Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
In the meantime, back to the NHL. And we're joined now by the general manager of the New Jersey Devils, Sonny Mehta, who joins me here on the sheet. Sonny, first of all, a belated congratulations.
Chapter 2: What was Sunny Mehta's initial reaction to becoming the General Manager?
And I wanted to open up by asking about have you had your, okay, so now I'm a general manager moment yet. So Brian Burke told me the first time he realized he was a general manager, he was trying to make a trade with Lou Lamorello of New Jersey. I believe you've heard of him before. Yeah.
and it was the sean burke eric weinrich trade for bobby holeek and he said it was my first trade and it was just me and the phone in my office there's no assistant general managers there's no big huge support staff and he said he picked up the phone to call lou and got nervous and hung up He waited a little bit and he picked up the phone again. He wasn't sure. This is my first trade.
And he hung up and he walked around the building and then came back in. And finally, after however many attempts, he was finally able to call Lou Lamarillo and go through with the trade.
Chapter 3: How did Sunny Mehta's experience with the Florida Panthers shape his approach?
Have you had your I'm a general manager yet moment, Sonny? It doesn't necessarily have to be a trade, obviously.
I don't know if I have. I don't think it's hit me yet. I still don't, you know, in part, like the timing of everything was so quick. I've just gotten thrown right into the fire that I don't know if it has hit me. It may not hit me until July. So, but when there's actually some downtime.
You know, there's a lot to get to here with the New Jersey Devils and with you as well. One of the things that I'm curious about, like you grew up a New Jersey Devils fan, like your story by now has been well told, and it's great, and everybody knows your background and how you got to the position you're at now.
What I'm curious about is when you were working with the Florida Panthers, would you always have in the back of your mind, if I ran the Devils, this is what I would do?
Yeah.
Do managers think that way? Like, oh, if I had a hand on the wheel in New Jersey, this is what I would do. Or is it just 24-7, I'm focused on the Florida Panthers and that's it?
Okay, so here's how I'll answer that question, Jeff. So I think the very first time I started working for an NHL team was in 2010 when I did a year consulting with the Phoenix Coyotes and the person who was leading that group at the time, Matt Halsizer. I remember specifically the very first time that Phoenix played New Jersey, and he knew I had grown up a Devils fan or whatever.
And I remember the first time Phoenix played New Jersey, he kind of jokingly asked me, he was like – hey, who are you rooting for tonight? And I remember my response to him was the exact same response to him. I paraphrased what Susan Sarandon says in Bull Durham, where I said, sweetheart, would you rather me sleeping with him and calling your name or sleeping with you and calling his name?
That's a great point. I never thought we'd hear that on this program, but there it is. I am curious, too, because one of the things about hockey is everybody fancies themselves a general manager. Well, this is what I would do if I ran this team, whatever. Is there... Like, when you get the big chair position... Is there a temptation, a desire to do something right away?
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Chapter 4: What strategies does Mehta consider for building a modern hockey team?
I don't know that for me is necessarily a stylistic thing. Um, I'm pretty matter of fact about the, the issue that the point in hockey is to win and you win by outscoring the other team. And you can do that by allowing fewer goals and you can do that by scoring more goals. And frankly, what I want is I want to outscore the other team. I want players who help us outscore the other team.
I want, uh, a roster full of players that in the aggregate outscore other teams. And I think there's a lot of different ways to do that. I don't think there is one way to do that. I mean, we, We had a pretty idiosyncratic style in Florida, obviously, but I don't think that's the only way to win. I mean, we've seen that, right?
I mean, Chicago Blackhawks under Joel Quenville and that group played a certain way. Tampa Bay played a completely different style than us, and they won two Stanley Cups. So for me, it's less about style, and it's more about the end result, which is I want to win.
Um, I can recall having a conversation with one general manager a few years ago, and his team, this is someone that has a sort of a, for lack of a better term, an analytic slant to how this person sees the game, even though really, that war is over, everybody looks at it from that point of view, it's information.
um but for the purposes of this conversation i'll use that description and i was pointing out yeah you know what you're going through a slump right now the last few months but these numbers look good and that and you know all this and this looks good and this manager stopped me and said that's all fine and good and we read all that but then at a certain point like life has to start like you get off the page and life begins and the games and the games get played does that resonate with you
I don't know. I don't know if I know exactly what you're getting at.
What do you mean by... What I'm getting at here is what this manager was trying to say to me.
Well, that's fine and good, and you can feed me all the stuff about underlying numbers, but at the end of the day, to your point, we're here to win hockey games, and I'm not feeling better about myself because my process is good, or I'm not getting my name on the Stanley Cup because our underlying numbers are better than anyone else's in the NHL.
Yeah, that's a tough thing. That's a tough thing because in the end, you care about the result. Everyone cares about the result.
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