Movers And Shakers
July 12th, 2002

by Ian Percy

This "first" Edition of Movers And Shakers interviews Pittsburgh Penguins GM Ian Percy. Ian took over the poverty struck Penguins in season 3 and has been slowly trying to build them into a Playoff worthy team ever since. Hopefully it will be a regular thing again ...

Name: Ian Percy
Team: Pittsburgh Penguins
Nationality: British
GM Since: End Season 3

Team	Record	Points	GF	GA	ConfSeed
Penguins	7-8-3	17	48	42	10th

WCFHL: A strange combination – an Englishman living in Scotland managing an American team, how do you explain that one?

Ian Percy: A long long time ago, as a callow youth I was sucked into hockey through playing football at the weekends. Our goalie was also the goalie for Whitley Bay Warriors, an English hockey team, and because he was bigger than us, he used to make us come and watch him play!.
Through that came a love of the NHL and especially the Pens back in the early Lemieux days – when the opportunity came to manage them, I jumped at it!

WCFHL: Speaking of that man Lemieux, what did it mean to have him back?

Ian Percy: When he announced his comeback, it was like manna from heaven. Stanley Cup here we come! But the reality’s been different and it’s taught me that one great does not make a great team.

WCFHL: A loaded question – are your Penguins any good?

Ian Percy: In a word – sometimes! We seem to be terribly inconsistent, doing well for the first 30 or 40 games of a season then blowing all the hard work and effort with a huge slump in the middle. This year we’ve added some hard workers in John Madden, Mike Keane and Rob Zamuner to try and alleviate that.

WCFHL: Getting back on track - there are a couple of standard questions ... tell us how you think the season has been so far for your team ? Also - what do you consider to be the strengths and weaknesses of your Pittsburgh Penguins and how will you address the weaknesses?

Ian Percy: The season’s been a surprise, much worse start than I expected. .500 maybe, but we’re a ways below that. The strengths are a productive top line and a decent, tough blueline, something which the Pens have lacked for 3 seasons. The weaknesses are the second line – they’re neither offensive or defensive and they need to decide one way or another what to be! As to how to address that? I need either an offensive LW or a defensive RW, but I can’t quite decide which yet. Val Bure has been quite a disappointment so far and maybe he’ll be on the ice for someone else soon……

WCFHL: Ok, well, on to a different note, who's been your teams best performer since you became GM?

Ian Percy: It’s been the oldies who’ve shone offensively, Ron Francis has 274 points in 244 games and Mario has 204 in 169. The defence was quite frankly awful when I took over and Alexei Zhitnik , Glenda Wesley and Eric Weinrich have become the cornerstones of it for this year.

WCFHL: You’ve got the old guys in your system, what about young guys coming through to take their place?

Ian Percy: Danny Briere. Erm, that’s about it really. I traded away Gaborik for Lalime and Petrov, and while those two have been great performers for me, I kind of wish I still had the talent of Gaborik to call on. There’s a fair bit of talent in the prospect list but we are very short of up and coming superstar quality players.

WCFHL: Was the Gaborik deal your worst ever?

Ian Percy: It pales into insignificance with the Felix “Teflon Gloves” Potvin affair……41 games at .882 speaks volumes. Still, nice to see him doing so well elsewhere, the b*****d.

WCFHL: In light of what you’ve already said, where do you see the Penguins going from here?

Ian Percy: Into the playoffs this year. I think the East is incredibly tight and there isn’t much separating the middle half dozen teams so I think we might well sneak in under the wire, no higher than 6^th or 7^th. Once we’re in the playoffs, hopefully our experience might begin to tell – that is unless Mario has another brain fart and decides to get himself banned again!

WCFHL: Speaking of the Eastern Conference playoff race - so many teams can make it, who do you think will miss out ... and why ?

Ian Percy: That’s a tough one to call. The usual suspects will prop up the table, the Isles and the Thrashers, then it’ll be a bit of a scrum with the Canes, Sabres and Leafs scrabbling to succeed and the rebuilding Panthers maybe slipping downwards. Who knows, I think it’s too close to call at this early stage, even closer than last year.

WCFHL: Are there any players on your team right now that you're looking to move or any trades you feel need to be made for the success of your team?

Ian Percy: Val Bure is really dragging down my team defensively – just look at the vulnerability of the second line, McKee, Halpern, Wesley and Bure are all worse than –10. At least Petrov’s contributing offensively but Bure’s doing nothing for us. In the defence, things are pretty settled although we may have to trade down in order to bleed off some salary – alternate captain Glen Wesley has been told he may be changing locker rooms in the near future but he’s not the only one at risk.

Ian Percy: I think that loser Val Bure may well be looking for a new home soon. He was touted as a scoring winger when he came to the Burgh but he’s done nothing since coming here……..

WCFHL: A few final questions on your own team - it might be impolite to bring this up, but your team has a projected balance of -6.3 million dollars. Dont you think you're trying too hard to copy the NHL Penguins ?

Ian Percy : My finances are ugly, that’s for sure. 2 seasons ago Mario came back and only asked for $1.2million, last season he made $5.0m, this season it’s $5.5m. Truth is, without him and Ron Francis the team has zero chance of making the playoffs (and the money!) so I’m down to nickel and diming lesser players to reduce my payroll. Apart from that loser Bure……

WCFHL: Seriously - It's not just a matter of breaking even - come the off-season some cash would be useful when you have to re-sign the likes of Petrov, Fitgerald, Zamuner, Mario and Alexei Zhitnik ... how will you handle that situation. ?

Ian Percy : Someone will just not be signed if the money isn’t there – we have a shot this year of getting to the playoffs – if we rebuilt this year, it’d be 5 or 6 or 7 years before the team was ready to make a push again, we just don’t have the talent in the sytem and that’ll take time to build up.

WCFHL: In your mind, who’s the best player in the WCFHL? And the most valuable to his team?

Ian Percy: I’m going to nominate two players for best in league, Mario Lemieux and Patrick Roy. One with the most incredible vision and touch and the other an immovable object between the pipes.
The most valuable to his team is a tougher one….I’d maybe go for Kovalev of the Caps or, at least at this early point in the season, Brian Boucher of the ‘Yotes.

WCFHL: It’s prediction time – Stanley Cup champions and leading scorer?

Ian Percy: Someone from the West and Mario Lemieux. If I had to put my house on the line, I’d say I prefer the Wings over the Avs, but that’s only because we can never beat the bloody Wings no matter how much I give Colin as a payoff.

WCFHL: Finally, who will be next Mario? Do you see anyone like that in this years class?

Ian Percy: To be honest, no-one. Kovalchuk has a special talent, and Spezza and Heatley are still out there together with Jay Boowmeester and Rick Nash, but whether they’ll be as dominant is another matter. Time will tell……

WCFHL: That’s all for now, thanks for your time.

Ian Percy: No worries, everyone here at work is wondering why I’ve been talking to myself for the past half hour tho…….