Breaking news: Jeff Gorton and John Davidson fired
By Steve Paulus
In a totally unanticipated and unbelievable move, Rangers owner Jim Dolan fired team President John Davidson and General Manager Jeff Gorton. It’s an immediate move and while there has been no official word about the firings, it has been widely reported.
The only thing we know is that Assistant General Manager Chris Drury is remaining with the team and will in charge until Dolan decides what to do about team management.
There was immediate speculation that the terminations were related to the statement issued by the team after the $5,000 fine was levied against Tom Wilson. There are reports that the statement didn’t come from Davidson or Gorton. Darren Dreger of TSN tweeted that it wasn’t connected.
The fact that Davidson and Gorton were not happy with the team’s tweet was reported by several sources.
It seems to make sense that if the duo was sharing their displeasure with the tweet, that would be seen as insubordination and if the tweet was ordered and approved by Dolan, it could have resulted in the firings.
In hindsight, looking at the tweet, it wasn’t the kind of overt messaging you would see from an NHL executive.
While many in the hockey world agreed with the sentiment, it’s very unusual for a team to call out the NHL and to call an NHL executive “unfit to continue in his current role.” To be honest, that sounds like an irate owner.
Dolan and the Rangers
Jim Dolan has left the Rangers pretty much alone during his tenure as owner. He bought into the rebuild and the letter that the team sent to fans announcing that they would be out of contention for a while. He attends many games, but he hasn’t stepped in, in the way that he has with the New York Knicks. The situation with the Knicks has been pretty laughable with front office, coaching and personnel changes happening at the drop of a hat. If that is the future for the Rangers, we could be in for some tough times.
One early report was that Mark Messier was a candidate to take over as Team President. That would satisfy Dolan’s desire to have a big name in change (Isaiah Thomas, Phil Jackson etc), the question is whether Messier should be the guy.
This is an incredibly fluid situation and could make for a very interesting game tonight with the Capitals, especially with Dolan apparently calling the shots and David Quinn’s future very much in jeopardy. How will Dolan want the Rangers to react? We will see in a few hours.