Oilers taking the Detroit approach to building a contender
If the smartest guy in the room is also wise and secure, he surrounds himself with equally bright people and gives them the resources they need to do their jobs. That seems to be the organizing principle behind Kevin Lowe kicking himself upstairs to be the Oilers president of hockey operations and installing longtime Vancouver Canucks hockey executive Steve Tambellini as his replacement as the club’s general manager.
So, new Oilers owner Daryl Katz has co-equal presidents reporting directly to him — Patrick LaForge on the business, sales and marketing side, and Lowe on the hockey side.
"(Katz) must have told me 100 times, ‘Go out and get who you need, go out and increase your management staff,’ " said Lowe, who didn’t need to be told 101 times.
In hiring the classy, well-respected Tambellini and adding "assistant GM" to Kevin Prendergast’s existing title of vice-president, hockey operations, Lowe has bolstered the hockey office that lost the capable Scott Howson, who left for the GM’s job in Columbus in June 2007. By design or not, the Oilers front office begins to resemble the gold standard, that of the Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings.
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