MVN - Most Valuable Network

If the season turns sour, should Doug Risebrough be fired?

The famous country singer Tammy Wynette had a song eloquently titled, D-I-V-O-R-C-E which talked about parting ways as a solution. Divorce is basically a measure of accountability in a marriage. Accountability, a word that floats rather freely from the mouths of politicians these days as we head towards an election year. The word has a negative connotation over the basic premise of giving credit where it is due. This word also might be floating around at the end of the 2008-09 season if the Wild struggle towards not making the post-season and cannot secure its franchise player, Marian Gaborik, to a long-term contract.

Throughout the seven NHL seasons Doug Risebrough has been the General Manager of the Wild in addition to his role as the team’s President has been a model of success. The Hockey News rates the 30 league GM’s every season and in this year’s edition (the issue) Risebrough ranked #6 out of 30. Pretty big praise. Ironically the paragraph describing why they ranked him #6 says, “Is another GM who we would have ranked even higher if his teams ever had a long successful playoff run.” That seems kind of funny since this article likely would not be written if the Wild had managed to work its way out of the 1st round of the Stanley Cup playoffs despite winning the Northwest Division title. Yet a few sentences later makes you wonder how well the Hockey News really knows the Wild when it gives Risebrough much of the credit for drafting well as well as leaving the team a lot of room to spare under the salary cap. Really? Well in this article we will take a look at some of the moves Risebrough has made during the 2007-08 season as well as this offseason and ask the basic question should he still have his job?

While that might seem like an extreme premise considering Risebrough’s accomplishments the last seven seasons Wild fans are asking that question. On Wild.com the very question was asked and 56 out of the 134 (41.79%) that responded in a poll said ‘yes’ Doug Risebrough should be fired. 53 said ‘no’ and just 25 said they were not sure. The poll is no way scientific and the margin of error could be significant but the fact the question was even asked demonstrates a sizeable portion of the fanbase is a bit unhappy with his job performance. It might be a cliche, but the classic professional sports phrase from fans for general managers and coaches is “What have you done for me lately.” There does not seem to be nearly the same amount of criticism for Wild Head Coach Jacques Lemaire as it is for Doug Risebrough who irked many fans with his trade deadline milquetoast deal for Chris Simon. So without further delay, let’s check out the moves Risebrough made in the last year.

1. Doug Risebrough chooses to keep up Matt Foy rather than Benoit Pouliot. While Pouliot did little to nothing for Houston, the same could be same for Matt Foy who spent the majority of the season in the pressbox. Many fans would liked to have seen Pouliot receive a bit more than a few token call ups considering his talent level in comparison to Foy. Risebrough’s reasoning was that Pouliot had not earned his spot; despite the fact Jacques Lemaire appeared to endorse Pouliot sticking with the team out of training camp. I happen to initially agree with this move, but I do not think Foy should’ve stayed the entire season. The Wild General Manager apparently felt Foy would not make it through waivers if he was sent down yet seemed to be content to let him spend most games watching from the pressbox?!?!  Not a good move.

2. Doug Risebrough picks up Todd Fedoruk off waivers. The addition of Fedoruk was initially received with some hesitation, but as time went on the “Fridge” played well and contributed leadership as well as energy to the team. This turned out to be a great move but the team decided not to pay him the raise he was asking for and let him go without any compensation. Risebrough is hoping Craig Weller can help take Fedoruk’s place at a cheaper price, we’ll see how that works out.  Good move to bring him in on waivers but a bit of a head scratcher at letting him go.

3. Risebrough locks down Brent Burns to a 4-year deal at a very affordable $3.5 million average per season. This turns out to be a great move as Burns has his best offensive season and appears to be a budding All Star. Burns’ emergence as a force at both ends of the ice plays a huge role in the team’s success last season. Good move.

4. Wild add Chris Simon at the trade deadline. This was the first move in team history that drew the anger of Minnesota media as well as many fans. With the rumors floating around a possible deal with the Florida Panthers for Olli Jokinen falling flat, the trade for Chris Simon went over like a lead balloon. Simon was rather ineffectual, and Risebrough pointing out that the controversial tough guy helped the team win a division title made him sound a bit aloof to say the least. The tough guy the team traded for mainly sat on the bench throughout the post season and did not do much apart from angering the fanbase. The Wild tried again after the season was over to bring in Olli Jokinen and again failed.  Not a good move.

5. The Wild do not re-sign Pavol Demitra and Brian Rolston.  When the team did not deal soon-to-be Unrestricted Free Agents Pavol Demitra or Brian Rolston the organization made a bold move to stay good now for the possibility of a long playoff run.  That did not happen.  The Free Agent pool was very limited this season and from the start Doug Risebrough basically announced it wanted to re-sign Brian Rolston.  After a series of contract offers that Rolston did not respond to it was clear a deal was not going to get done so the team traded his negotiating rights to the Lightning just before the opening of free agency.  By putting the team’s eggs all in one basket and banking on Rolston re-signing he virtually killed any chance to bring back Pavol Demitra.  Rolston eventually signed with the New Jersey Devils, but Demitra was picked up by the team’s arch rival, the Vancouver Canucks.  If the team suffers because they cannot score these moves are going to be seen as a disaster.  At best, the departures of Rolston and Demitra only damaged the fans’ perception of this team as a one on the cusp for a long-playoff run.  So far it does not seem as if it was a good move.

6.  The additions of Andrew Brunette, Antti Miettinen, and Owen Nolan.  Brunette certainly was a fan favorite when he was with the organization but is this the right move now, despite the fact Bruno comes at a very reasonable price of $2.5 million per season.  Miettinen is a two-way player but not likely to replace much of the scoring lost.  The trade for offensive defenseman Marek Zidlicky was a surprising and good move for the team’s blueline.  Nolan was the biggest head-scratcher of the offseason was his 2-year $5 million dollar deal.  The jury is still out on this move but if they can’t replace the offense lost by the departures of Rolston and Demitra it is almost impossible not to rule this a failure.

7.  The Pierre-Marc Bouchard situation.  It is almost August and Pierre-Marc Bouchard is still not signed and there appears to be little progress as both sides seem to be headed towards arbitration.  The team wants to sign Bouchard to a long-term deal instead of the 1-year deals it has the last few seasons; and the diminutive winger is set to be come a UFA next season unless he is signed to a multi-year deal.  If the team cannot sign him to a multi-year deal it might have to trade him; but for a team struggling to find offense do you want to trade away your 2nd leading scorer from last season?  A very tough situation for any General Manager, but a move that could really make or break his job.

While the verdict is still out on some of these moves from the last year and a half.  Yet there is still some evidence that does not look good for Risebrough.  Whether it is fair or not the expectations are raised and the fans are certainly not going to be happy if the team takes what will be seen as a step backwards.  Consider yourself on the hotseat Doug, its time to show us you are as great as some think you are!

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 24th, 2008 at 8:14 pm and is filed under Wild Editorials, Wild News & Notes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.