Nashville got its Recent Leader. Where Does Colorado Go From Here?
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet was on SiriusXM NHL Morning Skate with Scott Laughlin and Andrew Raycroft, where he was asked in regards to the Nashville Predators and the way they landed Chris MacFarland from Colorado. Plus, where does that leave Joe Sakic and the Avalanche?
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
Scott Laughlin: “Elliotte, Chris MacFarland is leaving the Avalanche for the Predators, and Joe Sakic returns to the role of Avalanche general manager. So give us your tackle this through two different lenses.
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Primary, the chance that MacFarland’s now got with the Predators, adding the president’s title to his general manager’s role, and the undeniable fact that Sakic, as they are saying, for the foreseeable future, goes to return to being a general manager. Does the foreseeable future mean weeks, months? I mean, what’s your tackle where Colorado goes from here, and the way long Joe is likely to be back in that seat for?”
Elliotte Friedman: “I feel on the very least it goes through free agency. I feel it’s possible it’s longer. I understand that he indicated, just possibly, it was to his leadership group, I’m not exactly sure, but I’ve heard about this, that he will probably be staying as GM.
If you listen, now they haven’t talked yet, but I remember last yr once they lost in the primary round, watching Sakic at the tip of your media conference, and boy, he still got the fervour, like he still burns with losses. So anyone who thinks he’s type of mailing it in or in semi-retirement, that’s not true.
The guy who wonders about their long-term is Andrew Cagliano. The one thing about Colorado is got a whole lot of really sharp people there behind the scenes. People like Kevin McDonald. People like Arik Parnass. But they don’t really, I don’t think they’re necessarily ready for the GM chair yet.
Cogliano might be not yet either, but I’ve heard they really think highly of him internally. So I’m wondering if, on some level, any individual gets possibly not a GM title, but somewhat bit more responsibility to type of prepare for a step there in the long run.
So, I might expect Sakic to maintain it for a bit. I discussed yesterday, I’ve already heard they’ve indicated (Jared) Bednar will probably be back; he’s got one yr left on his contract, we’ll see what they do there.
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As for Nashville, it became pretty clear that the longer this went on, that they were determined, that they’d been turned all the way down to speak to Eric Tulsky throughout the season, but I feel they were determined that when their two seasons ended, they were going to try again on Tulsky, to attempt to get him or MacFarland.
They really wanted their shot on the two guys. They got MacFarland. I mean, all of it type of unfolded yesterday, but clearly, they’d permission on MacFarland for at the very least a couple of days. They met with him for dinner in Nashville on Monday night, and I feel they principally just told him what it’s going to take.
Now, guys, I heard he got a six-year deal, that’s an enormous deal, and he wasn’t going to get that in Colorado. And Joe Sakic was there, like I said, Sakic continues to be very much invested, and if he wanted that type of contract and that type of opportunity, it wasn’t going to be with the Avalanche.
Nashville took some heat. I don’t have an issue with that. It’s higher to go longer than short to be sure that you get who you wish. And never only did they get permission to refer to him, but they’d to blow him out of the water, they usually did.”
NHLRumors.com Note: The Nashville Predators introduced Chris MacFarland on Wednesday, and Bill Haslam confirmed that Nick Saban opened their eyes to the interview process.
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As NHLRumors.com has been reporting, Saban was there throughout the entire process. Saban knows easy methods to construct winning organizations. But there’s work to do in Nashville for MacFarland. The roster needs work, and so does the prospect pool.
So far as Colorado goes, the Avalanche are doing the correct thing by keeping Jared Bednar. He wasn’t the problem within the playoffs. Let’s see how Sakic handles doing each jobs moving forward.
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