NHL Network: Elliotte Friedman on the Washington Capitals front office promotions yesterday and their possible succession plan.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Jamison Coyle: “Elliotte, we found out earlier that there was a promotion in the Capitals front office. Brian MacLellan going a notch up. What does that mean for not only him but the state of that front office now moving forward?
Friedman: “Well one of the things Jamison that was announced in the same time as that was the promotion for Chris Patrick. There was some talk that whenever the day would come that Brian MacLellan was done as president of the Washington Capitals, obviously because he won a Stanley Cup there, he’s got a long, long line to run that organization, that whenever the day would come, Chris Patrick would be his successor.
And I think the fact that the announcement went that way has given a lot of credence to that theory. MacLellan’s obviously won the Stanley Cup. You see his resume there.
I think he’s got an excellent relationship with ownership and Dick Patrick, who was also promoted as the Chairman of the team. I think they really believe in him and believe in his vision.
But Chris Patrick who got promoted , I think in a lot of ways is being perceived as the successor whenever the time comes.
Washington has a very strong front office. They have a lot of people there, pretty highly respected. Ross Mahoney who does a lot of their drafting. Don Fishman who’s their capologist. Danny Brooks is a guy who’s been there for a long time as a scout. They’ve got a lot of people who have good reputations.
But I think kind of what we saw was a bit of an idea of how this succession plan will be whenever MacLellan decides it’s time for him.