management career steps

[IrishBouzouki]

As a GM I have had a moderately successful QMJHL Jr league season and am finishing a second even more successful season almost certainly heading to the playoff finals.

This was a gme I started unemployed and decided to work my way up to GM of an NHL team.

I am wondering if anyone has done this before in EHM who could share their story - start unemployed and work your way up to managing in the NHL?

I am not at all ready to make a jump yet (maybe in 2-3-4 more seasons but maybe even longer) as I am enjoying the players I am developing now... but what would be a logical next step from successful Jrs manager towards the NHL? A top farm team like an AHL team? Or would that still be too high a jump to make? Maybe an ECHL team? ECHL might be interesting actually - wonder if the team in Long Beach will have their job open up. Nicer weather than Quebec...

[dabo]

I didn't start unemployed but I managed to get a quite successful NHL GM with 4 cups in 5 years (all thanks to awesome drafting). These are the steps I took:

OHL -> ECHL -> AHL -> WHL -> NHL

Iirc I won at all levels but the AHL.

[joe-max]

In my first (and until now only) game I started as low as possible (Slough Jets, EPIHL) and my initial goal was to become the GM with the best reputation in the world.

My second stop was the WHL (Regina Pats), a quite successful one.

Then moved to Sweden's second highest league Allsvenskan (Modo) and led them back to the Elitserien and won three titles.

Now I'm in the AHL (Albany River Rats) and have just won the Calder Cup in the second year.

Just before the AHL play-offs started, the San Jose Sharks offered me the position as GM, but I wouldn't quit the run with Albany (+ I don't like the Sharks...).

Let's see what happens next. The NHL is my next (and hopefully last) goal.

EPIHL --> WHL --> Allsvenskan --> Elitserien --> AHL (???)

On national level (without any success):
Poland --> German U20

[IrishBouzouki]

So how many years did you guys spend at each of the lower levels? Do you only get 30 or something years in a career total?

[dabo]

I didn't start unemployed but I managed to get a quite successful NHL GM with 4 cups in 5 years (all thanks to awesome drafting). These are the steps I took:

OHL(4) -> ECHL(3) -> AHL(3) -> WHL(1/2) -> NHL

Iirc I won at all levels but the AHL.

Will quote myself I added played seasons in brackets (I don't remember exactly but I think this is correct).

[batdad]

Somewhere there is a thread on those who have started unemployed. Too lazy to look myself. But there is that thread, and the "Wightlink" thread which basically tell the tales of working from nothing to the top. Just have a look.

Also..there is a thread on "what team are you" that is huge, and often has stories about this kind of thing...

Finally...there are the blogs.

So to answer: Yes.Lots of people have started unemployed. Just look around.

[deathknot]

In the game i was playing before the new i started i started unemployed and got hired by a Finnish 3 team then after a season and a half and i moved to the DEL where i stayed there for 3 years before moving on to SM-Liiga in Finland. In the SM-L i was there for 2 years before moving to SEL. After leaving my stamp on european hockey i made the move to north america where i gmed in the QMJHL then a move to ECHL and then my last teo stops where in the NHL with Toronto and Montreal.

FIN3 - DEL - SM-L - SEL - QMJHL - ECHL - NHL

i also managed Japan - Denmark u20 - ukraine and finland national teams

won in the Fin3
DEL team was on the rise before i left and finnish team evened out, SEL won the championship and in north america 3 SCs and 1 echl title.

i also won 2 world champions and the winter games gold

[batdad]

Irish--Is that Larry Murphy in your avatar? Love it. Until he got old and slower than Dana Murzyn he was one of my faves.

Also--I started a game recently in the low Brit leagues. Moving my way up...will take a player and a coach with me every league I go to (seen that done before) and will slowly work my way to NHL. Only exception to player movement is if I go to Canadian Hockey Leagues where I won;'t be able to take most players. Coach will come though. Slowly through ranks at least 1 championship must be one in a league before I move on.

[IrishBouzouki]

Irish--Is that Larry Murphy in your avatar?

Yep - I thought it would be an interesting conversation piece to have a NHL HoFer that wore #8 for the caps on my avatar (although I suspect his Pens jersey is probably better known)

I was wondering if I could entice my coaching staff, or at least some of them, to move with me if I changed teams. Glad to hear it is at least possible. I think my staff in QMJHL is probably better than a lot of ECHL staffs.

[ChoseQuiVole]

I got my first job with Barrie of the OHL where I won the regular season three time in 4 years but made it only once to the Memorial Cup (was runner-up).

The I signed with Bakersfield (ECHL) whit whom I reached the playoffs twice in two years. I moved up briefly to the AHL's Portland for half a season before getting in the bigs with the Minnesota Wild.

I spent 4.5 seasons there reaching the Stanley Cup Finals in the final year (got swept). Then ownership would't let me sign my top two prospects so I quit.

I had to spend a year in Chicago's minor league system (Toledo and Norfolk) before coming back in the NHL with the Vancouver Canucks (7.5 years, 3 Cups), the Nashville Predators (4 years, 1 Cup) and the New York Rangers (4 years and counting, 1 Cup... and counting).

[IrishBouzouki]

Well after starting unemployed I spent 2-1/2 seasons in the QMJHL then a 1/4 season in the AHL before landing in the NHL for the last 1/4 of the season.

I managed to bring along my key free agent signings from the AHL team into the NHL where they helped me climb out of a 12th place hole and finish 5th in the East to make the playoffs, only to be soundly beaten in the first round by the 4th place eventual cup winners. I am also keeping tabs on my Jrs players with an eye to looking at getting them later in their careers.

I have not succeeded in getting any staff to follow me, but have built a solid staff in all three locations. Sadly the QMJHL team made it intact through the rest of the season but the new manager broke some of the key players up in the off-season.

I was surprised how quickly I was able to make the jump to the NHL once I was winning in the AHL for a month. I was less surprised about getting the jump straight from QMJHL to AHL because my record in QMJHL was so good.

After dealing with the AHL veteran limits and crazy NHL associates feeding me useless players, and dealing with he NHL salary cap, I think the Jrs is actually the most fun in the game.

But we'll see how the long term project goes in the NHL now. I think it might be interesting sometime in another game to start at all levels at once in a farm system... NHL, AHL and ECHL plus add a (unaffiliated of course) Jrs team. Maybe try that when I am done with this and do a database update.

[haafie]

I like those kind of starts. With Lidas' previous database (2.2) I'm currently playing a game just like that.
In the first season I spent most of my time at home on the sofa waiting for a team to approach me.
After a year of doing nothing much at all, I finally caved in and let a newly promoted team in Norway know, I was interested in becoming their general manager.
As such I have been with Rosenborg IHK for 4 years now and have managed to win the cup once, having made the final 3 times. I am looking around for my next job, not that I have to leave this team, but to get noticed I need to manage in a league with a little more exposure.

The next step will be to try and manage in the Swedish league. When a job vacancy opens up at Färjestad, Djurgårdens IF or MODO I will let them know. I don't expect teams to come and ask me to become their manager yet.

After making a name for myself there, I want to try and get back into my favourite leagues, the Canadian Juniors and perhaps one day take charge of a NHL or an RSL team.

[ChoseQuiVole]

I am also keeping tabs on my Jrs players with an eye to looking at getting them later in their careers.

I wished so hard for this to happen, but none of my junior players had much of a pro career. I was able to somewhat succesfully carry a couple with me in the ECHL and even the AHL. Only two* played NHL games but both quicly turned to Europe and were never seen again in North America.

*One was acquired by Minnesota days before they hired me. He was my captain in juniors but played unimpressively on an NHL 4th line. The other was my starter who, at something like 27, was dressed for his first NHL games after a rash of injuries on the opposing team. My Canucks showed no pity...

[IrishBouzouki]

I am also keeping tabs on my Jrs players with an eye to looking at getting them later in their careers.

I wished so hard for this to happen, but none of my junior players had much of a pro career. I was able to somewhat succesfully carry a couple with me in the ECHL and even the AHL. Only two* played NHL games but both quicly turned to Europe and were never seen again in North America.

I have some on my NHL team's AHL farm team (my system does not have an ECHL team unfortunately and also the staff on my AHL farm team is not that great since I never managed there and never got a chance to build it up) straight from the QMJHL. And I also got some former QMJHL stars I remember giving me fits playing against me, so my AHL team is stocked with 22-23 yr-olds and doing real well. I had scouted them in Jrs, in the AHL and again in the NHL and the scouting reports have accordingly gone from terrific to good to not really worth it in most cases. But I knew they could play very well in Jrs and at least the ones that came from my Jrs team were well coached early in their careers. I have some concern about a couple that the new Jrs mgr traded away - they are not getting the same development outside that coaching staff.

A couple players from my Jrs team got to come up to my NHL team for a game or two this year when I had 5 NHL players injured at one time (geesh). But the main one was one of those QMJHL all-stars who played against me in Jrs but was on my AHL team when I was managing AHL for a couple months (Alexander Picard-Hooper) - the other (Marc-Andre Cliche who was my best player the year I won the President's Cup even if he broke his leg right before the finals and missed the Presidents Cup finals and the Memorial Cup entirely) only got a minor role in one NHL game. But that is so far, we'll see how they do in the AHL for a year or two.