seeing or not understanding, or maybe they just don't think the time is right, and they're going to have to wrestle with all that

And then I'm just thinking moving forward, like I personally believe that Jim Rutherford's shadow that looms over this process with both the indeterminate amount of time that he's going to be in the position, as well as the fact that the last guy that was here didn't actually make very many hockey operations decisions and yet was thrown on the tarmac.

I don't think that's a good look either.

And I think, yeah, look, it's one of 32.

Are you always going to have someone that's willing to sign up for that pay scale and for that opportunity to have the title as general manager?

Of course.

And it doesn't matter how dire the circumstances or how bleak the picture is in terms of the roster build, working for this ownership group, all those things.

someone's always going to be willing to do it because someone's, you know, they're climbing over dead bodies all the time to try and get to the top.

Um, but I, I think that that the entire scope of this opportunity, it changes in my view based on Jim Rutherford still being part of it.

So they're getting closer.

Um,

They've got three candidates in this week as quote-unquote finalists for the general manager position.