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Saturday, November 6, 1999
Doug Risebrough is Minnesota's Wild
Doug Risebrough leans casually back on his chair in a Calgary restaurant, and you know he's anticipating the inevitable question.
"Doug Gilmour, the trade ..." The questioner eventually braves.
You know Risebrough would be well within his rights to say, "No comment."
To let the past go.
But he doesn't evade the question -- he, in fact, embraces it in a no-holds-barred accounting of the 1988 trade that will forever live in infamy in this city.
For it is the past that has shaped the new Doug Risebrough. The years as a member of the Montreal Canadiens Stanley Cup championship run, the good years leading Calgary to its first Stanley Cup final on the ice and then serving as assistant coach for the Flames first Cup win. But also the years he stepped in as a neophyte GM for the Flames, and yes, the infamous Gilmour trade that forever will be part of Risebrough's legacy.
But the Doug Risebrough who has been hired to run the Minnesota Wild expansion franchise is a much different one than the one who was eventually fired in Calgary as the team quickly deteriorated.
His firing didn't stop that deterioration, of course. But in moving eventually to work with Oilers GM Glen Sather, Risebrough continued to grow as a hockey manager.
And the one invaluable quality he takes into Minnesota that he didn't have here is experience.
Already he's assembling a staff that includes many of Calgary's former best people, many of whom who didn't need to leave but chose to move on -- scouts Tom Thompson and Guy Lapointe, Jeff Perry and Glen Giovanucci, and former coach Pierre Page.
"Yeah, you could call it Calgary south," laughs Risebrough, who still lives in Calgary until his move to Minnesota at the end of the school year.
But even in accepting his new job in Minnesota, the Gilmour question reared its ugly head.
"I know that is a question someone will still be asking me 10 years from now," admits Risebrough.
"But this (Minnesota) is the right career move for me -- it's perfect timing.
"Calgary was the growing process. I was not ready and equipped to do the job. Was that a bad thing? I guess because I got fired, it was. Do I think it was a bad thing? No, because I learned a lot about me, a lot about the process, about how tough you have to be at times, about how you can't avoid decisions and I learned you can't influence all things."
But if one thing above all others served as a learning experience, it was the Gilmour trade.
Calgary had just come off its first Stanley Cup when a petulant Gilmour walked out on the team after becoming dissatisfied with an arbitration award.
The trade came soon after. Too soon, Risebrough admits.
Gilmour, Jamie Macoun, Ric Nattress, Kent Manderville and Rick Wamsley to Toronto for Gary Leeman, Alex Godynyuk, Jeff Reese, Michel Petit and Craig Berube.
Calgary hasn't won a playoff round since that trade. Gilmour went on to become the heart and soul of the Leafs while Calgary's new players fizzled, particularly Leeman who went from a 50-goal scorer to out of the NHL in a couple of seasons.
"I hope (the Gilmour trade) isn't totally my legacy here," says Risebrough.
"I remember a lot of good times here as a player. This was a great community to play in. I ultimately influenced the happiest moment of this organization being the only assistant coach and one of a few people that had ever been to a final. I did that as a player and assistant coach.
"I think people are fair in judging me. The team that won the Stanley Cup for the Calgary Flames, the total budget was $8 million Cdn. The last budget I took over was $22 million Cdn. There was lot of turbulent times and uncertainty. I can say as a manager I didn't do all the things wrong, but I didn't do them for the wrong reasons. I did them all for the organization.
"I did the best job I could. I think there are people who recognize that, but yeah, this was all brought up in Minnesota, too.
"I'm not afraid of it. You know how that thing all came about and there were a lot of people who had a part in that decision. I was ultimately the guy in charge and I took the full responsibility.
"Why do I do it. I learned from it. I learned you can't abdicate responsibility. I think too many of the decisions of the pieces of that deal were left to people that I ultimately should have had more influence on, seeing the particular players that came in. I don't remember seeing Alex Godynyuk and when I did, he couldn't skate and I thought to myself I better get another scout. He wasn't the guy I expected. That wasn't Alex's fault, that was my fault. You know Al Coates was a big fan of Godynyuk.
"People had too much to say in that deal that ultimately I should have had more responsibility in seeing the players. What did I learn? The decision should have been made a lot earlier, to trade him. Doug came up to me after arbitration and said he wasn't happy and I offered him a two-year deal right there. I should have told everyone that instead of protecting the players and then people would have understood a little more.
"But ultimately, the most confusing aspect was the money. Salaries were going out of control and as a young GM, I didn't have experience to realize this is going to be the norm. He should have got his money and he would have been a great Flame for a long time and he would have been tradable later on. But that's experience.
"The biggest fundamental mistake I made in Calgary was I watched the Oilers, who I admired, tear something down. That's what I should have done as a young GM -- I should have accepted that the organization had had their hey days, they had won the Stanley Cup, and we should move towards, and accept, another time.
"People kept saying that fans will go away and not come back. Well, that is inevitable. You just have to make the big decision. That means tough calls and you have to face it right away."
Like Doug Risebrough faces his past.
Knowing that his future will be that much better because of what he learned from it.
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