MESSY SITUATION WITH NAHL MINNESOTA MALLARDS

The stories coming out of Minnesota regarding the North American Hockey League's Mallards are startling. It's as if the ownership group is giving a master-class on how to throw away a million dollars over the course of a single season.

The disastrous soap opera of a season gets worse every week. It's at a point now where almost anything we hear about the Mallards is no longer a surprise. With two of the owner's children on the roster, it's clear the league needs to put an end to parent/owners.

The following are the key reasons potential players and coaches need to steer away from this amazingly dysfunctional situation.

All information comes from sources very close to the team.

-Staff never gets the paycheck on time and somehow team can’t figure out direct deposit.

-Staff working without a contract even though all asked from day one for a signed document.

- Ownership hands coach the lineup even though he never even played or coached youth hockey.

- Owner expects staff to be “in the office” 8-5 every day but coaches don’t have an office and work in the lobby of the rink.

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- Wants staff to sell advertising even though every space has already been sold by youth hockey. Dasher boards, in ice logos, all sold already.

- Staff are left wondering on the 1st and 15th of each month wondering if they are going to get paid.

- Having to listen to the owner speak to the team on the road after a loss about how successful he is…for 1.25 hours.

- Ownership thinks businesses in Minneapolis/St Paul should advertise in Forest Lake (cite point above) because of “all the wonderful things they are doing in Forest Lake” and its 20 miles away.

- Only two of the team staff that are non family in the entire organization.

- Does not understand why employees (two by the way) can’t wait 2–5 days after their scheduled payday to actually get paid.

-Players on the team knowing the stick supply is dwindling to less then 10 sticks before Xmas.

-The owner says coaches need to “move the needle” and believes the Mallards “Pass the smell test” when people go on the website “he designed”.

-Owner giving the players “Xmas gifts” which is unsold memorabilia and nothing for the staff.

-When the head coach quits and the assistant takes the Interim head coaching role, instead of hiring a qualified coach, owner offers up his daughter who has never coached anything.

-When players, staff, etc want to get traded or actually do resign, you ask a dad to coach the team (because nobody else in your organization) for the upcoming roundtrip.

Here's the serious question, is the league accepting this organization's operational standards as NAHL level? When will NAHL actually care about the players and not the money?

For the players sake, let's hope a qualified owner can step in and quickly rectify this situation on behalf of the league. There needs to be an immediate change of ownership to go along with a rock solid plan for next season.

MESSY SITUATION WITH NAHL MINNESOTA MALLARDS What is the record for most head coaches in single season for one team?

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