May 08, 2008 - 02:40 PM

By Brian McNair

OSHAWA -- The other shoe dropped Wednesday, spelling the end to the Brad Selwood era in Oshawa.

Four days after the departure of most of his scouting staff, Selwood was relieved of his duties as general manager and vice president of the Oshawa Generals.

The deed was done by co-owner John Davies during an annual post-season meeting between he and Selwood, the man he hired to run the hockey operations shortly after purchasing the team from John Humphreys in 2004.

Davies was to meet with Selwood Wednesday morning, but postponed it until the afternoon because it was such a difficult task to perform, he says. The two have had a long-standing relationship, dating back to their days together with the Tier 2 junior team in Newmarket.

"It was, certainly in my business life, one of the worst days I've had," Davies says. "I was ready to meet at 11 o'clock and found it necessary to sit for a couple of hours and compose myself. It was certainly nothing I looked forward to."

It was, however, something he felt he needed to do.

In conjunction with his partner Rocco Tullio, who purchased half his shares last September, Davies has decided there needs to be new blood in the organization to take it to the next level.

"I think Brad was the ideal guy when I came into the league and I think he put together a game plan that served us well," he says. "And yet to get from where we are now as an organization to the next level, to be among the elite teams in the league on a perennial basis, I felt we needed to make changes in that position."

Selwood was understandably disappointed when reached by phone shortly after the meeting, but left on good terms with Davies.

"I have nothing other than great memories and I thank John for the opportunity," says Selwood, who will be paid the remaining two years of his contract. "I think we put a pretty good organization together there. It's part of the hockey business. I have no axes to grind with anybody."

Selwood stripped the team to the bone in his first season, when the Generals finished dead last in the Ontario Hockey League with a 15-48-3-2 record. Landing phenom John Tavares with the first overall pick the next season, he then built it to the point they were expected to contend for a Memorial Cup this season.

However, after a 38-17-6-7 season and two playoff round wins, the Generals were outclassed by the Belleville Bulls in the Eastern Conference final. Ironically, the Bulls are led by George Burnett, Selwood's predecessor.

"It was not what we considered a disastrous outcome, however, it wasn't where we expected to be this year," says Davies. "And you can't look at this year in isolation and say it was a good year. You have to look at it in the context that the pain our fans and the organization went through early on to build a contender, with this year in mind. It's a huge disappointment."

Chris DePiero, who was hired as an assistant GM and associate coach under Selwood two years ago, will take over as interim GM until a new one is found, according to a team press release.

DePiero did not return phone calls as of 5 p.m. Thursday.

Davies says he has two candidates currently in the league in mind, but will expand the list considerably if they are not available. He expects to have the new person in place by the start of next season.

DePiero, who took over the head coaching duties from Selwood late in the regular season, will remain the team's head coach, he adds.

"Chris DePiero will be our head coach next year. He comes with the territory," Davies says. "I can't imagine there's any general manager who knows anything about hockey that wouldn't want to have Chris DePiero as their head coach."

The team has undergone significant changes since Tullio came onboard, including the firing of president Trish Campbell, the late-season coaching change, the departure of the scouting staff and goalie coach, and now the dismissal of Selwood.

Although he says there may have been some differences in opinion as to why Selwood needed to go, Davies says he and Tullio agreed it needed to happen.

"Rocco and I have had a couple of lengthy meetings talking about the season in review and what we need to do to take the organization to the next level and obviously Brad's position and performance was a matter of considerable discussion and we were of like minds that a change was required," he says.

"The organization has come a long way in four years and we're going to continue to find a way to get better, a perennial championship contending team."

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