The Seattle NHL investment group has hired another man with serious credentials to lead the franchise.
On Monday, the group announced the hiring of Dave Tippett as a senior advisor. He was most recently the head coach of the NHL's Arizona Coyotes and Dallas Stars. It's not clear if Tippett will eventually be the yet-to-be-named franchise's first head coach.
Tippett was almost the Seattle coach when the Coyotes were on the verge of moving to Seattle back in 2013. He was credited with leading a team facing future uncertainty to the Conference Finals in 2012.
It is another sign of the confidence of the group to get the puck into the goal, so to speak.
Tippett told ArizonaSports.com that he was intrigued by the ability to be part of an expansion franchise was intriguing. "The ability to build the culture from the ground floor so you’re not going somewhere and needing to change everything. When you look at situations like this, the relationship between the team and community is really important and that comes first,” he told reporter Craig Morgan. Tippett's daughter also lives in Bremerton. He told Morgan he didn't know how the job may ultimately evolve. "I told them that the GM position is probably not something I’d be interested in, but a vice president’s role or a hockey operations role is something where you get to touch a lot of different areas. More than anything, again, to be on the ground floor of an organization starting up, there’s just lots of upside, lots of intrigue and it really pushes me in a different way that is exciting."
David Bonderman and Jerry Bruckheimer are willing to spend $650 million to acquire the NHL's 32nd franchise to play in a new Arena at Seattle Center in 2020. The group already hired Tod Leiweke, former CEO of the Seattle Seahawks and Vulcan Sports and Entertainment, to lead the franchise. Leiweke came from the NFL league office to do so.
The NHL Board of Governors will meet this week in Las Vegas but is not expected to formally address the Seattle situation, according to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman.
The League isn't expected to issue any new franchise until the Arena plan is finalized, and financing plan shored up. It is expected that the Bonderman group will add local investors before the formal awarding of the franchise.
