Chris Snow jobbed

Remember his career reboot? He became a front office victim this week. Wonder what's next.


http://www.startribune.com/sports/wild/blogs/93464374.html?elr=KArksi8cyaiUBP7h_47cQiU47cQUU


Wild extends FSN contract, evaluates broadcasters, fires Snow
Posted by Michael Russo

Last update: May 12, 2010 - 9:40 AM

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--The Wild has reached an extension with Fox Sports North to continue to broadcast Wild games. The length of the deal is undisclosed and an announcement will come at a later date.

In a statement to my inquiry, Bill Robertson, the team's VP of Communications and Broadcastings, said, “The Minnesota Wild have concluded negotiations with FS-North and have extended our current agreement to broadcast Wild NHL games. At the same time, the Wild will continue to work with over-the-air partner, KSTC-TV, while the new contract with FS-North has no immediate impact on the Wild’s KSTC-TV partnership.”

However, that's immediate impact. It's believed all Wild games will move exclusively to Fox Sports North in 2011-12.

-- As for the broadcasters, the contracts for TV announcers Dan Terhaar and Mike Greenlay and radio announcers Bob Kurtz and Tom Reid have yet to be extended.

“The Wild are currently in the overall review process with our television and radio broadcasters regarding their work,” Robertson said. “We will be meeting with them in the coming weeks to discuss their agreements.”

--The Wild has fired director of hockey operations Chris Snow. A former sportswriter, Snow, 28, made national news four years ago because of the unorthodox hiring. He returned to Minnesota from the Boston Globe, where he covered the Red Sox, but he also covered the Wild in 2003-04 and part of the 2004-05 lockout for the Star Tribune.

Here is the Esquire feature on Snow.

Under former GM Doug Risebrough, Snow did a lot of analytical work of other team rosters, cap commitments and statistics. He also assisted in arbitration strategies, organized the scouts and did collective bargaining agreement interpretation. This season, he spent much of his time scouting.

"Though the year ended for me the way it has, I appreciate the year working for Chuck [Fletcher] because his management style differs some ways from Doug [Risebrough]," Snow said. "I think that was positive for me to participate in that. Because other people were hired to take over some of the responsibilities I have, it gave me the opportunity to be out of the office scouting. I enjoyed that and it was another skill-set Chuck enabled me to add."

Snow said he has no plans to return to sportswriting. He wants to remain in sports management.
"This was a radical decision. Covering the Red Sox is a pretty good job, but I made the decision because this is what I want my career to be," Snow said. "I feel the people I've worked with taught me a great deal, so I feel confident that I can add value to an organization."

You can bet if Risebrough gets the Tampa job, Snow will have a good opportunity to rejoin an NHL team soon. Steve Yzerman, Pierre McGuire and Paul Fenton are also reportedly being considered. Toronto's Dave Nonis got an extension to stay with the Leafs.

 

Even f* studs hit the unemployment office.

 

Well, he's already had three cooler jobs than me at the exact same age. Plus I doubt he'll live with his parents during his unemployment stint like I did. But for today, I don't mind the straw I drew in life.

 

Jobbed? Um, no. He joined a team that racked up 104 points in his first season, and won its division the following year. That's been followed by point totals of 89 and 84 and two straight seasons out of the playoffs. This year, the Wild finished 13th in a 15-team conference.

Jobbed would be a good description for Snow's situation if the team went deep into the postseason but got rid of him anyway. That does happen sometimes in professional sports, though. Its executives are, for the most part, hired to be fired. In 1971, Al MacNeil won a surprise Stanley Cup in his first season as coach of the Montreal Canadiens. He was immediately relieved of his duties and demoted to Montreal's AHL farm club.

Snow's dismissal is worth noting, but not worth lamenting for any length of time. If he's any good at what he does, he'll have another job in hockey very soon.

 

I'm thinking the thread title exists primarily for the pun.

Problem is, I saw "snow" and "job" and immediately thought of Al Snow and the J.O.B. Squad. It took a couple of minutes to shake "what does everybody want? HEAD!" out of my brain, and a couple of minutes more to remember who Chris Snow is.

Sounds like he'll probably spend a year or so as a scout, which probably isn't the worst thing for him at this point. He could do that for five years, then STILL be a hot young hire when he returns to the front office.

 

Hockey isn't like journalism, where the straight-out-of-college show ponies keep their plum gigs as long as they want them, whether or not their spots are merited. Your team doesn't get the job done, you hit the road.

 

I thought Dean Koontz had finally giving up on finishing that trilogy.

 

Sirs, Madames,

His job was done for when Riser was pink-slipped and Fletcher came in. Strictly handwriting on the wall. Another guy with a hockey pedigree might have had a chance of working with Chuck. Not Snow. Maybe he could get a job scouting--but I have absolutely no idea where. He could follow DR to another job but I dunno how many other hockey execs would really be interested his Risebrough's experiment. I know some who thought he was a little too sure of himself.

o-<

 

He'll be fine, whether it's with another hockey team or if he gets back into journalism (which I doubt).

 

He scouted this year under the new regime. I had never talked to him, or knew him aside from the numerous SportsJournalists.com mentions of him, until this year. But I talked to him once and found him to be a pretty good dude. I guess he spent a lot of time going to AHL games. If Riseborough doesn't get the TB gig, I'm sure he'll get something. I bet he could get decent TV appearances, if he wanted them.

 

I am duh. Good point about the pun.....I completely whiffed on that one. What can I say, I was up way later than I ought to have been.