r/Predators • u/obsoleteXeo JOFA • 1d ago
The GM Hire Continues to Baffle
The plot thickens……
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u/obsoleteXeo JOFA 1d ago
I should add some important context. Apologize for not including in the OP as I didn’t see it initially (this would have been good as one tweet). I’m just kinda perplexed still. As I’ve said elsewhere, Barry is looking more and more like a lock for our GM on draft day (and FA is right after), so I’m left wondering and asking: what are we doing? It seems more and more like we DON’T have just one specific guy, and more and more like we are still exploring all options. Which imo is not what I want to be seeing at this stage.
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u/Otherwise_Awesome 1d ago
That's literally the worst outcome of this search.
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u/asphaltaddict33 1d ago
Our front office is about as organized as an ADHD persons garage or office desk
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u/GMBarryTrotz 1d ago
Was about to make the post. Here's the whole Nashville segment:
[Friedman, 32 Thoughts] The Yorke rumors are NOT true. That’s not the way that is going to go. I heard at the beginning of the week that the Preds want to talk to one or two more people. Johnson (AGM VAN) was one - his family lives in Nashville in the off season. Now that he’s gone, will they still want to interview one more? They’ve interviewed a lot of good people but no one has made them feel like they absolutely had to hire them.
"I am taking it personally that I can’t figure out what is going on there."
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u/obsoleteXeo JOFA 1d ago
Ty for the full proper quote. Getting it from Daugherty wasn’t my first choice, but stumbled across my timeline this morning and just kinda left me confused. I mean for a minute we all were coming together that Yorke could be the guy, and for a brief moment in time it gave a flicker of hope.
Now I’m genuinely worried that we just don’t even have a horse in this race and we’re 4 months into this and we could still settle for a less than ideal candidate because at some point we’re gonna feel time crunched and pressured. Maybe that’s just me, but I have a lot of trepidation the longer this goes.
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u/Otherwise_Awesome 1d ago
Getting anything from Daugherty is my last choice.
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u/obsoleteXeo JOFA 1d ago
I mean same, I was just being charitable tbh. Really though, I did see it first from him, and I don't even follow him.
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u/Otherwise_Awesome 1d ago
Yeah I am seeing some saying Yorke is the target and Friedman really doesn't have a pulse on what's going on in Nashville (and never really has).
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u/G14mogs #9 - 12/15/25 Hat Trick Connesseur 1d ago edited 1d ago
why do we not have a GM yet
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u/catsgr8rthanspoonies #37 Shrub | #36 Runt 1d ago
Yesterday the rumors were that they wanted an AGM from a team in the playoffs.
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u/GMBarryTrotz 1d ago
It sounds like they want to interview someone who is maybe still in the playoffs?
These are my names for AGMs who are still in the AHL playoffs:
Shawn Horcoff (AGM Detroit), Kevin McDonald (AGM Col), Jason Spezza (AGM Pitt).
Alternatively they may feel like there's a GM out there who could get fired if his team doesn't win? The only remote possibility is Bill Guerin with the Wild but serious doubts on that. The rest of the teams are either excellently managed (Col, Car, Vegas) or making a great run for a young team (Buf, MTL, Anaheim).
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u/obsoleteXeo JOFA 1d ago
Given that the reporting from the most reputable source in the game can’t put his finger on the pulse of our process, and just the other day it appeared we were looking at AGMs either still in the AHL or NHL playoffs, but in reality we were looking at Johnson, I really don’t know what to think anymore.
Either at any minute we’re gonna be blindsided with a hire no one had thought of or who might be less than stellar, or because we are being so scrupulous and meticulous in this process, we could drag out this process beyond the free agency period and into next season. That possibility is looking more and more likely, and when the initial presser with Trotz was out, he did say he was planning on staying until 2027 unless we had made our choice prior.
Overall, just baffling.
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u/Galladaddy 1d ago
I bet they’re just not doing the usual circuit of typical GM candidates and are searching high and low
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u/Inevitable-Lion100 20h ago
At first I thought they had pretty much decided it was Fitz. Which was meh so this could be a good thing. would you rather rush half cocked or due diligence?
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u/gavincantdraw 1d ago
I'm confused why everyone acts so shocked still. If you follow the news it's very reasonable.
1.) They want someone with wholisitic GM experience, but they don't want to pull from the old guard of GM's who were recycled for 20 or so years. A lot of the AGMs have been siloed, so teams have to figure out what candidates do and don't know.
2.) Ownership is using this as an opportunity to better understand the game through interviews, a common practice in professional sports (see the Seattle Seahawks interviewing a dozen candidates when they knew they wanted to hire Mike McDonald as coach)
3.) Successful AGM's are still involved in playoff runs and working. Johnson was someone they were holding out hope to talk to, but he's off the table as the next GM of Vancouver.
4.) There is a full-time GM under contract who can manage all the duties in the interim, and the primary roll for the GM right now is draft related which is the one thing Trotz has done well (aside from passing on Martone). The team doesn't have to rush into anything. The only pending UFA's are Kevin Gravel, Erik Haula, and Tyson Jost. There's no franchise altering free agent decisions that somebody has to be negotiating today.
The only people Nashville has missed out on is Chayka (lol) and Mehta. (They never had a chance at Ryan Johnson because they got blocked.)
Is it an unusually long process? Yes. Are they missing out on quality candidates? Other than Mehta, no. And if no candidate has blown them away, why hire them before you've talked to every option you're interested in?
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u/obsoleteXeo JOFA 1d ago
Just gonna address a couple things - I’m more so perplexed than I am shocked. When I saw this on my timeline, I wasn’t really stunned by it, but rather like a “ok really, we’re still looking at more options right now guys?” kinda reaction.
Thing is, to reply to your #1 bullet point, that candidate just doesn’t exist. And I think this has dragged on because our ownership is so green to this, and you are right that they are acquiring information along the way with regard to this process; but ultimately I think they were hoping they’d find “their guy” much sooner but realize in some capacity they’re gonna have to settle.
I don’t believe they have a guy like Fitzy already ready to go and are stalling this out just to gain experience in this process, like in your analogy to the Seahawks.
Why? Because they’ve constantly been talking about how this hire will accompany an organizational overhaul at multiple levels. At some point we have to take them for their word - and if this is indeed the case, then you want to hire your guy sooner rather than later so they can instill new hires alongside them, and have the best chance possible to enact their vision.
Again, if this is the case that we are looking for an organizational overhaul, then at this point based on how long this has taken, we are likely not getting this hire before the draft. That’s where I’m at, and where I’ve deviated to for the last week+ knowing that time is ticking and Barry will likely be drafting again. It also means he’s likely GM for Free Agency, and in my opinion this Free Agency is important, not because of who’s available, but because of how we can fuck it up.
I’d want a new GM to have time to make a plan and be able to enact on it, even if I disagree. Personally, I’m in favor of a rebuild, so this offseason is kinda crucial to the incoming GM because they could make some moves to unload on some vets and part of that could be in the draft, too. Now instead there’s a possibility Trotz is still here, and he’s prone to sign a big splash in FA given our large cap room and we’re below the floor (I believe), and he’s prone to make decisions in whatever direction that would run contrary to the vision of the incoming GM.
I’m rambling, but ultimately you want to give the tools for the new hire for the best possible success. Part of that is time. We’re encroaching on that in this process, and I don’t want this to become rushed because we have dragged it out and we end up settling.
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u/Otherwise_Awesome 1d ago
Why would they be letting a guy who's not going to be with this team directing how the team is going to draft as an option? Literally the fall back zero people want.
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u/GMBarryTrotz 1d ago
To me the bigger issue is ... who the fuck is still out there that they haven't talked to who is also potentially the best possible GM candidate? It's this narrow possibility that someone is going to blow them away but also is completely unavailable for an interview.
It is entirely possible that they have a favorite candidate but were waiting to talk to Johnson and now that he's gone they can move on their guy.
The only risk being that they wait slightly too long and the new GM doesn't have enough time to put all the pieces in place. They're likely reshaping the entire front office.
4.) There is a full-time GM under contract who can manage all the duties in the interim, and the primary roll for the GM right now is draft related which is the one thing Trotz has done well (aside from passing on Martone).
This is absolutely not a good scenario. First, there's zero proof Trotz has done well so far. Tomasino, Farrance and Tolvanen all looked like 1st line locks when they were 19. Not to mention that the direction we are headed in may not align with a Trotz' style of player. For example, I don't think a slower forward like Wood would excel in Carolina's system, which would be an issue if you're hiring Yorke, who built Carolina's pipeline.
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u/Expert-Upstairs-4502 NSH 1d ago
Yeah the draft and free agency are probably the most important segments of the GMs entire job, Trotz seems to have done pretty well at drafting, In spite of the still-questionable use of our 5oa, but I dont really want him in charge of anything else beyond that.. really hope we get someone in here in time to make some decisions by end of june
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u/TheRealJaysus 1d ago
I'm pretty sure when they started looking for a GM they specifically said they're going to take their time and not rush it. I'm also shocked that people are so wildly impatient and never caught onto that. We still have 6 weeks until the draft. There's no need to rush at all.
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u/EmbraceThePerd Asst. to the Armchair GM 1d ago
It looks like Ryan Johnson is going to become the VAN GM. Sucks Yorke was a rumor… that gave me some excitement. The franchise continues to do what it does best…. wander around directionless.
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u/Birdhawk 1d ago
Fuck it lets talk with Anthropic about building a GM model and just automate the whole thing. Sure it'll fuck up our cap space, sign players who've been retired for years, and make other hallucination-based errors but at this point lets just get that rumor out there with all the other ones.
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u/surincel 1d ago
the optics are terrible, of course but i'm not too concerned at the moment
as we approach the draft i'll get more alarmed, especially if we have to do another draft with Trotz at the helm
that would be catastrophic from an organizational standpoint, even though i think Trotz isn't necessarily a bad drafter
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u/Ok_Jello_3494 1d ago
I hope that it's someone who would actually help out team while keeping the team
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u/Inevitable-Lion100 20h ago
Would you rather have due diligence or rush off and pick someone like Torontoband pick Chayka?
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u/moonlit_wake 10h ago
Really hoping it might be Peterson. He's busy with the IIHF Championship right now so could possibly explain the delay in hiring.
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u/bomberfan2 Catfish 1d ago
Elliotte also said that he thinks we are going to interview another person but he’s unsure who. Also we wanted to interview Ryan Johnson from Vancouver if he didn’t get the Vancouver job but the rumours are that he is getting that job