Full episode<\/a><\/p>\nUnlike Vegas still hoping for playoff success, Toronto, New Jersey and Vancouver are all playing out the string, already out of the playoff race, and needing to consider deep changes throughout their organizations. With less than three weeks left in the regular season, speculation is already surrounding these teams. Regardless of when the respective ownership groups of these teams decide the fate of their coaches, all three management groups are expecting a version of their own \u2018Black Monday\u2019 once 82 games pass.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s take a closer look at each\u2026<\/p>\n
\u2022 In Toronto, MLSE president\/CEO Keith Pelley made the first move among these teams on Monday, firing general manager Brad Treliving.<\/p>\n
\u2022 In New Jersey, Tom Fitzgerald holds the president of hockey operations and GM titles together, but some are wondering if the Devils\u2019 ownership will look to break up those two jobs. That was their intention when they first offered the president job to John Davidson when he left the Rangers in 2021, but Davidson felt at the time it was too close to his ties to New York and chose to return to Columbus instead. \u00a0<\/p>\n
It will be interesting to see if the Devils do look to hire someone solely for the president of hockey operations title this summer, and whether that would allow Fitzgerald to stick around for at least one more season as GM and assess him from there. The feeling in New Jersey is that Fitzgerald is preparing for the worst, knowing he\u2019s on the hot seat.<\/p>\n
\u2022 In Vancouver, there are strong suggestions that\u00a0change\u00a0is\u00a0coming, but to what extent remains unclear. Until there is a better understanding of\u00a0Jim Rutherford\u2019s full commitment to a rebuild, things remain fluid.\u00a0Either way, I hear GM Patrik Allvin doesn\u2019t expect to\u00a0survive past this season.<\/p>\n
Who is looking for a job and might be available?<\/p>\n
When it comes to the names being discussed most, we have to mention Brendan Shanahan, Peter Chiarelli, Marc Bergevin, and Brian Lawton as four people with executive experience who might have their sights set on a president of hockey operations title.<\/p>\n
We also want to keep an eye on Chris Pronger and Ryan Getzlaf, two others being discussed for front-office jobs, who don\u2019t have the same kind of executive experience. It doesn\u2019t appear Nashville is moving in that kind of direction, as they\u2019ve made it known they want more NHL front office experience than what Getzlaf or Pronger can provide at this point.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We also need to talk about two others still under contract: St. Louis\u2019 Doug Armstrong and Seattle\u2019s Ron Francis.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Armstrong, currently St. Louis\u2019 president of hockey operations and GM, is under contract with the Blues through the 2028-29 season, but, effective July 1, he is set to relinquish his GM duties to Alex Steen and focus solely on the president role. However, I\u2019m told he still immensely enjoys the day-to-day duties of a GM.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If Armstrong could get out of his contract with the Blues, it would only be for both a president of hockey operations and GM role elsewhere. However, for him to make such a significant personal change in his life at this point, he would want complete autonomy and to only answer to ownership in hockey decisions. There are conflicting reports\u00a0out there\u00a0if Armstrong\u00a0actually\u00a0has an out window this summer\u00a0or not, but there is buzz that\u00a0St. Louis\u00a0ownership\u00a0has\u00a0tired of the Toronto rumours. We will have to keep a close eye on this situation in the coming weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, in Seattle, Jason Botterill has a long-term deal in the GM\u2019s chair, which has limited Francis\u2019 involvement in hockey decisions. So, like Armstrong, Francis may\u00a0be in a position to\u00a0seek out\u00a0other longer-term opportunities should they arise. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
And finally, we are keeping an eye on Steve Yzerman in Detroit.\u00a0Ownership, led by Chris Ilitch, may be feeling more pressure than Yzerman himself to contemplate a change. Chris\u2019 parents, Mike and Marian, drafted Yzerman back in 1983 and have shared a family-bond loyalty ever since. \u00a0<\/p>\n
If the Wings miss out on the playoffs this season, it will be the seventh time they\u2019ve fallen short under Yzerman, and\u00a0fan-based\u00a0pressure will\u00a0hit a fever pitch. Just another situation to keep tabs on.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What is Alex Ovechkin\u2019s plan?<\/p>\n
Washington has eight games left in its season, and it\u2019s all quiet around Alex Ovechkin, who is in the final season of his contract at 40 years old.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ovechkin has kept his cards very close to the vest, and not many know his intentions right now. What I\u2019ve heard is that he\u2019s never been interested in a farewell tour like Anze Kopitar has been having with Los Angeles this season. Ovechkin liked the way Wayne Gretzky did it at the end of his career, announcing two days before his last regular-season game that he was retiring at the end of the season. Ovechkin could follow a similar blueprint if he decides this is it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What\u2019s Gary Bettman\u2019s future?<\/p>\n
Managerial and coaching positions are not the only ones being wondered about at the end of the regular season.<\/p>\n
Many at the recent\u00a0GM meetings quietly speculated\u00a0where Gary Bettman\u2019s future lies as commissioner of the NHL. \u00a0It appears for at least the next two seasons, he isn\u2019t going anywhere.<\/p>\n
Two\u00a0main focal points for Bettman\u00a0continue to be American broadcasting rights and the search for expansion into at least two more markets. It has been noted that additional commissioner responsibilities that were on Bettman\u2019s plate over the years have already been allocated to deputy commissioner Bill Daly. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Whenever Bettman does decide to retire, Daly is the odds-on favourite to be his successor.<\/p>\n
One interesting scenario I heard about was the possible creation of a new job role, something like a chairman of the board type of position in the NHL. This would create the potential for Bettman to stay on with the league in a much leaner role after he decides to step down as commissioner.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chairman roles can feel somewhat part-time, but they still carry critical responsibilities of governance and overall strategic health of the league.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The day after the NFL regular season ends is known as \u2018Black Monday\u2019 for the mass firings of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-571950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Real](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/SNPodcast_RealKyperBourne_1280x720-640x360.jpg\")
Real Kyper and Bourne<\/p>\n