Bob Brown brings to the Kamloops Blazers' front office years of hockey knowledge and a bank manager's mentality.
He hopes combining these two qualities make easier his job as general manager, and help the Western Hockey League team balance its budget.
The Blazers, in the black in the standings since the 1982 - 83 season, have struggled to become a viable operation. The club hired Brown, its former chief Alberta scout, to help alleviate the problem. This calls for a special relationship between general manager and coach, but Brown, for one, believes it is possible.
"It'll be a close relationship, which has developed over the last four years," said the Toronto native, who had a brief stint in professional hockey in the International league with Dayton Gems and Fort Wayne Komets in the mid- 1960s.
"Hitch respects my decision making and input as well as I respect his decision making and input. "We're able to sit down and talk about things. Even though we disagree, we usually come to a mutual agreement."
Brown has another relationship to contend with on the team. He is dad to Blazers' star forward Rob Brown. Brown Sr. doesn't think there will be any problems.
"Basically, he plays for Ken Hitchcock. With his hockey capabilities, that won't be any problem," said Brown, whose family includes two other children, Krista, 16, and Scott, 14.
Brown will look after business administration and marketing, liase with Hitchcock on player moves and other developments, and forge close relationships with the team's 14-member executive as well as the Kamloops Minor Hockey Association.
"I've put in more hours in the business I was in before, and it was meeting people and selling," said Brown, who served as Blazers' Alberta scout the last four seasons. "In this case, it's selling the hockey team. I've met a lot of people in Kamloops. I enjoy it. People have been pretty good supporting the hockey team."
What any GM wants to see is a winning hockey club playing in a sold-out building. The Blazers have done more than their share of winning the last four years, but their fan support has not matched their spectacular numbers in the standings.
Brown says he'll spend some time this season trying to figure out what, if anything, is wrong.
Brown said, "I know the attendance here has averaged 1,950 people, 11^th best in the league. The old sayin' a winning hockey team brings people into a rink' doesn't work in Kamloops. We're the 11^th in the league in attendance and we're the best team. We have to have more off-ice activities," he said. Little things, such as selling all game tickets at the Blazer office make a big difference.

"We want to get a really close relationship with the fans. It gives us the opportunity to meet people instead of being the office across the street."