“The only person I ever brought with me was my brother. And if you can’t trust your brother, who can you trust? Plus he had the experience and knew the minor leagues.”
That’s what Phil Esposito had to say about his decision to work with his brother in building the Tampa Bay Lightning franchise. On Tuesday Tony Esposito, the hall of fame goaltender, passed away after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer.
Tony “O” was right beside his brother from the beginning of the organization, going to bars and town halls to promote the team and garner support for hockey in Tampa. Once they were awarded the franchise, he officially joined the organization as the director of player development and head of minor league operations. Esposito helped build a scouting team that drafted the likes of Roman Hamrlik, Chris Gratton, Daymond Langkow, Vincent Lecavalier, and Brad Richards. He was also instrumental in bringing Daren Puppa to the Bolts as well.
While Phil was the frontman of the organization, Tony was the more detailed oriented of the two, working behind the scenes to build the team. Or, as he put it in an interview with nhl.com:
“I was a detail guy,” Tony says, “but we had to have promotion. We realized this; we had to split it up somehow so Phil could sell tickets and I could run the team. You couldn’t do both jobs.”
After building the team into a playoff contender in the 1995-96 season, injuries and payroll concerns kept the Esposito’s from continuing the success. Like his brother Phil, Tony was relieved of his duties as assistant general manager just two games into the 1988-99 season when owner Art Williams sacked the brothers and granted general manager duties to head coach Jaques Demers.
— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) August 11, 2021
Lightning/NHL News
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The Athletic has dropped their third annual “best contracts in the NHL” post. Nikita Kucherov hit the honorable mention category, but no other Lightning member made the list (which was very forward heavy). That’s ok. [The Athletic – subscription required]
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