Mike Grier played over 1000 NHL games in his professional career, but perhaps his most significant achievement has come off the ice.
The NHL, long known for being one of the less diverse professional sports leagues in North America can now say that they have their first black General Manager in league history.
The San Jose Sharks announced Grier’s appointment on Tuesday, as he’ll take over for interim GM Joe Will who held the position since November after former GM Doug Wilson left the team for medical reasons.
The 47 year old amassed 383 points (162G, 221A) over a 14 season NHL career. Originally a 9th round draft pick of the St. Louis Blues Grier had stops in Edmonton, Washington, Buffalo and even San Jose over the course of his playing days. Off the ice he was an assistant coach with the New Jersey Devils between 2018-2020, a scout with the Chicago Blackhawks, and most recently served as a hockey operations advisor with the New York Rangers.
“It’s something I’m extremely proud of,” said Grier about the appointment “I realized there was a responsibility that comes with the territory but I’m up for it how I carry myself and how the organization carries themselves. … For me, my job is to do the best I can for the San Jose Sharks organization, and if I do that, hopefully it opens the door to give other opportunities to other minorities to get in front-office positions and maybe lead a team down the road as well.”
Grier was one of several candidates the Sharks interviewed to take over for Wilson, and though team president Jonathan Becher made note of the historic moment, he also stressed how the former Shark earned the position based on his own merits.
“We hired the best general manager available,” Becher said. “Mike just happens to be Black. The focus was on finding the best candidate for the job. Having said that, it’s great. It’s part of our pioneering spirit, which is get the most out of everybody and expand the sport.”
The timing of the announcement was clearly important to San Jose who currently own the 11th overall selection in Thursday’s Entry Draft in Montreal. Only a few days prior to Grier’s appointment, the team relieved head coach Bob Boughner of his duties, effectively giving the new GM a blank slate to rebuild the team as he sees fit.
San Jose is currently mired in a 3 year playoff drought which is the longest in franchise history. Luckily for the first time GM, he’ll have people very close to him who he can lean on for advice in the early going as his brother Chris is the current GM of the Miami Dolphins, whom his father Bobby also works for as a consultant.
Grier and the Sharks will look to begin to right the ship in the days leading up to the draft, as the team could be headed towards anything from a minor retool, to a complete tear down ahead of the 2022-23 NHL season.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: Leech44. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.