CLEARLY, Dave Checketts has to wait to see what Lou is going to do. The prime requisite of the GM’s job is talent evaluation and nobody has a better track for that than Lou Lamoriello, who has cashed in his shares in the Devils and can go to the Hoboken waterfront, lift his shepherd’s crook and walk to Manhattan if he wants, once the playoffs are over.
But if it is presumed he won’t stay to work for George Steinbrenner and Harvey Schiller, why would anyone think Lamoriello wants to answer to Dave Checketts and Jim Dolan? Lamoriello is an owner’s dream — moderate budget, high results — and somebody else will offer him total control, probably in a penurious situation to which he has become accustomed.
So, while you can’t rule Lamoriello out from taking the Rangers’ GM job, we’re not holding our breath for him. Or for Glen Sather either.
The latest crisis in Edmonton has Sather’s guy being deposed as team president, but if Slats goes, so might the franchise, and our guess is that the consortium of owners will find a way to appease and save him from having to move to a place where he doesn’t really want to live. Besides, Lamoriello and Sather have operated in small markets so long, it has become second nature to them. It might be a mistake to assume that a bigger budget will widen their eyes like kids in the candy store.
So what about those Wayne Gretzky rumors?
“I have so much going on with my company and we’re building a house out here,” The Great One told The Post yesterday from his Southern California home. “I don’t have enough time for it. Down the road, maybe.”
John Davidson? He would think about it, but might have to take a pay cut and give up something he really enjoys in exchange for a lot of anxiety.
Colie Campbell, who has kept a good relationship with Dave Checketts, will be, should be, a serious candidate, but will Checketts worry about the perception of going backwards? And if Mike Keenan is Campbell’s first pick as coach, how long is Checketts’ memory from the mess left behind after the coach threw ice water on the afterglow in 1994?
Keenan and Ted Nolan have the two best track records out there by miles, but the GM, not the coach, gets picked first. And the pickings for top executives are slim. Expansion has made it such a seller’s market that Doug Risebrough, who presided over a disaster in Calgary, got the job in Minnesota. But that’s not to say that there aren’t guys out there. There always are, if you are willing to allow them to grow into the job.
The top assistant of the reigning champion is always a hot commodity and Dallas’s Craig Button, from what we hear, deserves to be. David Conte, the Devils’ head scout, obviously can spot a player, but like any drafter, you don’t know whether he can put a team together, which is a different skill.
San Jose assistant GM Wayne Thomas spent some time in the Rangers’ organization and is a quiet and competent guy who deserves an interview. So might David McNab, Anaheim’s chief scout.
We have another bulb for Checketts’ head: Anders Hedberg. Once you get past Lamoriello and Sather and into the gray mass of up-and-comers, Hedberg has as much potential as any of them. The roster of the Leafs, currently third overall in the Eastern Conference, is loaded with players he evaluated as their European scout.
Hedberg is currently serving as an adviser to Sather, has an offer to run the Swedish national team, but if called to New York for an interview would be on the next plane.
“Yes, I would be very interested,” he said yesterday from Stockholm. “I’m working for Edmonton with the understanding to stay though the end of the year, but I’m a free agent then.
“I have been in hockey management since I stopped playing. I relocated [to Toronto] because I thought I would have an influence in what direction the franchise was going. It never materialized because of the way it was organized. The philosophy was Mike Smith and I would be partners, both reporting to [Ken] Dryden. Once Pat Quinn came in, my job was not being expanded.”
Hedberg also butted heads with the cranial-hardened Smith, who since has left to run the Blackhawks. But no one who has ever known Hedberg has ever questioned his integrity, intelligence or sincerity. He was a terrific Ranger, beloved by the fans, understands the demands of this market, knows a hockey player when he sees one and would be a popular and innovative choice.
There has never been a European general manager in the NHL, but it’s hard to see that deterring Checketts. If you can evaluate talent, be a media animal, have the patience to work inside the Garden structure rather than rail against it, you should be speaking his language. Once Checketts sees what’s really out there, the concept of Anders Hedberg, GM of the Rangers, might turn out to be not so far out there at all.