Cody Wild (#37) and Dean Arsene (#29) are helping Devan Dubnyk (#40) in another Falcons game last winter. Rob Daum got the news Friday: he's gone. No Okla City, no employment, no future with the Edmonton Oilers. I don't know Rob Daum (met him once, talked about cars and travel) but know a few people who regard him very highly as a person and a coach.
Why then is he out of work? I think it has a lot to do with being "tarred with the same brush" and "getting a new start."
Daum was the coach of Edmonton's AHL team during a time when its 1st round picks either skipped a grade (Gagner, Cogliano) or stumbled and fell (Schremp) or really needed to put in the minor league time (Plante, Dubnyk) before hopefully being a help to the big league team. The club didn't sign a lot of "name" AHL free agents and they kept pouring at-bats into prospects who weren't getting any better.
However, development is a funny thing. The Oilers have had a lot of players who didn't take huge steps in the right direction during Daum's tenure (Colin McDonald, Geoff Paukovich, Taylor Chorney, Cody Wild, Ryan O'Marra, Slava Trukhno, Alex Plante) and many of those are high picks.
We can blame Prendergast for the development or Daum for the teaching but at some point they're in the same car together. I think of KP as "Sonny on the Causeway" and Daum in the "Moe Green" role and one suspects Abe Vigoda (a scout or two) isn't going to be able to talk his way out of this either.
'Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.'
ReplyDeletei guess the organization thought the AHL team could have done better than it did under his watch.
ReplyDeleteheh.
Is it a fools hope that I still have for Plante? We knew he was a project pick, and I thought he showed well in his call up.
ReplyDeleteoh well, may as well finish the house clean i guess?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous: Actually, I think Plante did well this season. I put him on the list because he was one of the first rounders, but in all honesty the AHL reports (and the NHL look-see) were positive.
ReplyDeleteI think he's a player.
Daum is simply put, a casualty of war. Its unfortunate, but thats life in hockey. Hockey is a lot like playing "Survivor", you don't have to be the best, you just have to please the right people.
ReplyDeleteI'm keeping my eye on Tambo. I'm not sure I like the way the team is being run any more than I did when KLowe was running the whole show. By training camp, we should have a good idea where this team is going. If its anything like last year, I'm closing the drapes.
@LT I agree with you that he is a player, if he can stay away from injury, I heart him.
ReplyDeleteSide note: Do you have a twitter account so I know when your blog updates, I really hate fanfeeder on my iPhone.
rather than flashbacks to the Godfather, maybe someone should photoshop Tambellini into a Tony Montana suit saying "say hello to my little friend"
ReplyDeleteAs an Oiler employee, I would not be buying a house if the stink of the last few years might have rubbed off onto my clothes.
I can see the logic behind Daum's termination, but I'm starting to get a little worried that Tambellini is starting his own "Old Boys" club. The last thing I want to see is the Edmonton Canucks (or Vancouver Oilers).
ReplyDeleteSo .....
ReplyDeleteEveryone was at fault in the organization except Kevin Lowe?
It's good to be King.
Listened to Gregor's show and was interested by Spector's comments about Tambellini.
ReplyDeleteHe's very deliberate in the decision process - very slow to make a decision. Not that you have to make snap decisions, but he's so slow at times that he misses things (such as last summer with the Heatley deal).
While I don't like the firing as Daum (imo) really was trying to do it w/smoke & mirror's once Dubynk got called up, Tambellini has the right to put whoever he wants in that position. He is the GM.
But at some point, if the results don't come, Tambellini is going to be held accountable - both for the decisions he makes as well as those he couldn't bring himself to pull the trigger on.
And the pressure on him will continue to grow over the next couple of weeks (draft, trades, buy-outs). He could do himself a world of good with the fans if he mastered some simple PR skills instead of looking like Prince Hamlet with all his indecision.
I will go on record as saying I actually liked what Kevin Lowe did in his tenure, but do not like what Tambellini has done. Instead of targeting specifically the two biggest problem areas (a lack of balance on the team and training habits that seem to lead to injuries), he has just gone out and fired EVERYONE, in some sort of mad attempt to show it's everybody's fault but his own.
ReplyDeleteI think a smart organization would know that firing people for the sake of it is never a good idea. The managerial team may have acted out of emotion too often when Lowe was GM, but you always understood the rationale. Tambellini? Not so much.
I'm holding my breath in anticipation this summer and hoping Tambo makes intelligent moves. However I still have a nagging suspicion there's a good reason he was passed over for a GM job more than once. I guess we'll know by summer's end.
ReplyDeletesorry but i don't buy into this BS that there's a reason Tambo was passed over by the Canucks for the GM job. maybe they were just dumb? what exactly has Mike Gillis won so far anyways? did he draft the twins? let's give Tambo more than a couple of years before we start judging him so we can see what he's really capable of shall we?
ReplyDeleteDaum was in a situation in which he could not succeed...and he didn't...and he got fired. I have a number of friends who played for him and by all accounts he's solid.
ReplyDeleteI place a tick in the "not happy" column of my black book.
I've heard Daum became really good at coaching young players from his time at the U of A, and that he might have been a big reason for the Kid line's success, particularly with Nilsson.
ReplyDeleteNilsson certainly hasn't been very good since Daum's been gone from the big club, whether that's a big reason or not I dunno
LT: We did sign "name" AHL free agents. Problem is, both Chris Minard and Dean Arsene were unavailable for large parts of this year. For that matter, so were other key players in Ryan Potulny, Matt Nickerson and Devan Dubnyk.
ReplyDeleteDaum had to play shit players, and the results were not good. I don't think we could have expected much more.
I'm sure the Springfield Falcons are damn happy to be rid of our organization and our constant disruptions. The way the Falcons were run and operated the past three years are not the way a professional sports team should be run. Ferfuxsake, they were being run by another professional sports team, which is certainly a recipe for failure. A team cannot roll the best possible line-up if they're being controlled by another entity.
The Manitoba Moose have their own General Manager. He runs the operations of the Moose and has an affiliation with the parent Vancouver Canucks. If Rob Schremp (or any other prospect) was not performing to expectations, he'd be benching the dude. Our GM is responsible for putting the coaching staff together, finding our own AHL level talents from their own professional and amateur scouting staff. We are not reliant on an NHL team whose interests are not 100% focussed on the well-being of any players not signed to NHL contracts. The Manitoba Moose are focussed on winning hockey games and not prospect development, which in all actuality comes from winning hockey games. Crazy notion, eh?
If the Oilers continue their attempts to meddle in the machinations of an AHL franchise without installing a separate management team, this venture will be a waste of everyone's time.
But at some point, if the results don't come, Tambellini is going to be held accountable - both for the decisions he makes as well as those he couldn't bring himself to pull the trigger on.
ReplyDeleteThis is the only reason I will put up with his bumbling this summer and the team failure this winter - because he will get the axe by next summer. I mean, a GM can't lead a team to finish in the bottom half of the league (at or near the very bottom) three years in a row and still justify keeping a job. Unless they are teflon like Milbury.
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ReplyDeleteDG,
ReplyDeleteI agree that OKC needs their own GM.
I think Tambellini thinks so too.
My guess is that Tambellini didn't get rid of Daum earlier because he didn't know if his OKC GM would want to keep him.
Daum getting shown the door tells me that the OKC GM has been found and wants his own coach.
All pure speculation, but it wouldn't surprise me if that's what is going on.
Also,
Even though I think Tambellini got a solid B at the trade deadline and made some bold moves, I will still occasionally refer to him as Milquetoast.
The guy's personality (all I have seen is via the media, haven't met him) reminds me soggy white bread. Even when he's "angry" you'd wager on whether he could break the bottom of a paper bag with a punch.
Draft Day will be interesting.
Apparently he was the engineer behind the 3 way swap two deadlines ago that saw him get 2.25 years of POS for 20 games of Cole. (which was generally approved of at the time, little did we know....)
I don't think he's afraid of big or complicated deals, and the Oilers have a lot of gunpowder to make a big bang next Friday.
Tencer tweet...
ReplyDeleteRob Daum wouldn't speak for Steve Tambellini as to why he wasn't renewed. But, when I asked him if it was made clear he said, simply, "no".
I think someone is going to have to stick up for Tambellini here soon. Quinn, Renney, a veteran player...Someone has to come out and say that he communicates just fine with his people. This stuff is just not good.
I think someone is going to have to stick up for Tambellini here soon.
ReplyDeleteWhy?
I think it's possible Tambellini just sucks.
As for O'Marra... If he was taking huge steps they were taking him down a plank.
Bar Qu:
ReplyDeleteMilbury was absolutely frightening as GM of the Islanders. It was bad enough that prior to him, Don Maloney had already begun to destroy the foundation of that team with atrocious personnel moves.
But what Milbury did magnified the mistakes.
I just hope we're not seeing a repeat of that with the Klowe to Tambellini era (or is it "error").
It's kind of funny how each guy fired lately has had a different journalist banging the drum for him about how classless the Oilers have been. This was never an issue until Tambellini took over, and I wonder if it is mostly due to the fact that he isn't lying in bed with the media like the previous regime. Before Tambellini was in charge, the Oilers were equally classless, but you never heard a reporter grumbling about the management. Just rolling those damn, greedy players under the bus.
ReplyDeleteMaybe some of these guys recently let go were some of the biggest leaks in the organization that has been famously leaky in the past few years. Prendergast was a notorious blow hard, and Flaming went out of his way to talk about the good relationships between himself, Prender, and McCarthy.
The trainers have been around as long as the media in this town, and you'd have to assume their relationships had grown pretty tight over the years. Perhaps many of these firings have been made in part to tighten up the lips of the org.
Daum was as ho hum as they come.
ReplyDeleteTambellini has spoke of wanting Okalahoma to have it's own GM and it's fairly safe to say that individual is going to want their own personel in place.
It's not like other organizations are going to be fighting for Daum the way they were Boucher or Arniel.
I remember when guys like Dennis would rant about how the local news rags never said a bad word about Lowe and the Oilers.
Now that those same blowhards have lost their buddies on the inside they knives are out much like they are in most other cities. Regardless, they should be ignored either way.
(Sports journalism is garbage)
It's kind of funny how each guy fired lately has had a different journalist banging the drum for him about how classless the Oilers have been
ReplyDeleteYes and largely for things that are somewhat par for the course in the NHL. I mean we all knew that Daum's job was not secure because a new GM is coming in for the AHL club. The articles about the launching of the OKC franchise said things like "It is uncertain whether Daum will stay with the team as it moves ot OKC" so any suggestion that this came from out of the blue is silly. They didn't finalize things with Daum earlier because they were waiting until they had a AGM lined up.
Earlier someone ranted about the Oilers 'interfering' in the Falcons player management. Its a freeking Farm team, by agreement the Oilers are required to managed hockey opperations, and everyone knows that the NHL club takes priority.
Similar to the Daum situation is that Bucky and Fleming haven't been extended or let go yet either.
ReplyDeletePerhaps Milquetoast is gathering the courage to punt Quinn and Renney is the one who gets to make the call on the assistants.
Brownlee is reporting over at ON that Scott Bonner will be the new assistant GM.
ReplyDeleteIf so, its likely that Tambo wanted to hire the new guy and then ask him if he wanted Daum - apparently the answer was no.
This whole complaint thing reminds me of that scene with Clint where "Little Bill" looks up the barrel of Clint's rifle and says "I don't deserve this".
maybe Bonner will bring his coach with him to the A.
ReplyDeleteScott Bonner joining the Oilers (if true) is a good thing.
ReplyDeleteThe Titanic may be turning...
Hopefully every credible hire pushes Vish further away from making actual decisions.
Pancakes, Defencemen and nothing else please.
Brownlee is reporting over at ON that Scott Bonner will be the new assistant GM.
ReplyDeleteI'm taking it that you meant he'd be the Oklahoma GM, and not taking Olczyks title away from him....right?
Gregor tells me they'll have two Assistant GM's.
ReplyDeleteI Gotta give credit to Daum for picking up for himself and while Tambo necessarily didn't have to make up his mind in time for Daum to look for other work it feels a bit wrong that it took long enough that some potential landing spots for Dum wound up being occupied.
ReplyDeleteI hope your family will be fully support in your business. This is Settling All Family Business for future.
ReplyDeleteFamily business like other businesses needs focus and commitment. Sort out problems in a realistic way and create a fruitful environment.
ReplyDelete