EVERETT — When Garry Davidson was hired as general manager of the Everett Silvertips, the once-proud franchise had sunk into the depths of WHL irrelevance.
Since then, Everett has gradually risen from the ashes and is back to hanging banners, so it’s no surprise the Tips are keeping Davidson around a while longer.
Davidson is now entrenched for the foreseeable future as he signed a five-year contract extension with Everett, the team announced Tuesday. The contract runs through the 2019-20 season.
“It’s a well-deserved recognition for him,” Silvertips president Gary Gelinas said. “We’re happy to keep him on board. When I brought Garry in we had a previous relationship. The bottom line is he’s a quality person. We want someone at the head of our organization who has good character.”
Said Davidson: “I’m very pleased with it. I’m pleased that ownership offered me an extension. I’ve enjoyed my time in Everett. I really enjoy my job, the community and the Western league. I’m really pleased and excited for the opportunity to continue to work here.”
Davidson, 64, arrived in Everett in February of 2012, having spent the previous four years as the director of player personnel for the rival Portland Winterhawks. At the time the Tips were in the midst of their second straight season of finishing eighth in the 10-team Western Conference.
During Davidson’s three full seasons as general manager, Everett progressed from eighth in the Western Conference, to tied for fourth, to second. The past season the Tips claimed the U.S. Division championship — the team’s first banner since earning five in its first four campaigns — and advanced beyond the first round of the playoffs for the first time since 2007.
“For the most part it’s been positive on and off the ice,” Davidson said about his first three-plus years in charge. “When I arrived we were eighth out of 10 teams, and that continued the next year. Since then we’ve moved up, we won a round in the playoffs this year, and everything’s headed in a positive direction. The group of people we have on the hockey operations side is excellent. We haven’t achieved everything we want to do, there are things we need to address the next couple years. But the first few years have been positive.”
Davidson has been everything ownership hoped he would be when he was brought in to replace Doug Soetaert.
“First, there’s the respect Garry has in the hockey world and as a person,” Gelinas said. “People are very comfortable with working with Garry. There’s respect for the organization, and Garry is leading that.
“Second, he has a consultative approach. He gets the most out of the great people in our organization by getting input from the staff, the coaches and the scouts, and you can see it in the results.
“Third, Garry isn’t afraid to go after the best of the best. He’s not afraid to go after those top players and try to recruit them. It might not have panned out yet in the case of Auston Matthews or Tyson Jost, but he still goes after the very best players, and you can see that in the increase of the quality of the product.”
The five-year extension means Davidson has the time to continue working the plan he implemented when he first arrived.
“For me continuity is important,” Gelinas said. “We have a really good staff with Garry, Zoran (Rajcic, the team’s assistant general manager) and the coaches. That continuity is reality important. The fact Garry still wants to be here is important. Keeping good people around is important. It sets us up well for the next five years.”
Davidson hopes to use those five years to keep the organization moving forward.
“We’d certainly like to continue to be one of the upper-echelon teams on the ice year-in and year-out,” Davidson said. “The first four years the organization had a lot of success, but then it fell off. We’ve climbed our way back into that. We want to continue to be a team that is very competitive on the ice and has a chance of going deep into the playoffs. Championships are something we aspire to as well. We’re going to keep raising the bar higher and higher. Off the ice we want to make sure we’re doing things right from a business standpoint with the fans, our corporate partners and the community of Everett.
“I’m just very positive about it all, and I’m looking forward to continuing to work with the team.”
Auston Matthews update
The fate of superstar prospect Auston Matthews remains undetermined. Matthews, a skilled center from Scottsdale, Ariz., who’s entering his 18-year-old season, was a third-round pick by the Tips in the 2012 bantam draft. He’s currently projected as the first-overall pick in the 2016 NHL draft after a record-setting two-year stint with the U.S. National Team Development Program. He is attempting to make the unprecedented move of playing his NHL draft season professionally in Europe, having signed a contract with Switzwerland-based ZSC Lions, but is having complications obtaining a work permit.
Gelinas made a statement Tuesday to try and answer any questions about whether Matthews is attempting to play in Europe as a way of avoiding Everett.
“I know there’s been a lot of speculation about Auston Matthews,” Gelinas said. “I can tell you that from talking to his agent, he was going to come to Everett until the U-18 (World Championships in April, when Matthews was named MVP) when some pro teams saw him. Auston has no issue playing in Everett. We were the first choice until the pro thing occurred, and we’re still in the mix. A lot of the credit for that goes to Garry Davidson.
“Obviously we’re disappointed, but we respect that he’s looking at all his options, and we’re not giving up hope.”
Check out Nick Patterson’s Silvertips blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/silvertipsblog, and follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.
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