Are any front offices feeling the heat early in the season?

While the season is still early, it’s not so early for teams to start reacting, especially the ones who are struggling more than expected. Often times, the head coach is an easy move to make to shake things up, especially with how they impact the on-ice product.

But sometimes, it’s the general manager who takes the blame. Teams may have grown tired of their poor ability to build a competitive team, and decided that they want to put a better manager in charge before the one they don’t trust makes another move to further damage the team. The Buffalo Sabres did this last year with Kevyn Adams, and it kickstarted their run to the playoffs to end their lengthy drought.

So are there any general managers similarly on the hot seat right now? Dave Pagnotta joined Daily Faceoff Live to talk about which GMs could be close to losing their jobs right now.

Dave Pagnotta: I think if I were to look anywhere, I guess maybe Seattle, even though Botterill is now the guy there. But there have been some frustrations atop that organization with how this team has performed and the overall direction of this team, not just now but moving forward as well. So maybe you’re looking in that direction.

And obviously we’ve got to figure out what the hell’s going on in Detroit because they’re looking for a president of hockey ops and then a GM it now seems, based on what Chris Ilitch, their owner, said the other week.

So nothing else that I’ve caught with respect to management type of decisions. I get the frustration in Chicago. It’s like, “Okay, it’s time now. Let’s start going. Let’s start taking the next steps here. We’ve got Bedard, Frondell’s in the mix and Nazar and the young kids on the blue line and whatnot. And we’ve got our goalie right now in Spencer Knight, and so on and so on.” So I understand that frustration. It’s a depth issue more so than anything, quality of depth more than anything for Chicago, which is why they’re looking to see what options are available to them. And again, more so guys that fit the mold of that young nucleus that they can continue to build with.

You can watch the full episode here…