If you are a team on a budget, it\u2019s smart to take big swings on outsiders.<\/p>\n
If you are a team with a massive budget, it\u2019s still smart to take big swings on outsiders.<\/p>\n
That is the best way to look at the latest front-office hire by the Vancouver Canucks<\/a>, who announced Thursday they have added Richard Seeley as an assistant general manager. Seeley will also serve as general manager for the Abbotsford Canucks<\/a>.<\/p>\n Seeley knows the AHL, there\u2019s no doubt: He spent the last eight years running the Los Angeles Kings\u2019 minor-league squad.<\/p>\n He is 48 and a former player. But tucked into his work history is an interesting might-have-been.<\/p>\n In the summer of 2016, as the Florida Panthers were in the middle of a revolution, Seeley had just finished his first season as an ECHL head coach. The Panthers needed a new AHL head coach.<\/p>\n Even with a thin head coaching C.V., he still stood out in interviews, Steve Werier recalls a decade later.<\/p>\n Werier, who was one of two assistant general managers who were in reality directing the Panthers\u2019 front office at the time (he and Eric Joyce had been empowered by owner Vinnie Viola, who had sidelined GM Dale Tallon), said that while Seeley was soft-spoken, his intelligence was obvious. You may recall that Werier and Joyce came to be nicknamed \u201cthe Computer Boys.\u201d They were eschewing the norms accepted by old-school hockey thinkers, using, shock-of-shocks, more than just their gut<\/a> to inform their decisions.<\/p>\n In Seeley, they saw a guy who had come through the game but who seemed self-aware of his experience and where the game was going<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cImpressive,\u201d Werier said of how Seeley presented himself. The Powell River native had ended a WHL career as a hard-nosed defenceman and captain of the Prince Albert Raiders, then gone on to seven years in the AHL before spending a handful of seasons playing in Europe.<\/p>\n It was clear to Werier that Seeley knew where he was at and had a progressive mindset.<\/p>\n \u201cWe interviewed a lot of guys,\u201d Werier said. \u201cMost of them tried to pretend that they were innovative \u2014 thinking that\u2019s what we wanted to hear \u2014 but (Seeley) was the most interesting and clearly not faking it.\u201d<\/p>\n