Peter MacTavish Resigns as Assistant General Manager
When Elliotte Friedman revealed the other night that the Senators were looking to add to their front office, the prevailing assumption was that they were looking to expand their front office. Not to replace the employees who are on their way out the door.
Well, tonight it was announced by TSN’s Darren Dreger that Senators assistant general manager Peter MacTavish was leaving the organization.
MacTavish leaves the organization after four seasons. He was originally hired in September of 2018 after serving as a “labour and employment partner in the Ottawa office of global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP.”
Quartexx Management is a sports agency group that originated in 2015 out of Montreal. According to their website, their basketball side of the operations has three clients while their hockey side has 56 clients — including Senators forwards Drake Batherson and Colin White.
The timing of the announcement is intriguing since this is generally regarded as one of the busiest times of the year for a front office. Not only is management meeting with its professional and amateur staff to navigate the upcoming NHL draft and free agency, but this is also a very important time for player valuation and identifying trade targets.
I have absolutely no idea how good MacTavish was at his role or whether he was a credible hockey mind who was competent in player evaluations. It was challenging enough to even find photos of him on a basic Google image search. With that said, however, his resignation leaves an already shorthanded Ottawa front office even thinner. Without knowing what levels of experience Pierre Dorion’s prospective hires will have, the Senators could find themselves behind the eight ball a bit if they hire individuals who lack any formal NHL front office experience.
That MacTavish would return to an agent role is interesting in itself.
Going from the Senators to player representation could certainly afford MacTavish better pay and better hours, but I think it really depends on ambition or career aspirations. If he ever had any designs of making a name for himself and eventually leading a hockey operations department, it could represent a step back. It is worth noting that per the Senators’ press release, MacTavish did spend a considerable amount of time around hockey. Per the team’s official press release, he had worked for CAA Hockey, "where he “assisted with player recruitment, player management and contract negotiations.”
Or, maybe it is as simple as an individual recognizing the writing on the wall. After Eugene Melnyk’s passing, the future of this franchise is murky in the sense that there’s no guarantee that the ownership structure of this franchise will last over the next year or two.
The prevailing sentiment certainly seems to be that this team will have to get sold and if that’s the case, there is every expectation that new ownership will want to clear house and bring their own people in. And, if that’s the fear for MacTavish, he recognized and acted accordingly while preserving his own future in the game.
No one should blame him for that, but it leaves the organization with a lot more questions moving forward.