I don't even know. The more this sinks in, the more excited I am to get Scott Howson in the building and get things going. The press conference is expected to start at 1 p.m. Once he enters the building he is got a lot to do. The draft, dealing with our UFA's and RFA's, Free Agent Signings, and Portzline even threw out the idea of buying out Fedorov and Foote.
I'll start with talking about the Fedorov and Foote buying out option. I love Fedorov, always have, and always will, but my love for him doesn't change the fact that he is not worth the money. However, when it comes to Adam Foote, I have no problem keeping him. Adam Foote is our Captain and I highly doubt that they will buy him out. But, then again, I had never even thought of buying these guys out as an option.
Then, there is the Draft, it's a week from today. He's going to check out what our Scout's are thinking then he is going to figure out what he wants to do. By the way, expect my Draft Post up Sunday night, it will take me a bit to do and I have quite the weekend ahead of me.
RFA's and UFA's while I don't expect any of our UFA's to be back. I am pretty sure Howson will at least consider bringing back Eriksson. He will have to make qualifying offers to our RFA's by July 1st.
Then there is his front office. I am expecting an entire house cleaning. We need better scouts. Howson has been given the reigns to do whatever he sees fit in the front office which is a great thing.
Then he has to deal with the always lovely, Nikolai Zherdev. While, I can see his potential I think he does more harm that good so I am hoping that a trade does take place at some point soon.
No matter what you have thought about the Jackets in the past...look out for us now. We have a new General Manager. Fans have hope. We have arguably the best coach in the NHL. And, we WILL be better come this October. So, Welcome to the Columbus Blue Jackets Scott Howson!!
Friday, June 15, 2007
What's this feeling?
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4 comments:
I was listening to Home Ice on XM on my way to Cincy yesterday afternoon. They had Danny Gare on, who seemed positive (as one might expect) about the Howson hiring.
The XM hosts didn't seem to like the hiring much, though. I can never remember which one is which on there, but one of them kept going on about how Columbus needed to build a "deeper" management team with an assistant GM or two.
It wasn't real clear to me how the Howson hiring prevents that from happening...
Or how Jim Clark doesn't count as an Assistant GM since, well, he is the Assistant GM...
Of course, the same hosts were drooling all over themselves about what a great move it was for Calgary to hire Keenan, so possibly they just can't see beyond the same group of retreads who get dragged out for any opening in any NHL team.
Yeah, that's strange. I really have faith in Howson especially after I looked at the Oilers salaries I really couldn't find a bad deal.
I really think he will be a good addition to our Club. I am anxious to see what he does to the front office.
Although both Edmonton and Columbus are small market teams, Columbus has an owner with deeper pockets. Edmonton MUST make the playoffs each year to make money while, for the time being, Columbus doesn't. It will be nice having Howson here, but he will be able to do his job differently. Every move he made in Edmonton was under the microscope by the huge fan base, but unless OSU tanks, he will be anonymous. WCMH didn't even mention him on last night's sports report.
Anyway, he has a lot of work to do and it won't be easy.
I have faith that Howson will do a marvelous job...and can't wait for him to get started.
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