NHL GM reportedly does not have a contract!

Technically he’s a free agent and there are reports that the Wild may scoop him up!

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
NHL GM reportedly does not have a contract!

In case you missed the news yesterday, the Minnesota Wild fired general manager Paul Fenton after just 14 months on the job.

Check it out:


The news was first reported by Wild insider Michael Russo who had covered the firing in detail for his latest column for The Athletic.

Check out some of these quotes, courtesy of Russo:

After 25 years of paying dues in order to rise to a general manager post in the NHL, Paul Fenton’s rocky tenure with the Wild came to an abrupt end after only one non-playoff season, multiple sources told/The Athletic./
In a late-summer decision that will send shockwaves throughout the State of Hockey and the entire league, sources said owner Craig Leipold called Fenton at his offseason home in Cape Cod late Tuesday morning and cut ties with him a little more than 14 months after naming the longtime Nashville Predators assistant GM the Wild’s third GM in team history
Sources said there were numerous accounts of unhappy employees throughout the organization and countless other turbulent incidents that made their way into Leipold’s office. Sources said for weeks that it was becoming abundantly clear to Leipold that Fenton was not fitting into the culture that he and CEO Matt Majka had worked to create since Leipold purchased the team in 2008. 
So rather than giving Fenton another year’s chance to right the ship on the ice and off of it, Leipold obviously felt he better pull the plug now rather than allow further potential damage to come. While there’s little doubt Fenton was blindsided by Tuesday’s phone call, it’s believed he knew he was on thin ice after meetings with Leipold about his job performance this offseason.

Assistant general manager Tom Kurvers will replace Fenton in the short-term, but what's the long-term plan for the Wild? NHL insider Elliotte Friedman reported yesterday that the Wild have reached out to the Philadelphia Flyers to speak with former GM Ron Hextall about their newly vacant GM position.

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No doubt about it, Hextall built a strong stable of young players in Philly, but there are other candidates in the mix. Russo also mentions former Edmonton Oilers and Boston Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli, former San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings GM Dean Lombardi and former New York Islanders GM Garth Snow as candidates. 

Another surprising candidate though is someone that nobody had any clue was even available... Carolina Hurricanes GM Don Waddell. Russo reports that, incredibly, Waddell is without contract and has been acting as the Hurricanes' GM essentially for free the past month.

Check it out:


Uh... excuse me?! How do you just forget to sign your GM heading into the offseason? Oh... wait... this is Tom Dundon's team we're talking about. When it comes to money, nothing really makes sense.

In any case, the offseason just got a LOT more interesting for Wild fans.