On April 21st, Bill Scott, the General Manager of the Oklahoma City Barons took One Flight Up and was promoted to be the new Assistant General Manager of the Edmonton Oilers. He replaced Ricky Olczyk, who enjoyed a shaky tenure in the position (read more on both men here and here), but managed to land work for the Carolina Hurricanes in the same capacity in short order.
At the time, the Barons had just completed a hectic regular season, in which they had an insane number of transactions (151!) on the way to snagging the last playoff spot in an incredible late season run. The Oilers decided to use the interim between the regular and post seasons to rotate Olczyk out and Scott in. On the timing of the move and the now vacant GM position in Oklahoma City, the Oilers said:
Scott will remain with the Barons throughout their playoff run before making the move to Edmonton. The goal is still to win a Calder Cup as a general manager at that level. However, Scott will begin work right away to transition to his new post as the off-season will begin to heat up very quickly.
It struck me as odd, considering the Barons’ playoff chances (they were swept in the first round, ending their season just nine days after Scott was promoted), that the Oilers didn’t simply wait for the conclusion of the Barons’ season to announce the change. Part of the rationale for the arguably rushed announcement would be to get ahead of the curve on potential replacements for Scott’s position with the Barons. This Summer has certainly seen its fair share of hockey staffing shake-ups, of which the Oilers have not been immune.
To Scott’s name we could add the newly created position of Vice-Chairman of the Oilers’ Entertainment Group, Bob Nicholson, Barons’ head coach Todd Nelson’s extension, the hirings of coaches Craig Ramsay, Rocky Nelson and Tony Borgford (AHL), the hiring of hockey analyst Tyler Dellow and even the hiring of Rich Meyer to be the new director of game presentation. The Oilers have been busy in the off-ice department this Summer.
And yet, as positions have been filled and as teams at all levels across North America prepare for their training camps, Scott’s position remains unfilled.
Today, August 21st, makes it four months since Scott was promoted. It seems the Oilers organization is not in a hurry to fill the position. One assumes the status quo is simply that Scott is doing double duty and has been since his promotion. And, it’s not like the Barons have been inactive regarding on-ice moves: they’ve signed Josh Winquist and Jason Williams to AHL Standard Player Contracts and re-signed Matt Ford and Andrew Miller to the same.
However, the situation is clearly sub-optimal. At some point, Scott’s NHL duties will be too tasking to allow him to moonlight as an AHL GM in parallel. Moreover, as the Summer winds down and training camps start to open, one assumes the pool of candidates willing to leave a current management position with say a CHL, ECHL, or AHL team must be dwindling fast.
I assume if someone is not hired in short order, the Oilers must have an internal candidate in mind and are reticent to announce the promotion for one reason or another (perhaps they have a few internal candidates fighting it out in an interview process now).
On this front, the Edmonton Journal’s Jim Matheson, at the time of Scott’s promotion, spitballed a few names:
They may already have somebody in mind like, say, former Oil Kings’ GM Bob Green or senior director of player development Rick Carriere, another ex WHL general manager in Medicine Hat. Green has been the Oilers college free-agent scout this past season, along with other scouting duties.
If not them, then, ex WHA Oiler and current TV colourman Joe Micheletti’s boy Adam, director of hockey ops for the junior USHL, might be somebody to consider. He’s an up-and-comer and has had a few NHL GMs as mentors over the years.
Green seems like the most capable candidate here. And, the long delay in handing him the gig could reflect the interest the Oilers have in exploiting his talents in his current role as Director of Amateur Free Agent Scouting. Indeed, it seems very likely that Green had a hand in getting the pint-sized scoring wizard Vladimir Tkachev to attend the Oilers’ training camp.
Should he get the nod, one hopes Oilers’ GM Craig MacTavish is quick to fill Green’s position. Finding undrafted free agent talent is increasingly a necessary part of contemporary cap-world hockey management.
Update: After this was published the Barons, through their twitter account, intimated that Bill Scott’s replacement was none other than Tony Borgford, hired on to be Todd Nelson’s video coach. Borgford will be doing double duty apparently, acting as both Nelson’s video coach and as the Manager of Hockey Operations for the Oklahoma City Barons.
It is unclear how this new title (Manager of Hockey Operations) and the responsibilities it entails differ from Scott’s previous role as General Manager. In interacting with the best OKC observers (Neal Livingston and Patricia Teter), it would appear that the Oilers intend to take even greater control of their farm club. In that case, don’t expect a full-time manager or management team to run the Barons in the near future.
Whether this is a good idea and use of resources remains to be seen. I certainly have some reservations about the division of labor involved here. Primarily, my concern is that Bill Scott will find his time divided between his NHL cap and contract duties and continuing his old job of managing an AHL roster (scouting for talent and making innumerable transactions through the year). The addition of Borgford will certainly help ease the burden.
@RomulusNotNuma You can read about Tony here > http://t.co/cHMUIWVAVV.
— Oklahoma City Barons (@okcbarons) August 22, 2014
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