Should Winnipeg Ownership Be Under Fire?

The Winnipeg Jets have only officially been in existence for a few weeks now after the NHL Board of Governors unanimously approved the sale and relocation of the Atlanta Thrashers to the True North Sports & Entertainment group in Winnipeg. But since the franchise has moved, management has made several questionable decisions.

One of the latest was release of Thrashers coach Craig Ramsay, who has been in hockey for 40 years since playing with the Buffalo Sabres. He coached in Buffalo, Florida, Ottawa, Philadelphia, Tampa Bay and Boston with a couple of cameos as an interim head coach with the Flyers and Sabres. But Ramsay was not kept on in Winnipeg, much to his dismay.

Ownership didn't contact Ramsay about the position--his position--for over a month before he had to interview for his own job. Ramsay was terminated and has since signed on to be Kevin Dineen's assistant in Florida. But the process left a bitter taste in Ramsay's mouth.

From the Sportsnet article by Mike Brophy:

Was he disappointed at not being retained, but replaced by Claude Noel?

"Not at the end of it, I certainly wasn’t," Ramsay said. "I never got a phone call from the Winnipeg people when they apparently bought the team. None of us did. There are always three choices: ‘We want you; we don’t want you or we really don’t know at this point because we don’t have a general manager in place.’ At least then the communication is open and you’ve spoken to the (new owners) and that didn’t happen. It’s disappointing. I think with 40 years in the business you deserve a call from them to let you know where things stand and where they think they are headed.

"The fact that they dragged it out meant there were jobs that were going by the wayside while we were under the assumption that perhaps Winnipeg was interested in bringing our group along. It was a month or more just sitting by the phone waiting for things to happen while you are under obligation not to talk to other teams because of tampering charges. (General manager) Rick Dudley was at least let go right away so he could go about his business, but you have good people like (assistant coaches) Mike Stothers and John Torchetti and the training staff sitting there waiting for some indication as to what was going on. When Kevin Cheveldayoff got the (GM) job he at least called right away. Other than that we were just sitting there and waiting and that’s not fair."

Ramsay, along with his assistants Mike Stothers and John Torchetti, were all released. GM Rick Dudley was released as well and was hired by Toronto in their hockey operations department. But was Ramsay right in his disdain?

True North, in fairness to Ramsay, should have alerted him right away if he wasn't the guy. It was evident from the get-go that the Jets wanted things done their way. They brought in their own GM in Kevin Cheveldayoff, their own coach (from True North's Manitoba Moose) in Claude Noel, and they cleaned house right down to the equipment manager. In Ramsay's defense, he deserved an answer earlier when more head coaching vacancies were available.

Craig Ramsay is again out of a head coaching job.  (Getty Images)

It appears True North are ready to do things their way, which is fine. But their decision making has been questionable. After charging exorbitant prices for their season tickets (the best seat in the house costs over $25,000 over 5 years) the Jets inexplicably drafted Mark Schiefle in the first round of the NHL Entry Draft with their seventh overall pick. While Schiefle should be a fine player, most scouts had him going more towards the middle of the first round than the beginning. Then, as free agency hit, the Jets made their big splash by signing Winnipeg native Derek Meech and former Manitoba Moose forwards Tanner Glass and Rick Rypien.

Is it fair to say that True North just want to sit on the cash cow that will be Winnipeg hockey over the next five years? I mean, why not? The building is basically guaranteed to be sold out for half a decade, no matter what team is iced. And if the team is going to be mediocre, why not bring in local favorites in Meech, Glass, and Rypien? Why not bring in a local coach in Noel? Noel will do a fine job, but Craig Ramsay, a man of unparalleled hockey knowledge and one of the best teachers in the game, was hung out to dry. After being in the NHL as long as the Jets owners have been alive, Ramsay at least deserved the respect to be notified before all of the coaching vacancies were filled.

As Paul Friesen in the Winnipeg Sun wrote in early June:

Except tell Ramsay, who has another year on his contract, that he’s going to at least get an interview.

Isn’t that the very least the guy deserves, given his tenure in the league?

Before his one season with Atlanta, Ramsay spent three in Boston, six in Tampa Bay (where he won a Stanley Cup), two in Philadelphia (where he went 16-8-1 and reached the Eastern Conference Final as the head coach while Roger Neilson was being treated for cancer), two in Ottawa, two more in Florida (where in 1993 a ruptured ulcer nearly killed him) and seven in Buffalo, where he’d spent his entire 14-year playing career as one of the NHL’s top defensive forwards.

To me, that’s worthy of more than a token interview.

And Friesen couldn't have been more right. Dudley, Ramsay, Stothers and Torchetti deserved better fates. Maybe they weren't going to be kept around. Heck, maybe they weren't the right people for the job. But True North has gone about their proceedings in a slightly suspect way since bringing hockey back to Winnipeg. Their underhanded treatment of the coaching staff is a poor way to start off a franchise and frankly, the Winnipeg team as is is a borderline playoff team. By sitting on their roster and not making any significant improvements, one can't help but at least begin to wonder about their motives moving forward. After all, no matter how rabid the fan base they will only support mediocrity for so long.