No longer unthinkable: Penguins fire GM Patrick

Despite his Hall of Fame resume, the team will not renew his contract.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Craig Patrick made some of the best trades in NHL history. He oversaw some of the best drafts, built some of the best teams and signed some of the best players and coaches.
Consider this Hall of Fame resume: Drafted Sidney Crosby and Jaromir Jagr. Traded for Ron Francis, Joe Mullen and Larry Murphy. Re-signed Mario Lemieux so one of hockey's greatest players could play his entire career in Pittsburgh. Hired coaches Scotty Bowman and Bob Johnson.
But it was obvious, after the Penguins sank into bankruptcy for a second time in franchise history and were forced to tear apart a longtime contending team, their general manager lost his drive. Patrick's creative touch also disappeared, and many of the player and coaching decisions he made were bad ones.
Just as significantly, Patrick confided in few and hired fewer still -- to the point the Penguins had a smaller front office staff than most low-level minor league teams.
Patrick did all the hiring, firing and decision-making and, as a result, player personnel decisions seemed to be based more on hunches than reasoned thinking.
Big decision
So, after four consecutive last-place finishes, the Penguins did what once would have seemed unthinkable: They let Craig Patrick go, failing to renew a contract that expires on July 1.
That Lemieux, the team's primary owner and a close friend of Patrick, would agree to such a move illustrates how far the Penguins have fallen since making the Eastern Conference final in 2001.
"It was a very difficult decision," team president Ken Sawyer said Thursday, about an hour after calling Patrick to deliver the news. "But we both stood back and did what's best for the team."
Despite averaging only 25 victories over the last four seasons, and the uncertainty over whether the team will get a new arena, the Penguins don't expect to have trouble finding a qualified replacement.
Sawyer will conduct the search and make the hire, but has no timetable for making his decision.
The new general manager will be allowed to bring the Penguins up to NHL standards in the scouting and player personnel departments.
But he won't hire a new coach -- Michel Therrien, the former Montreal Canadiens coach hired by Patrick at midseason, will be brought back.
"This is a young team that is only going to get better," Sawyer said, pointing to the expected addition of former No. 2 draft pick Evgeni Malkin to a Crosby-led team next season. "We're very happy with the job Michel Therrien has done. He will be the coach next year."
Youth is served
After starting this season with a veteran team, the Penguins made a dramatic midseason switch to mostly youth and, despite finishing 22-46-14, appeared to improve markedly over the final two months of the season. The 18-year-old Crosby became the youngest player in NHL history to reach the 100-point mark by scoring 102.
But it was another former No. 1 pick, Lemieux, who led the Penguins to their greatest successes under Patrick.
With Youngstown's Edward J. DeBartolo as owner, Patrick was hired to succeed Tony Esposito as the Penguins GM in December 1989 and, within 18 months, had built a team around Lemieux that would win the Stanley Cup in 1991 and 1992 and have the NHL's best record in 1993.
His 1991 trade for Francis and defenseman Ulf Samuelsson is widely regarded as being the final piece needed to transform what had long been one of NHL's worst teams into a Stanley Cup winner.
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