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Tipped Off
02-26-2008, 12:22 PM
http://portlandtribune.com/sports/story.php?story_id=120397642630742200

Winter Hawks to hire new GM
Hodge says he’s in the dark on details of scouting position offer
By jason vondersmith

The Portland Tribune, Feb 26, 2008

GOLDSMITH

The Portland Winter Hawks plan to hire a new general manager in the offseason and want to reassign longtime executive and former coach Ken Hodge.

“We’re going to retain a full-time general manager,” principal owner Jim Goldsmith says. “And Ken will take on a larger role in the scouting and recruitment of players. His skills are greatly advantageous to us as a talent evaluator. It’s where we were weakest. We need to retool.”

The news, however, comes as a surprise to Hodge, who has talked with team President Jack Donovan only about the idea of a job change.

“I’ve asked for a job description; I have not received one,” Hodge says. “I would have to have an understanding of new duties before I agreed to anything.”

Hodge still carries the title of GM, but he has been more involved in scouting of late. It was Goldsmith who approved the series of trades that started the team’s youth movement, which has resulted in 26 wins and 109 losses this season and last.

Goldsmith has made a point to say all player personnel decisions are made by him and others, collectively, and not simply executed by Hodge. But Goldsmith says his title of director of hockey operations “was a made-up position” and “I’m not pretending to be a hockey maven.”

The Western Hockey League apparently will aid the Hawks in their search for a GM. The league discussed the relationship between Goldsmith and Hodge at its recent governors meeting, which only Donovan attended for Portland. The meeting covered the player personnel arena and ongoing ownership transaction.

Muddying the Winter Hawk waters, not all ownership funds have changed hands from owners Goldsmith, Jack Donovan and John Bryant, who bought the team in early 2006, to previous owners Brian “Bunny” Shaw, Hodge and others.

“It’s moving consistent with what the contract terms were — a series of payments,” Goldsmith says. “But a small portion is disputed. When you buy something of this magnitude, there are things you may or may not know about.”

Hodge says the matter hasn’t been resolved.

Goldsmith says he holds out hope that he and Donovan can convince the Trail Blazers to redo the Hawks’ lease and open up revenue streams for the hockey team. Goldsmith says the Blazers are being disingenuous when they said last week that all the Hawks need to do to be profitable is increase attendance.

“This team has been losing money for nine years,” says Goldsmith, who adds that the 1997-98 Memorial Cup team made money.

Goldsmith describes the Blazers as having “a voracious appetite” for making money from the Rose Quarter, while limiting the Winter Hawks’ opportunities.

“We’re trying, but where’s our opportunity?” Goldsmith says. “Or do we have to just feed the pig?”

That said, Goldsmith says the Hawks could play 10 to 12 games, the bigger promoted games, in the Rose Garden next season as a possible way to help the bottom line.



jasonvondersmith@portlandtribune.com