Grooming Successors Upstairs, Courtesy of the Ottawa Senators

If there’s on National Hockey League team that seems to take men out of the cave and make them into Stanley Cup winning General Managers, it’s the Ottawa Senators. Take notice of two GM’s in the Eastern Conference, Pete Chiarelli of the Boston Bruins and Ray Shero of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Both men hired by the Sens as consultants, and later moved on to other teams. Well, at least we can say both of them turned out pretty good.

Ray Shero was an assistant here in Bytown from 1993-1998. He was more of a sidekick to Mel Bridgman, Bruce Firestone, and his new troops, trying to bring the Sens out of mutiny. Now in Pittsburgh and partying with Sidney Crosby, he’s got a ring, three franchise players, and one of the best prospect pools in the league. Even though he lost Sergei Gonchar on July 1st, he responded by signing Zbynek Michalek and Paul Martin, remembering fans of the glorious years of Scuderi-Gill.

And then there’s Pete Chiarelli. The second mind in John Muckler’s head (if he had one), Chiarelli is noted by helping the organization quite a bit. He was the person who chsoe to draft Anton Volchenkov, and told Mucks to trade disgruntled dive Alex Yashin. How’s that trade work out? Pretty good, well except for Mike Milbury. Now, Chiarelli’s at the helm of the Boston Bruins, and with ex-Sen Zdeno Chara, they’ve made the playoffs 3 season straight, and a Northeast Division to boot. With their future led by star Tyler Seguin, the Boo Boo Bears are future Cup Champions, believe it or not.

We all go back to present day Ottawa now. Bryan Murray’s assistant is his own nephew, Tim Murray. He’s also the GM for the Binghamton Senators. If facts stay true and The Bryan leaves in 3-5 seasons, one can’t help wonder that Tim will be the next GM. He’s being groomed into that position, and it’s only fair to a guy that’s helped this team since day one. The question will be, however, if the Senators can keep Tim Murray within the organization, and for how long?

Stay tuned today as we have some exciting news coming from the desk of yours truly.