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*Otrebor13* · 11-23-2019, 07:54 PM

Welcome back once again to “Visiting the Office of…”! It’s been a little while since our last edition of the series, but we’re back!

For today’s episode, I bring the readers a GM who has been very persistent in trying to get himself on the episode. He is a huge fan of the series and I love having GMs on here who enjoy taking part in something different. So for today’s edition of VTOO, we’ve got ourselves none other than the GM of the Edmonton Blizzard: Connor Tanner!

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Most people know you as the GM of the Edmonton Blizzard. However, prior to your SHL gig with Edmonton, you were GMing Montreal in the SMJHL for 7 seasons. How was that experience? To further go in to this question, you have been a GM in this league for a while. Was GMing a team something you wanted to do since you joined the league, or was this something that just came about?

When I joined the league back in season thirty-six I nearly immediately took the position as a Co-General Manager of the Montreal Militia, it was actually only nine days after joining the site that I accepted the position.

AS SEEN HERE

It was a pretty hotly debated hiring, a lot of people were very cynical of the decision and initially I did not really understand why, I felt as though I showed as much as I could in those nine days but looking back on it now I would likely be one of those cynical people asking why such a new member got a position as prestigious as manager of a team.

It is actually pretty enjoyable to look back on my hiring and seeing what people had to say and the comparisons made, and I have actually received apologies from certain people who were negative about the hiring fairly recently. I think I have proved myself to be a fairly competent manager over the seasons, and hopefully one day I can be inducted into the Hall of Fame as a manager whether that be the sitewide Hall of Fame or even just the Edmonton Blizzard one.

A protest taking place when Connor Tanner was introduced as the Montreal Militia Co-GM

As we know, most people start off with a GM position in the SMJHL and then transition to a role in the SHL. In your opinion, what do you think was the biggest change/adjustment you had to make when going from SMJHL GM to SHL GM?

If you were around me during my tenure as a manager in Montreal, you would know my least favourite part about being a manager in juniors is that I absolutely despised the amount of turn-over a roster faces over the course of a career. Thankfully for me, the biggest adjustment I got to make was gaining the ability to build a roster over the course of multiple seasons and seeing those players develop into perennial superstars, and I never got to see that in Montreal. Every time they reached the theoretical pinnacle of their juniors career it was time for them to get called up to the SHL.

The second biggest change would be that as an SHL manager, I do not need to focus as much on the development of the individual player. By the time they reach me in their first off-season they have an entire season of updating under their belt and I get to focus on the competitive aspect of the league, which I never really got to do as a manager in juniors as my focus was solely on developing these young first-generation players into SHL players who are comfortable with the site and the entirety of its processes.

Edmonton has a lot of history in the SHL. There is both a long list of Hall of Fame players who have worn the Edmonton colors, as well as a long list of GMs who have taken the reigns and tried to lead this team to glory. Did you feel pressured taking on the role of Edmonton GM knowing all the history behind the team and the success the franchise has had since the SHL's inception?

I was part of the management in Edmonton from basically the time I was traded there due to the fact that they could use my insight as a juniors manager to better scout players come draft time, so a lot of the pressure was alleviated due to the fact that I had been doing it a long time, and had a great team of scouts and other management pieces surrounding me such as @karlssens, @"cpetrella", @caltroit_red_flames, @Leafs4ever, @ErM and more recently @Julio Tokolosh and my amazing Co-General Manager @"tommysalami".

I knew I had the ability to create a strong team, and the foundation left for me by @Ace and Karl was one of the best and most loyal in the entire league. It was never a matter of if we were going to when a cup in my mind, but when and how many and so far it is two.

The Edmonton Blizzard celebrating on route to a Challenge Cup victory

Perhaps one of your greatest accomplishments is being the GM of the best team in SHL history, and by best team I mean the best regular season record. The Season 45 Edmonton Blizzard finished the season an unbelievable 41-6-3. To top off a record setting regular season, you also went on to win a Challenge Cup that season. What do you think lead to such a successful season?

A strong coaches circle of the management I listed earlier coupled with @JKortesi81 who worked tirelessly on lines to ensure the best team was always on the ice at any given time.

When it comes to the SHL when it really comes down to it you can put your best team on the ice, but you still need a little bit of puck luck to bounce your way. I would be INCREDIBLY surprised if that season ever got surpassed. The sheer talent on that roster was incredible, we were working with players who could have been on the first line of a lot of teams on our third line.

Our defensemen were deep as ever, our goalie had just peaked in the scope of his career as he went on to win an MVP and set league records in a lot of goalie categories.

We've also seen lots of historic teams in professional sports absolutely crush the regular season, but fall completely short in the playoffs. What do you think was different for you guys and made it possible for you to top off that season with a Challenge Cup?

I think we knew we were the best on paper and on the ice and ultimately believed that it was our cup to lose and that it was just a matter of time until it came home to Edmonton, if we could win with that roster I would have needed to be fired, but like I said even if we were the best team against the worst team in the league at the time we still need the puck luck on our side and in a series of only seven games it is really easy to underestimate an opponent and let up. Our guys had killer mentalities and they went out and took what was theirs though.

You're one of the lucky GMs to have won more than one Challenge Cup in their time as a SHL GM. I'd like to pick your brain a little and ask which of your Challenge Cup victories was your favorite and why?

Easily the season forty-nine cup. We were underdogs the entire way, only qualifying for the playoffs as a wild card team. We had a true team mentality and we supported each other through wins and losses through those playoffs. I do not want anyone to think that I did not love that season forty-five cup, but the season forty-nine cup was a different animal completely, a true team win that was well deserved by what felt like family.

Tanner raising the Challenge Cup in Season 49

You've had a very successful career as a GM. On top of the 2 Challenge Cups you've won, you've also been named coach of the year twice, as well as winning GM of the year once. Those are some pretty impressive accolades to your name. However, with the lack of individual awards won, will you be hoping for a different outcome with your new recreate Conor Tanner? Will you be looking to get some individual hardware in your trophy case?

It was really hard as a defenseman until quite recently to win any hardware, they do not really ever score enough point to be in MVP talks, and until the last three or four seasons there was only one award to win compared to what felt like three or four for forwards. Especially with how deep Edmonton was the entirety of Connor's career, there was always multiple superstars on Edmonton so no one really ever had the opportunity to turn in a one-man show performance.

To answer your question though, I just want to enjoy playing again. Whether or not Conor wins any awards as a centre will not bother me at all so long as Edmonton as a whole succeeds.

Ask Allen Iverson if he would trade any of his individual hardware for a ring, I'm thankful to have three already.

To end off the interview, I'd like to get perhaps a little controversial and interesting. If your team the Edmonton Blizzard was not in the playoffs any given season, and you had to choose one team to cheer for to win the Challenge Cup, who would it be? Maybe you have some connections with other teams that makes this question a little less tricky, but I'd love to hear the answer to this anyways.

I would love to see the San Francisco Pride win a Challenge Cup, @Grapehead is a great guy who I have connections to as he was my first ever manager, even if he left almost immediately for San Francisco upon me joining the team, but it was also that departure that allowed me to take an opening as Co-General Manager in Montreal.

One of my greatest friends @Beaver is also still slugging it out on the Pride and I would love to see him win a cup, I was really disappointed when Connor and Jack did not eventually team up on one team before I retired.

So without a doubt if I had to choose a team to win a cup that was not Edmonton, it would be the San Francisco Pride.

And with that we wrap up our 5th edition of VTOO. I would like to say, on behalf of VTOO and our readers, thank you to @Keygan for taking the time to sit with us and give us a great interview. Along with all of his accomplishments in the SHL, he has finally made the lineup as a GM interviewed for VTOO, so he can go ahead and hang them up right now, there’s nothing left to accomplish.

Once again, to the readers who keep coming back and who enjoy the content we put out for you, thank you very much. We will try to get you a sixth edition for all you loyal readers out there!

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Previous Editions:
Visiting the Office of... Erik Chisling!
Visiting the Office of… Joe Kortesi!
Visiting the Office of… Niclas Wastlund!
Visiting the Office of... Luke Thomason!

Word Count: Approximately 2000
*Grader Note: Please split the payout for this article 75% for myself and 25% for Keygan.