Column

From The Daily News of Friday, Nov. 9, 2007 . . .

If you have been paying attention, Wednesday’s sacking of Dean Clark by the
new owners of the Kamloops Blazers should not have caught you by surprise.
If there ever was a dead coach skating, it was Clark.
And he had been in that position since Aug. 2, which was the day
Edmonton-based car dealer Mike Priestner, the father of Blazers goaltender
James Priestner and a brand new Sun Rivers home owner, made his first offer
to purchase the WHL franchise from the Kamloops Blazers Sports Society.
Included in that offer, under the headline PARTNERSHIP VISION, it stated
that should the offer be accepted, “Dean Clark will assume the role of
managing partner.”
For whatever reason — a failure to share the puck during an alumni game, an
aversion to picking up a bar tab, a personality conflict, the firing of head
coach Mark Ferner on Dec. 8. 2005, whatever — the partners in what was then
known as River City Hockey weren’t at all enamoured with Clark when they
officially launched a second attempt to purchase the Blazers in July.
Clark’s name appearing the way it did in Priestner’s original “Partnership
Proposal” was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
And when the Blazers got off to such an abysmal start, the opportunity had
presented itself. The owners of what now is the Kamloops Blazers Hockey Club
Inc. — Tom Gaglardi owns 50 per cent and ex-Blazers Shane Doan, Jarome
Iginla, Mark Recchi and Darryl Sydor hold 12.5 per cent apiece — acted
swiftly. They spoke Tuesday, which was 12 days after they had officially
taken over ownership of the franchise — and decided to fire Clark. The
decision was unanimous.
Based on recent performance, and with sports, including the WHL, being more
and more a what-have-you-done-for-me-yesterday affair, you can’t argue with
their decision.
The Blazers take a 6-9-1-1 record into Spokane tonight for a date with the
Chiefs. Over their last 40 regular-season and playoff games, the Blazers
have skated to just nine victories.
Gaglardi said Wednesday that he took the latter part of last season into
consideration in reaching the conclusion he did and joining his four
partners in making it unanimous.
This season, it hasn’t so much been that the Blazers have been losing — they
are on a four-game slide now — but it’s how they’ve been doing it. A team
that displayed so much enthusiasm and excitement in going 6-1 in the
exhibition season has looked bored and lethargic for much of this season’s
first 17 games.
Still, Clark deserved the opportunity to finish what he started here. This
was the fourth season of a five-year plan that was hatched by him,
then-player personnel director Randy Hansch and the scouting staff. The
plan, which began with the 2004 bantam draft, was to reach fruition with the
2008-09 season.
As well, Clark had been trying to trade defenceman Keaton Ellerby, who is a
cousin to Doan and who, since last season, has been a tremendous
underachiever. Things had gotten so bad for Ellerby here that there were
cheers when his name was announced as a scratch for Tuesday’s game with the
Red Deer Rebels.
WHL sources have indicated Clark had Ellerby traded at least once, only to
have the deal fall through, perhaps, those same sources indicate, because of
interference from ownership.
Still, the Blazers’ start, or non-start if you will, gave the team’s new
owners the opportunity to pull the trigger on the 10th winningest head coach
in WHL history. They did. And they didn’t miss.
To replace Clark, the Blazers have brought in Greg Hawgood for the balance
of this season. It is a move that, at least at first glance, smacks of the
burning desire to dump Clark.
Contact was first made with Hawgood, who was living in Kamloops and thus was
readily available, by someone from the ownership group on Monday. He was
seen taking notes at Tuesday’s game. By Wednesday evening, he was at the
rink getting acquainted with the operation.
Hawgood, who doesn’t have any coaching experience, walks into an
organization that, at least on the hockey side, is loaded with Clark
loyalists. And why wouldn’t they be loyal? After all, it is because of Clark
that some of those people have contracts that run through 2008-09. Clark,
fearing the scenario that now is unfolding, pushed for those contracts with
the society’s board of directors. The deals were done prior to the society
selling the franchise to Gaglardi and Co.
Despite the team’s recent fortunes on the ice, the key players on this team,
especially with Ellerby gone, all are staunch Clark supporters. That is one
more thing which Hawgood will have to overcome if he is to have success.
Hawgood was a starry Blazers defenceman. His number hangs from Interior
Savings Centre’s rafters.
He is another in what is becoming a long line of former players who have
been recruited to try and right a listing ship. Marc Habscheid, Dean Evason,
Ferner and Clark all played for the Junior Oilers and/or the Blazers.
Habscheid got the team to the 1999 WHL championship after which his contract
wasn’t renewed. The other three all were fired.
In there somewhere, too, was Troy Mick, who was eaten up and spit out by the
pressures of coaching in Little Montreal.
Hawgood now is in the same deck chair that those gentlemen once occupied. It
remains to be seen if he is on the good ship Blazer or the Titanic.

Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca.