Wings lose more personnel this summer
According to an article in the Detroit Free Press, the Wings have lost yet another staff member this offseason. While the Wings were able to hang on to all of their key players and even boost their roster with the presence of Marian Hossa (who looks great in the Winged Wheel by the way), they have struggled to retain their personnel talent this summer. The absence of Scotty Bowman is bad enough, but the Wings have now lost two members of the coaching staff, a scout, and the assistant equipment manager. Man. Sure, it’s great to see these guys get promotions for their hard work, but did they all have to leave at once?
The biggest losses have come from the staff. Associate coach Todd McLellan was hired as head coach of the San Jose Sharks and took video coach Jay Woodcroft with him as an assistant coach.
Consultant and former coach Scotty Bowman became an advisor for the Chicago Blackhawks and will spend more time with his son, Stan, an assistant general manager.
Pro scout and former NHL head coach Bob McCammon retired, and assistant equipment manager Chris Scoppetto left to become head equipment manager of the Florida Panthers.
“You’ve had success, and other people want your people,” general manager Ken Holland said. “We had good people. I’m disappointed that we’ve lost them, but in every case they’ve got a bigger role, a bigger paycheck.”
If the Wings season ends up being more like this year’s Tigers (which has been a huge disappointment after all of the preseason hype) than repeating as champs (or at least going far in the postseason), I think the reason may lie in the loss of key personnel and not necessarily the players on the ice. However, I believe in the wisdom of Ken Holland and Mike Babcock so I’m sure the replacements are well-qualified and will hopefully be great fits with the organization.
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2 Responses to “Wings lose more personnel this summer”
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August 21st, 2008 at 8:27 am
Will we miss these people? No question. They’ve been an integral part of what’s going on in the Red Wings organization. It’ll be exciting to get to know the new people though. Perhaps they will bring a slightly different perspective that will help the Red Wings repeat.
August 21st, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Michael- I definitely agree. Change can definitely be good and it should help the team from being too stagnant after a terrific season. I can’t wait for hockey season to begin!