Taylor MacDougall’s Best Work Is Still Yet To Come

There’s no question Gardiner and Taylor MacDougall inherited a very solid team with a lot of key pieces set in place by Ritchie Thibeau. Nevertheless, to build a champion you have to weigh the risk/reward ratio, but you have to possess the constitution to do it.

We know all the moves Taylor MacDougall made, to build a championship team, but no one talks about the risks he faced to do it.

Every organization in the league knew Taylor MacDougall because of his time as a player agent. Familiarity is great and all, but that doesn’t mean “Jack Shit” when it comes to doing business. There’s no favours in the world of Major Junior hockey when it comes to asset management and trades. There might seem like a perceived notion that some organizations have trade partnerships, but nothing comes for free.

When Gardiner and Taylor MacDougall were announced I received multiple calls and messages regarding Taylor’s prowess and qualifications. Some people had no clue about him, his qualifications or journey in the game.

Everyone would assume the trades with the Halifax Mooseheads were a “done deal” and already solidified by the prior regime. Those deals no doubt still needed some refinement and coming in hitting the ground rolling only a few weeks before the draft wasn’t ideal to say the least. Taylor MacDougall handled that part of the job with amazing precision and finalized those two trades.

By all accounts the Juraj Pekarcik trade was also in the works around that time frame as well which was another monumental piece of the puzzle.

Acquiring Bruins draft pick Loke Johannson in the import draft was also a critical piece to the Wildcats blueline.

MacDougall then set out to evaluate the group. As the season progressed it was clear that the Wildcats needed to improve in a few areas. MacDougall addressed those areas by pulling off what no doubt put the team into a new realm of championship possibility by acquiring Rudy Guimond to solidify the backup role and then pulled off what seemed like the impossible by acquiring Dyllan Gill.

The Gill acquisition meant that a difficult decision had to made with regards to the overage situation. The Loshing trade wouldn’t get the same blowback as MacDougall’s next deal which would shock and subsequently divide the fan base.

The Loshing deal was questioned as far as the goal scoring and offensive perspective, but the Steinman deal shook the foundation of the fan base.

Saying Jacob Steinman was a fan favourite and star would be a massive understatement. Everyone rallied around Steiny and absolutely loved his style of play, character and personality. MacDougall could have played it cool and stay status quo, but he took a different approach one that had not only the fan base talking but several “hockey people” and scouts questioning the trade.

“The Comeback” a Netflix documentary that features the Boston Red Sox historical 2004 comeback and series win over the hated New York Yankees features never before candid interviews regarding a trade that also shook Red Sox Nation, the Nomar Garciparra trade. The Steinman/Rousseau deal divided the fan base left one netminder in search of rediscovering his game and set another one on a mission to prove yet again he could carry a team.

Theo Epstein and Taylor MacDougall probably don’t have a ton of similarities and perhaps it’s not a fair assessment or comparison, but they trusted their intuition and made the unpopular decision to move on from one player over another. Those deals can make you or break you, professionally and personally, but both of those young General Managers had the constitution to do it.

No one ever said managing a sports team would be easy, especially when you inherit one with several key pieces, but Taylor MacDougall not only managed it, he put his finger prints and expertise all over it.

Everyone talks about the “The Gardiner Effect”, but the “Taylor Effect” happened behind the scenes where only select few ever truly know how much thought and time goes into all of the decisions that have to be made.

A championship season is special and deserves to be celebrated and admired, but Taylor MacDougall’s best work is still yet to come.