Senators Hire Pierre McGuire as Senior VP of Player Development
It was not the first-line centre or top-four defensive defenceman they are looking for, but the Ottawa Senators did announce an addition this morning that could have massive consequences for the franchise.
Today the Senators announced that they have hired Pierre McGuire as the team’s senior vice president of player development.
McGuire got his NHL start working for the Pittsburgh Penguins in the early 1990’s. He was an assistant coach for the Penguins team that won a Stanley Cup in 1992 before he moved on to join the Hartford Whalers as an assistant coach. McGuire eventually worked his way up to become the Whalers' assistant general manager and head coach. His quick ascent through the ranks was matched only by his fall. After his team stumbled through its 1993-94 season, McGuire was relieved of his duties. Team captain Pat Verbeek described the unceremonious firing as, “the best thing that could have happened.”
Following that stint in Hartford, McGuire would join the Ottawa Senators as a scout and assistant coach for the 1995-96 season. Before today’s announcement, that was the last official position that McGuire held with an NHL organization.
Since that time, McGuire’s become renowned for his broadcasting work with TSN and then NBC. With ESPN securing the league’s broadcasting rights for the next seven years, something may be made of the fact that McGuire was without a job and in need of work. At the same time, however, I have a hard time believing that someone with McGuire’s resume and connections would have had a difficult time finding broadcasting work.
Instead, McGuire has returned to the nation’s capital 26 years later to get his post-broadcasting career off the ground.
Having long-abandoned their search for a president of hockey operations, McGuire represents the first major external hire to the Senators’ front office since John Muckler was hired in 2002. There have been other additions since that time, Tim Murray and Pierre Dorion were hired in 2007 and current assistant general manager Peter MacTavish arrived in 2018, but none of these hires had the cachet of a McGuire.
I believe that is an important distinction to make because, for the first time since the aforementioned Muckler, a Senators general manager may not have a ton of job stability.
My immediate reaction to today’s news is that whether it is here or elsewhere, this feels like this is a stepping-stone position for McGuire.
It feels like the Senators just hired Pierre Dorion’s successor.
It is no state secret that McGuire has sought out to become a general manager before. ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski documented that McGuire has “interviewed with the Montreal Canadiens, Penguins, Minnesota Wild and Tampa Bay Lightning for their vacancies, among others. McGuire was rumored as a contender for the Senators' GM job back in 2011.”
Whether he will admit it to Bruce Garrioch or not, McGuire has aspirations of becoming a general manager. Like Dorion and Anthony LeBlanc — who sold their souls to ensure that they could land their respective dream jobs for their hometown team — with his connections and extensive knowledge of the league, McGuire knows exactly what kind of owner he has signed on to work for.
According to their official press release, McGuire “will work closely with Senators general manager Pierre Dorion and team owner Eugene Melnyk.”
We may never get an honest answer regarding how much input Pierre Dorion had in even wanting McGuire or recruiting him for the position, but it is worth noting that it was Eugene Melnyk who reached out directly to McGuire in May to discuss his interest in working for the Senators.
The addition of McGuire — whether it was intentional or not — adds an internal threat to Dorion’s general manager role if the team’s level of competitiveness does not progress well (or as quickly) as the owner hopes. It is also guards against the possibility that contract negotiations with Dorion could stall.
With his team’s success down the stretch this past season, the whispers of the Senators being a dark horse playoff team in 2021-22 have grown louder. There will be a lot of pressure on the team to reach the postseason soon. Eugene Melnyk appeared on Bob McCown’s podcast earlier this offseason where he indicated that the team is looking to add a “first-line centre” and a “top-four defensive defenceman”.
Putting these kinds of expectations on roster improvement is a large enough burden, but it’s hard to ignore the job security that McGuire’s three-year contract affords him when Dorion’s in the final year of his contract and needs to negotiate a new deal.
For one of the smallest front offices in the league, adding another well-connected voice to the mix is certainly not a bad thing. TSN 1200’s Shawn Simpson indicated that one of McGuire’s responsibilities will entail having a voice in the media. That alone will be incredibly valuable since the Senators did not have anyone that they could comfortably put in front of a microphone. If McGuire can help the organization avoid many of the self-inflicted mistakes that have become commonplace in the team’s media availabilities, that’s a huge win for the club.
At the same time, there is some genuine concern for McGuire’s well-documented disdain for the analytics movement in hockey.
There is nothing wrong with McGuire stressing the importance of scouts or a “boots on the ground” approach. Ideally, analytics can be married to the information given by scouts to present the most complete assessment or analysis of a player possible.
Downplaying the importance of one component or pitting the two against each other because of a concern that intangibles do not produce real results that can be quantified is silliness.
To put things in perspective, the Los Angeles Kings recently hired four individuals to beef up their front office.
Ryan Kruse was hired as the team’s Vice President of Research and Development. According to their press release, Ryan “recently served as Director of Baseball Systems Development where he led a team of software engineers and delivered several custom products built for the enhancement of baseball operations.”
The Kings also hired Jake Goldberg to serve as their director of hockey operations to negotiate player contracts, oversee the salary cap, prepare arbitration cases and deal with other matters related to the CBA.
Vukie Mpofu was hired as the Manager of Hockey Operations and Legal Affairs while Rosie Yu has a PhD in Materials Engineering was brought on to help the team as a Software Engineer for Research and Development. Yu will “report to Kruse and work to further hockey operations applications and analytical models.”
The league is trending in a different direction, so there has to be genuine concern that by the time the Senators recognize and allocate a significant amount of capital towards it, they will be years behind their competitors.
Today’s news is just the latest added layer of intrigue for what is shaping up to be a pivotal offseason and year for the franchise. McGuire's willingness to work with Melnyk to get his foot in the door is a huge development and adds another dynamic that no one was anticipating.
It should make for an entertaining summer.