The Capitals have a new general manager in Chris Patrick, who was promoted from associate GM earlier this week as Brian MacLellan moved on to be just the president of hockey operations.
And as is tradition, on a GM Wednesday, the Junkies welcomed in Patrick – a big-time Caps and NHL legacy – who explained how he transitioned from the business world into the family business 16 years ago.
“In the business world when I was driving to work every day, the Junkies were appointment radio for me, so this is awesome,” Patrick said before getting into it. “But once it was clear I wasn’t gonna make it as a player, my next move was that I’d love to get into scouting or management – but coming out of college, it wasn’t a good luck, so I had an opportunity to get a job in finance. I thought the hockey dream was over, but I felt like I was missing out a bit, so when I felt the time was right, George McPhee gave me the opportunity to come in and get my feet wet and do some different things in the scouting department, and it built from there.”
The scouting route was a tough one for Patrick, especially living near Annapolis and working in the college ranks, but it got easier as he moved into the pro department, but the job is ‘about as good as you can get if you’re a hockey nerd.’
“You’re going to games and dissecting everything that happens, and you're trying to figure out which way some guys are going and how they may fit on your team,” Patrick said. “You might do a report on a guy that jumps out at you, and then two years later, you're looking it up because you're getting ready to make a trade for him. So it’s one of those things where you never know what game you watch might end up being something that you draw upon in the future.”
McPhee and MacLellan have been the Caps’ only two GMs over the last quarter-century, and the former started the process that helped the latter win the Stanley Cup, so these are big shoes to fill – but that’s nothing for a man whose father is the Capitals’ president, and great-grandfather is hockey royalty.
“Those two guys have had a ton of influence both on my career; George was the one that first gave me my opportunity and was really great about welcoming me in and making me feel like a part of it, and Mac, all along, even before he was GM, he was running the pro scouting staff and approached me when there was an opening to come over and do start doing that,” Patrick said. “As GM, him and I have worked very closely together on everything, and I really feel like as a person and a manager, he's a guy that I've learned a lot from about how to run a successful organization and how to treat people.
That’s why I'm really excited that we kind of set up this tandem here going forward, which I think a lot of teams around the league are starting to do – and you're gonna see more of it where you have kind of a president of hockey ops that usually is a guy that's been a GM in the past, and then another guy that’s the GM that’s doing the day-to-day leg work, and those two working together kind of set the tone and the direction and strategy for the team.”
And already, he’s been a big part of the flurry of moves the Caps have made this month – which he discussed a little bit about with the Junkies in terms of a “re-load” more than a rebuild for the Caps.
Take a listen to the entire conversation above!