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Preston hired as new GM and coach |
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Written by Dylan Purcell
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Wednesday, July 01 2009, 11:12 PM |
Rich Preston is not a great orator.
What Preston is, is the Lethbridge Hurricanes’ new general manager and head coach and, despite the monotone delivery, he’s excited to be here.
The Western Hockey League team’s much-maligned board of directors introduced Preston at the Ramada Lethbridge’s Coulee Room Tuesday afternoon, a sigh of relief after a search which began May 8.
That’s when the Hurricanes announced that head coach Mike Dyck wouldn’t return. General manager Roy Stasiuk followed three days later.
Preston started helping the Hurricanes at the June 26 NHL entry draft. He made a few inquiries about European players on behalf of the team while negotiations were ongoing.
So, before he signed a contract, he was working.
“That’s why I said during the press conference that the most important thing for players, coaches, management, is commitment,” said Preston, who is a much better interview subject than speechmaker. “I was in Montreal and we had been talking pretty seriously and so you start asking GMs. You start talking to scouts, just trying to find out ‘Is this kid going to come over?’ ‘Can he play?’ That’s what this Euro draft is all about and then this morning when we made our pick, I think we’re all pretty confident in it.”
The Hurricanes travelled a familiar road with their only European draft pick Tuesday, selecting a Finnish goaltender to follow in Juha Metsola’s steps in six-foot-one Ville Kolppanen.
That’s what Preston likes talking about: hockey. And he’s good at it, too.
“You don’t know until they come here with the European kids but we’ve made some contacts and it sounds like he’s going to be here. You look if we can develop him, we’ve got two NHL first-round picks (Carter Ashton and Kyle Beach), we’ve got some good players here, especially from what I’ve heard. I think it’s going to be a very exciting year for the kids.”
Preston’s career includes an Enmax Centre memory, as he was in the building the night his Regina Pats beat the Lethbridge Hurricanes. Then-head coach and GM Bryan Maxwell and assistant Reid Williams and a few players were involved in a skirmish with on-ice officials which resulted in a year-long suspension for Maxwell.
“I do remember that,” laughed Preston. “But I’m hoping we can forget it and maybe make some better memories.”
It’s a safe bet the hiring committee’s memories of the search process won’t be great.
Since announcing the team would need a new GM, there has been considerable venom spat their way, including a shareholders meetings earlier this month which saw them roundly chastised for the length of the search. It also became clear from that meeting that Rich Sutter, who publicly declared his desire for the job, was the candidate of choice.
Add in a couple of months together, and team president Brian McNaughton said he’d be OK if he didn’t see Brian Wichers, Herman Elfring and Keith Hitchcock for awhile.
“I’ll enjoy it, that’s for sure,” he laughed. “Seriously, we’ve probably seen enough of each other and the spotlight for awhile.”
McNaughton added it would be a relief to fade into the background.
“I’m not in this business and neither are the other members of the hiring committee,” he said. “I’m happy to let Rich take over and and I’m excited to see what comes next.”
As for the other candidates, notably Sutter, McNaughton said the decision wasn’t easy.
“We had interviewed five, no six candidates and any of them, including Rich (Sutter) could have done the job,” said McNaughton. “Rich Preston was just a great fit as far as the professionalism he brings, the experience he brings and the fact that he was obviously excited to bring his family here and get started on this.”
Sutter criticized some of the decisions of the team’s management in a Lethbridge Herald article on May 8, the day they announced Dyck’s contract wasn’t going to be renewed. Sutter was hired by Stasiuk as a consultant for the final half of the WHL season. Despite the criticism, McNaughton maintained there were never any hard feelings between then hiring committee and Sutter.
“There weren’t, there aren’t and there never was,” said McNaughton. “We saw the passion of Lethbridge Hurricanes’ fans throughout this process. But we stayed true to our process and we didn’t waver or compromise and we ended hiring someone with experience and the knowledge to get our players and our team to the next level.”
Preston has garnered a good reputation in hockey circles as both a player and in his years as an assistant coach with the Calgary Flames and San Jose Sharks. He said what makes a team work at one level, works at every level.
“What I saw working with Darryl (Sutter) and all the coaches I’ve seen and worked with, is that hockey is hockey. The ages of the players are different here and you have to always keep that in mind but the work that has to go into this is the same wherever you are.
“It was that way when I played and it’s that way now.”
Preston played for the Winnipeg Jets, New Jersey Devils and Chicago Blackhawks during his playing career and began as an assistant coach with the Blackhawks under Mike Keenan. He was the Regina Pats head coach from 1995-97, including the infamous evening at the Enmax, before spending the last 12 years with the Flames and Sharks.
His next task is to hire a director of player personnel.
“I need a player personnel guy and I need to get accustomed to some things but other than that it’s just planning together ready to win some hockey games,” said Preston.
He also said he expected Kabayama to stick around.
“I would think so. I haven’t talked to Matty about it or anything like that, we’ve been focused on the Euros,” he said. “But we’ll sit down and talk but, no, I would expect he would be here.”
While ’Canes fans shouldn’t expect any award-winning speeches, they might find other awards fit a little better.
“If you don’t want to win, why keep score,” said Preston. “You need commitment, talent, hard work. But they need to come together in a winning effort. We don’t play to lose, we play to win.”
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