Marshall Johnston Sees His Trades Paying Off
From: Denver Post
by Terry Frei
(left) When asked what was the best moment of his playing career, Marshall Johnston said, "Winning two National Championships at the University of Denver in 1960 & '61."
Speaking from his home in Bemidji, Minn., Marshall Johnston laughed.
.
"We had a salary cap before the salary cap," the former University of Denver and Colorado Rockies coach said Friday.
.
What Johnston meant was that during his 1999-2002 tenure as the Ottawa Senators' general manager, financial troubles and conservatism meant the payroll wasn't even in the same rink with those of Detroit, Colorado and the New York Rangers.
Yet the Senators were competitive, and a significant number of the players now wearing Ottawa sweaters in the Stanley Cup Finals - including center Jason Spezza and goaltender Ray Emery - were drafted when Johnston was the GM. He was also the director of player personnel from 1996-99. The Senators drafted Chris Phillips, Mike Fisher and Chris Neil during that period.
"Sure, I'm happy for the players, I'm happy for the fans there," said Johnston, 65, now the Carolina Hurricanes' director of professional scouting. "They were supportive of the team from the get-go. They got progressively better and they've been knocking on the door, and now they're banging on the door."
The catch is that in 2005, Johnston sued Senators president Roy Mlakar and former team vice president of finance Mark Goudie for $275,000, and the case has yet to be decided. "That's taken a little bit of the shine off my support," Johnston said.
Johnston had filed a grievance with the league before the Senators filed for bankruptcy protection and eventually were sold to Eugene Melnyk, but the NHL front office sided with Mlakar. So Johnston sued. His stance is that when he became GM, he was promised he would be making the same salary as his predecessor, Rick Dudley - and that he discovered later that Dudley had been paid more.
"I've been into it now for so long and have had so much in attorneys' fees," Johnston said, "I'm going to see it to the end. But forget about that, and, yes, you're in it to see the players you drafted or traded for do well."
.
The major move in Johnson's tenure was a 2001 trade. The deal seems incredibly lopsided now. On June 23, 2001, the Senators sent disgruntled center Alexei Yashin, who had sat out the entire 1999-2000 season in a contract dispute before the league ruled he had to play an additional year for Ottawa to fulfill the terms of his deal, to the Islanders for defenseman Zdeno Chara, winger Bill Muckalt and the No. 2 overall pick in that year's draft.
That turned out to be center Spezza, now one of the NHL's young stars.
"There's as much good luck as good management in these types of things," Johnston said. "Here was a guy who had a contract who had renegotiated a couple of times. The irony was that when he tried it a third time, I don't think the franchise was in a financial position to renegotiate, anyway. But to me, it was a matter of principle."
Johnston said at that point, it was inevitable that he had to trade Yashin after he played out his contract.
"Fortunately, he was a good player with some market value," Johnston said. "There were quite a few teams interested at the time, and when push came to shove, we were able to make the deal we were able to make."
Johnston was familiar with Chara, who had struggled at times in his four seasons with the Islanders, because he had done some scouting work for the Islanders in the late 1990s. With the Senators, Chara blossomed into one of the league's top defensemen before signing as an unrestricted free agent with Boston a year ago.
And Emery, the frequently combative goalie who went to the Senators in the fourth round of the 1999 draft?
"The credit for drafting Ray goes to Frank Jay," Johnston said of the Senators' director of scouting. "I had hired Frank and we had worked together at New Jersey. ... I went to see Emery play at Sault Ste. Marie, and Craig Hartsburg was coaching him. I remember telling Hartsburg, 'Tell him not to fight so he stays in the game!"'
He apparently did.
THE MARSHALL JOHNSTON FILE
A native of Saskatchewan, Johnston was a star defenseman at the University of Denver and had a seven-season NHL career with Minnesota and California. Head coach at DU (1977-81), assistant and head coach with the Colorado Rockies (1981-82), director of player personnel with the New Jersey Devils (1982-92). Has also worked for the N.Y. Islanders and Chicago, and was with Ottawa for six years. Currently the Carolina Hurricanes' director of pro scouting.
No comments:
Post a Comment