Minnesota Wild fire GM Fenton

[Reverend of Hockeytown]

Fenton out after one season.
Who's in line next?

[lucafen4]

It's like Attila the Hun got a few good whacks into this team before being shot.

[SeaDawg]

very strange situation

[mounD]

Probably a good move to stop the bleeding. Trading Niederreiter and Granlund for Victor Rask and Fiala just didn't make sense to most people at the time those moves were made. The Donato trade was arguably better, adding a guy with clear top-six upside but this has seemed like a team without a vision for some time now.

[ericdaoust]

What's the deal here? Why now and not 3 months ago? Seems like a lack of big picture planning at the top...

Fenton wasn't good at being GM so I guess late is better than never.

[SeaDawg]

Probably a good move to stop the bleeding. Trading Niederreiter and Granlund for Victor Rask and Fiala just didn't make sense to most people at the time those moves were made. The Donato trade was arguably better, adding a guy with clear top-six upside but this has seemed like a team without a vision for some time now.

Niederreiter for Rask...Granlund for Fiala...Coyle for Donato. None of those deals are great for Minnesota, but lots of GMs make bad trades, and I gotta believe that Fenton didn't make those deals without approval/discussion with others.

Maybe that is the whole story, but I wonder if there's more to this than three bad trades.

[mounD]

Nino for Rask was just colossally bad, though.

nino-rask.png

[rataylor22]

Ha.

[newfcollins]

It's always a good move to fire your GM after the draft and the start of free agency. (sarcasm off)

Don't forget, he also signed Zuccarello for five years at $6 million a year. Maybe the team owners want to get younger and allow the prospects a chance to play, and he keeps doing the opposite.

[rataylor22]

It's always a good move to fire your GM after the draft and the start of free agency. (sarcasm off)

Don't forget, he also signed Zuccarello for five years at $6 million a year. Maybe the team owners want to get younger and allow the prospects a chance to play, and he keeps doing the opposite.

I mean, it's not good timing and they definitely should have done it sooner, but it's better to do it now than to wait longer.

[SeaDawg]

Don't forget, he also signed Zuccarello for five years at $6 million a year. Maybe the team owners want to get younger and allow the prospects a chance to play, and he keeps doing the opposite.

maybe I'm naive, but again I find it hard to believe that Fenton made the decision to sign Zuccarello unilaterally.

I do agree that none of the moves made by the team since Fenton became the GM seemed to be good moves, but do any GMs really make the decision on their own, without consultation with the President of Hockey Operations and ownership, especially when dishing out $30 million on July 1?

[Axeman33]

Im trying to figure out why the higher ups now see his moves as bad ones. Clearly they didnt have a problem with them at the time but now they dont like it? I wonder if comments from the inside had something to do with it. Apparently Zach Parise wasnt happy.

Veteran forward Zach Parise also expressed concern for the state of the franchise last week.

“I thought that second and third year, we had very good teams and I thought we were one player or one good center away from being probably one of the top teams in the West,” Parise told The Athletic of their playoff runs beginning in 2013. “We just happened to hit Chicago right in the midst of their dynasty. And then unfortunately, since then, it’s kind of gone the other direction.

“We didn’t follow the progression of going up like everyone, including myself, had anticipated. It’s probably a combination of every team in our division getting better and we didn’t elevate like everyone expected us to.”

[SeaDawg]

Im trying to figure out why the higher ups now see his moves as bad ones. Clearly they didnt have a problem with them at the time but now they dont like it? I wonder if comments from the inside had something to do with it. Apparently Zach Parise wasnt happy.

I think you are on to something here, Axe.

Reading those comments from Parise make me think that there's some dismay among the players and Fenton became the scapegoat. As I said, I doubt he made any of the trades or signings without consent from above.

[Axeman33]

For those with a The Athletic subscription, here's a good write up from Russo:

https://theathletic.com/1105764/2019.../?redirected=1

For those who dont have a subscription (you are missing out by the way), it basically states this with a lot more meat.

In a late-summer decision that will send shockwaves throughout the State of Hockey and the entire league, sources said owner Craig Leipold called Fenton at his offseason home in Cape Cod late Tuesday morning and cut ties with him a little more than 14 months after naming the longtime Nashville Predators assistant GM the Wild’s third GM in team history. The team announced the move later Tuesday.

“After giving much thought to this difficult decision, I informed Paul today that he was not the right fit for our organization going forward,” Leipold said in a release from the team. “I believe we have a good hockey team, a team that will compete for a playoff spot this year, and I look forward to hiring a general manager that will help us win a Stanley Cup. I would like to thank Paul for his time with the Wild and wish him and his family the best in the future.”

Obviously, the timing is unusual — 115 days into the offseason, 44 days until training camp and less than a month after Fenton signed Mats Zuccarello to a five-year, $30-million deal. No one incident caused the ousting, but the lingering fallout from a series of arguably bad trades and other personnel matters, along with internal issues that, sources said, created low morale throughout the hockey operations department and dressing room forced Leipold to make the move before Fenton could even manage his second season with the Wild.

[rataylor22]

“After giving much thought to this difficult decision, I informed Paul today that he was not the right fit for our organization going forward,” Leipold said in a release from the team. “I believe we have a good hockey team, a team that will compete for a playoff spot this year, and I look forward to hiring a general manager that will help us win a Stanley Cup. I would like to thank Paul for his time with the Wild and wish him and his family the best in the future.”

Always good when your owner directly lies in his first released statement.