SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Two days after Wayne Gretzky became the Phoenix Coyotes' managing partner, general manager Bobby Smith was fired Saturday.
Cliff Fletcher replaced Smith, signed to a long-term deal as
executive vice president and general manager.
The team announced two other key hirings Saturday, adding Pat Conacher as assistant head coach and Dave Draper as vice president of scouting and player personnel.
Fletcher, who spent the past two seasons as a senior adviser
with the Tampa Bay Lightning, will report directly to Gretzky and
will oversee the team's hockey operations.
"Bobby Smith worked very hard under difficult circumstances," Gretzky said. "He did an excellent job, but at this point we felt that the organization needed to make a change."
Gretzky said he hoped to tell Smith of his dismissal in person
Saturday morning, but Smith was out of town and was fired by phone.
The announcement came after Gretzky and developer Steve Ellman
completed their $88 million deal to buy the team Thursday.
Smith's future had been in question since Gretzky joined forces
with Ellman in late May. It originally was assumed that Smith would
be fired, but he apparently earned Gretzky's respect by building a
strong team on a small budget.
Smith was made the Coyotes' executive vice president of hockey
operations in May 1996 and took over as general manager about six
months later. He signed a new two-year, $1.6 million contract
before this season and the Coyotes will have to pay that off.
In Smith's five seasons as GM, the Coyotes were 168-136-47-6.
"Cliff is ... one of the most respected gentlemen in the game," Gretzky said of Fletcher. "His wealth of experience and knowledge of the game will be a valuable asset to our organization."
Fletcher served as chief operating officer, president and general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs from 1991-97.
He also worked as GM of the Calgary Flames in the club's first
19 years of existence, compiling a .581 winning percentage. In
1989, the Flames won the Stanley Cup.
Fletcher has served as an adviser to Gretzky since last summer,
when the Coyotes sale was being worked on.
"I was very happy to accept a senior executive role at that time," Fletcher said. "Then it transcended to the point in the last couple weeks where they asked me if I would take on the position of general manager. I'm here and back at work and looking forward to it."
There is a lot of history between Fletcher and his new boss.
"My teams have played against him for so many years and he won a lot more of those battles than we did," Fletcher said of Gretzky. "I'm really excited about working with Wayne. He still has that same competitiveness he had as a player and a great
knowledge of the game."
Fletcher was the first general manager to sign a player from the
Soviet Union to play in the NHL with official consent when Sergei
Priakin joined the Flames in 1988.
It is not known if rumored deals involving star players such as
Jeremy Roenick, Keith Tkachuk and goalies Sean Burke and holdout
Nikolai Khabibulin will happen with Gretzky and Fletcher now in
place.
"This is a pretty good hockey team and it's quite
competitive," Fletcher said. "Hopefully if we can do a little
minor tinkering, that will improve our playoff chances then we will
look into that heading up to the trade deadline."
Before becoming a coach, Conacher played 13 seasons in the NHL
with the New York Rangers, Edmonton Oilers, New Jersey Devils, Los
Angeles Kings, Calgary Flames and New York Islanders. He played for
Edmonton's 1984 Stanley Cup champions and made his second trip to
the Cup finals with the Kings in 1993.
Draper has over 35 years of experience in hockey management and
spent the last nine years with the Quebec Nordiques/Colorado
Avalanche organization as director of player management, in
scouting and, from 1998-2000, as consultant to the president.
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