Boston Bruins GM search: Ray Shero in play, Rangers’ Jeff Gorton on radar
The Boston Bruins are searching for a new general manager both internally and externally, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.
Boston was scheduled to interview Ray Shero and Paul Fenton for its opening this week, although current assistant GM Don Sweeney is a significant candidate.
The Boston Herald reported the Bruins asked for permission to talk to one of their former execs — Jeff Gorton, now the Rangers assistant GM. One thing about Glen Sather: he prefers to wait until after his team is eliminated before granting permission. Pittsburgh was interested in Gorton last season, but New York was still playing.
Wouldn’t be a shock if John Ferguson Jr., currently the club’s executive director of player personnel, also gets consideration here. The Bruins have connection to Pittsburgh’s assistant GM, Tom Fitzgerald, who lives in Boston. The Penguins’ front-office is crowded and Boston’s is a man short. Could that be a match?
Could be.
Gorton’s the most interesting name.
When Chiarelli was fired by the Boston Bruins, Gorton’s was mentioned with some frequency.
Please recall that Gorton was running the show in 2006, as the Bruins waited for Chiarelli’s non-compete window to close with the Ottawa Senators. His name was atop the masthead when the Bruins drafted Phil Kessel, Milan Lucic and Brad Marchand, and when they stole Tuukka Rask from the Toronto Maple Leafs.
One assumes Chiarelli had more than a little input on the down-low during this time, but those acquisitions were on Gorton’s watch. Combine that with begin credited with a lot of heavy lifting with the Rangers in building that championship-caliber roster, and he’s a rock star.
He spent 15 years with the Bruins. Would he return for the big job?
Fenton’s been up for more than a few jobs, and sometimes you get he feeling people just want to pick his brain about Nashville’s hierarchy and approach. Shero is the biggest name with the best pedigree and helped build a championship team in Pittsburgh.
That said, Joe Haggerty believes it’s Sweeney’s job to lose:
"You could throw huge names out there as candidates for this GM job, and there are some out there that are interesting, especially brilliant, young assistant GM minds like a guy like Julien BriseBois down in Tampa Bay," Haggerty said. "But at the end of the day, I think this is Don Sweeney's job to lose. I think he is the guy that will get the job. I think he was friends with Cam Neely. He played with Cam Neely. He's been in the organization for like 10 years. He knows all the players on the roster. He has a similar philosophy to Cam Neely."
Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
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