3 Quotes and Takeaways from Chris Patrick's presser
Chris Patrick held court with the local media as general manager for the first time on Tuesday. Here's highlights from what he said.
The Washington Capitals held court with the local media to introduce their seventh general manager in franchise history. He takes over for Brian MacLellan, who was general manager for the past 10 seasons and helped guide the Caps to their first Stanley Cup championship in 2018 along with multiple Presidents' Trophies. MacLellan isn't going anywhere as he remains in the front office as president of hockey operations, a position he's had since last year.
As the Capitals celebrate their 50th anniversary season, Patrick is 48 and played local hockey in the Capital Beltway Hockey League and the AAA Little Caps. He was even drafted by the Caps back in 1994. In 2008-09 he joined the front office and worked in half a dozen roles including pro scout, director of player personnel, and assistant to general manager. In August of last year he moved up to the role of associate general manager.
A little front office housekeeping: With Brian MacLellan and Chris Patrick taking on new roles, Jason Fitzsimmons will officially become the liaison between the #Caps and AHL Hershey, and former Caps player Brian Sutherby will become head pro scout.
— Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) July 9, 2024
Introducing the 7th general manager in our franchise's 50-year history#ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/RfL1zrSnve
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) July 9, 2024
"It's an affirmation of what we built here."
— Monumental Sports Network (@MonSportsNet) July 9, 2024
Join @RealSmokinAl, @AlanMay_16 and @Laughlin18 before Chris Patrick and Brian MacLellan head to the podium to address the @Capitals recent front office moves!
Stream the press conference now 🔗: https://t.co/NGE9XiQ7lc pic.twitter.com/WNWdrsAHwr
The team addressed local reporters over at District E next to Capital One Arena. The following quotes from the presser are via Sammi Silber of The Hockey News:
"He's grown his skill set. I've been a big part of watching him grow and develop.
Obviously this means the Caps are a family business and this is just another family matter as they look to reconstruct the roster for the final year's of Alex Ovechkin. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits during the presser and seemed on board for the daunting task at hand of competing in a stacked Metropolitan Division.
"We really have a lineage of excellence, and we intend to keep going. Sports teams and NHL teams are becoming more and more complex to manage... (GMBM) runs and has final say on all hockey operations, and then we have Chris do every job in the company and be able to be the general manager and deal with all the other general managers. I feel that the team is in great hands.
To learn the business you have to learn every faucet of it. Couldn't have said it better. And the man of the hour was still smiling at the cameras as he was asked the hard hitting questions.
"I've never had this as an end goal when I first got back into the game. I just wanted to be involved with a team... I've definitely gotten to a point where I feel 100 percent ready to jump into it and get going of taking over."
It will be a collaborative effort on every faucet of the organization. The younger Patrick is a graduate of Princeton University and his success with the Bears in back to back Calder Cups is a living testament to the organization.
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