Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Professor Duhaime
Management paper
10/23/2016
An NHL team consist of a wide range of managers and those being managed. With
an NHL team the levels of management vary throughout and the levels of control they have
throughout the whole organization change depend on how high up you are in the rankings.
The difference in the way an NHL team and a business are managed is not to prominent. A
text book way an NHL team is run is the way the Boston Bruins organization is manages
their team. They have a wide variety of levels of management through the organization and
the off-ice operations are ran and managed just like a company. There is much more than
An NHL hockey organization or team are very similar to the way a standard
business is run. They are run primarily in the organizational structure, the divisional
structure used to run businesses with multiple branches. For example, a business managed
in the divisional structure is managed in different divisions. Similar to this structure, the
Boston Bruins are organized in specific division for the different tasks throughout the
organization. These divisions are Hockey Operations, Scouting Staff, Coaching Staff,
Training and Equipment Staff, and Business operations. These divisions sit below the
Owner and Executive division. The Boston Bruins use the same structure as most NHL
hockey organizations.
Starting with the top of the pyramid for the Boston Bruins, there is the owner. For
every business there ever has been there is some form of owner. All businesses are either
organizations, that are usually partnerships, the Boston Bruins are a sole proprietorship.
The only owner of the Boston Bruins is Jeremy Jacobs. Jeremy Jacobs is on his 42nd season
of being the owner of the Boston Bruins. Besides the title of owner, he hold the positon of
team Governor to the NHL board of Governors. In 2007 he was voted the Chairman of the
board of Governors for the NHL. Even though Jeromy Jacobs is the owner, there is a group
of executives who make the major decisions for the organization. The other executives are
Charlie Jacobs who is a chief executive officer, Cam Nelly who is the President, and Harry
Sinden who is the Senior advisor to the owner. These executives create the top division of
the divisional structure that the Boston Bruins follow for an organizational structure.
One of the several divisions of the divisional structure the Boston Bruins follow is
Hockey operations. Hockey operations consist of many jobs but is oversaw by one person.
This one person is the GM or general manager. The General Manager for the Boston
Bruins is Don Sweeney. Don Sweeney overseas all hockey operations in the Boston Bruins
organization. He has held this positon for just over a year now. He played in the NHL for
16 years and 15 of them were for the Boston Bruins, making him one of four players to
play over 1,000 games as a Boston Bruin. In the hockey operations division, it is not only
him as an executive. The other executives are, Scott Bradley who is the assistant general
manager, John Ferguson who is the executive director of player personal, Jamie
Langenbrunner who is the player development coordinator, Evan Gold who is the director
of Legal affairs for hockey operations, Ryan Nadeau who is the director of hockey
Hamilton-Powers who is the director of administration, and Whitney Delorey who is the in
charge of the team travel and services coordinator. Hockey operations takes up the largest
part of a hockey team including the Boston Bruins. Everyone just listed has a job that if it
was not done then it would be detrimental to the organization. These managers must
manager their employees to create a good and working hockey organization. These are the
managers the reason why the hockey organization can exist. This division breaks down
into more divisions showing a perfect concept of the divisional structure of a type of
organizational structure.
On the other side of the divisional structure of the Boston Bruins is Business
operation. Business operations is in charge on the business side of the organization. That
means they oversee the financial aspect of the organization. This division is overseen by
Glen Thornborough who is the Chief Revenue Officer. This is his first year at this position.
He manages all sales processes and strategies for the Boston Bruins. The other managers in
this division are Jim Bednarek who is the vice president of finance, Mathew Chmura who
is the vice president of marketing and communications, Shauna Gilhooly who is the vice
president of human resources, and Chris Johnson who is the vice president of corporate
partnerships. These individuals are considered vice presidents since Glen Thornborough is
considered the president of those divisions even though it is not included in his job title.
These managers are also very important to the operation of the organization. With these
managers, the organization could not have control of its financials properly. This division
having multiple divisions within explains even more how the Boston Bruins have a
The Third and Final main division of the divisional structure by the Boston Bruins
affect the team more than any other division of the organizational structure. This division is
the coaching staff. This division is overseen by the head coach. The head coach of the
Boston Bruins is Claude Julien. Claude Julien is in his 10th season as the Boston Bruins
head coach and that is the longest out of any existing coaches. He also has the most playoff
wins out of all Boston Bruins coaches. Other managers within this division are Bruce
Cassidy and Jay Pandolfo who are both assistant coaches, Bob Essena who is the
goaltending coach, Kenneth Pitts and Mike Macchioni are both sports performance
coaches, and J.P. Buckley is the video coordinator. These managers work directly with the
team. These managers influence the productivity of the team and how well they play.
Without these managers being productive, the rest of the organization would struggle from
the lack of a skilled team. This goes to show that the Boston Bruins use the division
As you can see, an NHL team is setup just like a normal business. The Boston
Bruins are technically a sole proprietorship since their only owner is Jeremy Jacobs. Even
though the Boston Bruins are only to be considered a sole proprietorship in the business
world, the divisional structure they use evenly distributes the work throughout the
company. Using this method of organizational structure has many levels of management
throughout the organization but each manager has a large responsibility, and if one
manager fail it could take down the organization. A business is dependent on how their
employees produce just like an NHL hockey team is within the organization and the actual
team. The Boston Bruins are a perfect example on how an NHL hockey organization and a
Professor Duhaime
Closing Thoughts
10/24/2016
Throughout this paper I fell that I learned a lot. This paper was a great topic for out
class to do. By doing this paper I feel that it helped recognized the real-world usage of
management. Each company has a specific way of management and this paper helped me
understand how an NHL team is managed, especially the Boston Bruins. Before writing the
paper, I thought that an NHL team did not have as many divisions to the organization that
is has. I saw it as there was a Owner, President, GM, then the coaches and players with a
few people working for the Owner, President, and GM. I didnt realize how organized and
Writing this paper, I have felt confident in my work throughout. I feel that the
examples of the many workers in each division may have been lengthy but to me that was
the best and easiest way to describe what each division of the organization does. Without
listening the specific managers and their positions I feel that the paper wouldve been
much harder to follow and feel much less personal if they were not included. Writing this
paper made me realize the endless amount of work that is put into the running of an NHL
"Executive & Hockey Operations." NHL.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2016.
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Hockey Source, Your Resource for Minor Hockey. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2016.
<http://www.thehockeysource.tv/sectionsourceknowledge/management.php>.
Ozania, Mike. "The NHL's Most Valuable Teams." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, n.d.
valuable-teams-2/#672e53b23920>.
league Sports Team Owners?" National Post Father Raymond J De Souza What Is the Role
<http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/father-raymond-j-de-souza-what-is-the-role-
of-major-league-sports-team-owners>.