The hybrid executive reveals his vision for organizational synergy, the allure of New York’s veteran core, and why mirroring systems between the AHL and NHL remains essential.
On Aug. 3rd, the New York Islanders announced that they had hired former Boston Bruins assistant general manager and Providence Bruins general manager Evan Gold to serve as an assistant general manager to general manager Mathieu Darche and general manager of the Hamilton Hammers, the club's AHL affiliate.
In a world where we've seen a shift from hard-nosed hockey guys to analytic gurus in NHL front offices, Gold views himself as a hybrid. He was a finalst for two general manager positions, coming very close to being named the next general manager of the Vancouver Canucks, but ultimately did not take the job.
He now joins an Islanders team that has a bright prospect pool.
Gold joined Jeff Marek on The Sheet Tuesday afternoon. Heres's the key takeaways from his chat.
Marek asked Gold how he viewed the Islanders when he was with Boston and how he views them now:
"I don't know that it's any different than how I see them now, really," Gold said. "They're a transitional team, with some really good veterans, and what appears to be a generational defenseman. They have really strong goaltending and now with Pete [DeBoer] here, especially, a veteran coach who's had tremendous success pretty much everywhere he's gone, so that really exciting for me. Coming to work for a leader like Mathieu [Darche], who I've known personally for several years, all of that together, and what I think we could build here is what was really exciting for me."
Marek then asked Gold about how important it is that first-year AHL coach Jay McKee mimicks DeBoer's NHL squad:
"I'll probably leave those initial conversations between Pete and Jay," Gold said. "I will say philosophically at a high level, it's important to me that the minor league team mirror the major league team, the NHL team, with certain non-negotiables. I do think when you call up a defenseman to throw him into a totally different in-zone structure than what he's used to playing for the previous 40 games he's played, that's a challenge, especially for younger players who might not have experienced different systems. So, again, just superficially talking, Jeff, I I do think it's important that the coaches get on the same page of what are my non-negotiables, what are the things that our players have to absolutely know how to do. It could be system stuff. It could be certain things in terms of wall play, it could be stick positioning, penalty kill, things like that.
"I don't know that it's realistic for exact mirroring AHL to NHL, and frankly, I'm not sure I would advocate for that. I think as you move away from the net, you probably can have a little more freedom. If Jay has certain things that he has had success with at the OHL level that he thinks, 'I'd like to try this here', I think there's certainly a discussion that the coaches can have. But those are just my two cents on that."
And the last big question from Marek to Gold was how he sees the Hamilton Hammers and what they're there for, winning or developing:
"We want to develop players for the New York Islanders, develop the future of the New York Islanders in a highly competitive environment," Gold said. "Part of development is winning. We want our players to quickly become accustomed to what success feels like, both personally and as a team member. So I do think you can and frankly should strive to do both. I know there are times when either outwardly or even inwardly it can be perceived that they're banging into one another, and you'll always make decisions based on what you think is is best at this at that specific instance, but again, we want to compete. We want to win hockey games. We all are competitive individuals, and we want our players to achieve their absolute maximum ability. And that's that's not just the young players too.
"Obviously, the young players are the future of the Islanders, but we're going to have some really important veteran players that might be relied on for very important roles at various points of the season could be in New York. It could be for helping to develop players who are going to be counted on either in the short term or long run. You know, on Long Island. So all of that is-it's not a way of evading your question. The answer is both."
Since taking over as general manager last summer, Darche has focused heavily on developing a much stronger developmental system. Gold is the latest addition to that system and he'll have his work cut out for him in turning the top prospects into future NHLers while making sure Hamilton is a place players want to play and are proud to represent.
Here's the full interview begining at 224:27:
