Give Mark Messier a Front Office Job. Please.

In an interview that aired last night on Bloomberg Television, NHL great Mark Messier said that he’s ready to move into a front office position with an NHL franchise:↵↵⇥“I want to get back in the game,” the 47-year-old said in an interview that aired last night on Bloomberg Television’s ‘Night Talk’ program. “I relish the opportunity to be part of a team in a different aspect than a player.”↵⇥
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↵⇥While he hasn’t ruled out coaching, he’d prefer to “set the agenda and create the atmosphere it takes to be a champion” in the front office of a hockey franchise.↵↵To any and all NHL franchises, hear my plea: Somebody, anybody, please give Messier a front office job. It’s the least you could do to prevent him from resurfacing as a broadcaster with Versus or any other cable or broadcast outlet that carries that NHL.↵↵Don’t understand what I mean? Well, if you watched Versus during the playoffs last year when Messier worked as a between periods analyst, you’d understand all too well. Some of the terms that come to mind when considering his performance in the booth include “perplexing”, “no value-add” and in these uncertain economic times brought on the sub-prime mortgage crisis, “negative hockey equity”. Indeed, there were more than a few times last season when listening to Messier left me and millions of others, “upside-down” in hockey knowledge.↵

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↵Now that’s the kind of incisive analysis I’m sure plenty of teams are looking for. Here’s hoping he finds a home in Toronto.↵