This is not so much an essay as it is a timeline. Everett’s longtime general manager Doug Soetaert was surprisingly dismissed in February. I felt the need to catalog Soetaert’s tenure with the Tips, his replacement by Garry Davidson, and his acrimonious departure from the team.
– 2002: Soetaert is hired as Everett’s first general manager, a full year before the team begins play. He spends the year doing player evaluation as he prepares to build Everett’s initial roster and protected list.
– 2003-04: Soetaert conducts Everett’s first bantam draft, which becomes one of the best in league history as it produces seven quality WHL players, including first-round NHL draft picks in Zach Hamill, Peter Mueller and Leland Irving. He then builds the team’s first roster through the expansion draft and hires a high-profile coach by bringing in former NHL head coach Kevin Constantine. The combination carries Everett to a historic expansion season as the Tips win the U.S. Division and advance to the league finals.
– 2005: After two seasons in charge, Soetaert steps down to become the assistant general manager of the NHL’s Calgary Flames and general manager of Calgary’s AHL affiliate in Omaha, Neb. Constantine, director of business operations Zoran Rajcic and head scout Scott Scoville are promoted, each taking over one aspect of Soetaert’s duties.
– 2006: Following one unsatisfying season in Omaha, Soetaert returns to his position as GM in Everett. Constantine, Rajcic and Scoville essentially return to their previous positions.
– 2006-07: The Tips, with a roster largely assembled by Soetaert, spend much of the season as the top-ranked team in the entire CHL and wins the Scotty Munro Trophy for the WHL’s best record. However, the Tips are upset by Prince George in the second round of the playoffs.
– 2007-11: Everett’s bantam drafts following 2003 produce less spectacular results, and by this point the Tips’ talent level slips. Everett continues to make the playoffs every year, but fails to advance past the first round, and the team suffers its first two losing seasons.
– 2011: Following the 2010-11 season Soetaert declares 2011-12 a rebuilding season, the first time in franchise history rebuilding has ever been uttered publicly. Soetaert says ownership is on board with the rebuild.
– 2011-12: Everett suffers through a miserable first half, winning just six games. The Tips start playing better in the second half, but just as Everett is beginning to turn things around, Soetaert is surprisingly dismissed from his position in early February. Soetaert’s contract is up at the end of the season, and the team decides his contract will not be renewed.
– 2012: Less than two weeks after Soetaert is dismissed, Davidson is hired as his replacement. Davidson spent the previous four years as the director of player personnel for Everett’s U.S. Division rival, the Portland Winterhawks. Tips president Gary Gelinas, brought on board by owner Bill Yuill about a year earlier to manage Yuill’s hockey teams, acknowledges that negotiations to bring in Davidson began before Soetaert was dismissed. Rumors suggest Everett surrendered two second-round bantam draft picks to Portland to secure Davidson’s services. Davidson talks about the need to put greater emphasis on skating and skill in building the roster and protected list.
– 2012: Soetaert files a lawsuit against the Tips claiming the non-payment of wages. The Tips say they will contest Soetaert’s charges.
Next: 2012-13 preview: Overview
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