A numbers game: cases for and against Raiders’ Campese

While he was playing in the NHL back in 2006, then-Dallas Stars goaltender Marty Turco likened hockey statistics to bikinis in that, “they show a lot, but not everything.”

For years, fans have been crying out for the end of Bruno Campese’s reign as general manager of the Prince Albert Raiders for exactly that, his numbers.

In the seven years Campese has been with the team, the Raiders have won only two total playoff games in three appearances.

Although the Raiders made the playoffs in each of the last two seasons, they were swept both times: to the Edmonton Oil Kings Saturday-Wednesday, and the Red Deer Rebels last year.

The most they have done is forced a Game 6 in the first round of the 2010-2011 playoffs against the Saskatoon Blades.

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Campese was hired on as the head coach in 2007-2008, then also took over the general manager roll after Donn Clark was fired midway through that season.

Campese’s winning percentage, as a general manager, is .471 since the 2008-2009 season, his first full year as the GM. In the 26 years previous to Campese took over as the general manager, the Raiders had a .518 winning percentage.

Here’s how Campese’s Raiders shape up against the rest of the league, dating back to his first full year as general manager in 2008.

Those numbers aren’t pretty at all, but they don’t tell the whole story.

They don't show is that in 2007, Campese inherited a struggling team with a bare cupboard of prospects, a recipe for disaster in major junior hockey. Donn Clark, Campese’s GM predecessor, completely missed on the 2007 draft,  which put Campese and the Raiders in a deep hole for the 2011-2012 season. They finished dead last that year as Campese attempted to add players from the 2007 draft class (who would have been 19 years old that season), without sacrificing the future.

Although Campese has always refused to use his predecessors as an excuse, restocking the shelves understandably took some time and patience. Sitting and waiting through years of rebuild is tough to ask of any fan base, but that was the only course the team could take.

Delivering the Deutschland Dangler

What the numbers also fail to tell you is Campese took a calculated gamble and drafted Leon Draisaitl second overall in the 2012 CHL Import Draft, amongst criticism that such a highly touted, can’t miss prospect like the King of Leon wouldn’t report to one of the smallest markets in the CHL.

But Campese drafted him anyways and then flew halfway across the world to Draisaitl’s native Germany, to convince him in person that Prince Albert would be a great place to develop. Not only was this big for the Raiders in the last two seasons to have a player of his skill (105 points this season as an 18-year-old, nominated for WHL Rookie of the Year last year), but this could pave the way for the Raiders to pick other top European and North American prospects.

Sneaky salesman

Campese has been very crafty and efficient in trades. 

Dakota Conroy, who scored 30 goals this season, cost Campese just a seventh round draft choice when he acquired him at the beginning of last year.

Davis Vandane, a great, two-way rental defenceman, was acquired for an eighth round pick at the deadline last year. The Brandon Herrod trade gave the Raiders Logan McVeigh, who later turned into Jayden Hart, and a second round pick, which later turned into Matteo Gennaro. Gennaro is now part of a very stacked 1997-born class, perhaps the strongest in the league among Nick McBride, Brendan Guhle and the newly acquired Brennan Riddle.

Sure, there are some trades that have backfired. The Eric Williams, Todd Fiddler trade to Spokane for Anthony Bardaro and Luke Lee-Knight didn’t exactly go as planned. Teal Burns only lasted six games from the Vancouver Giants deal, (but Austin Connor didn’t even report to the Giants).

“The trade” isn’t a fan favourite, but we’ll agree to disagree on that (side note on that trade, the Medicine Hat Tigers later dealt Logan McVeigh to the Regina Pats. Dylan Busenius helped land Collin Valcourt, making that even more in PA’s favour).

Big business Bruno

Campese has even helped the Raiders financially. In his first year in 2007, the Raiders averaged just 2,119 fans per game, the fourth lowest recorded average attendance in team history since 1998-1999. The Raiders have averaged at least over 2,400 in the past three years, including breaking a team record in 2012-2013 with 2,674 fans per game.

Of course, Campese is only a part of that. The Raiders organization as a whole have marketed the team extremely well, especially all the work business manager Bruce Vance has accomplished. The fans have responded, and come in droves to help keep the franchise in Prince Albert.

But fans won’t show up unless they want to watch the team, that’s where Campese comes in. His teams have always played an exciting brand of hockey.

The bottom line

Campese has done a lot of good things with his hockey team.

After interviewing him for the past three seasons, I can safely say that nobody wants the Raiders to succeed more than Campese—even more than you, Mr. Diehard fan, who’s been watching the Raiders before the Communiplex had actual seats.

He wears his heart on his sleeve, he willingly absorbs the blame and publicly apologizes when the team doesn’t succeed or reach expectations. Campese is 24-7 Raiders and I’ll always respect him for that.

But in this harsh game, desire, passion and work ethic sometimes aren’t enough to produce wins.

The board has a really tough decision this offseason. Do they honour the year left on the contracts of Campese and his coaching staff? Another coaching change? Clean house?

So far, the board has been appropriately patient with Campese to rebuild the team and he certainly has.

But the back-to-back sweeps in the first round of the playoffs don’t help his cause—even with all the adversity the team has gone through. And if Leon Draisaitl and Josh Morrissey don’t return next year, it would make things a lot more difficult for the team.

It’s a results-based business—more wins mean more fans and more money. Being one of seven teams with a sub-.500 record in the last seven years means the team could be doing better in both the wins and money front.

But judging Campese solely on his numbers would be a mistake.

They show a lot, but they don’t show everything.

jdandrea@panow.com

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea