It was Gillis' fault that it took time for ownership to purchase an AHL franchise? IIRC Chicago was the only 'free agent' AHL franchise at the time, so to speak. Didn't every other AHL team already had preexisting affiliation agreements with NHL franchises?RoyalDude wrote:It's what yer good buddy the players agent and his NTC's did after Manitoba, the Chicago era was god awful from the prospects, developing etc. Dropped the ball BiG time!herb wrote:So now it was Gillis' fault that Winnipeg got the Jets back and disbanded the Moose?RoyalDude wrote:Mike Gillis and the greatest era of Canuck drafting and development and the total deconstruction of our minor league affiliate.
Mikey must be a hero in Manitoba!
LOL
The Current Predicament
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Re: The Current Predicament
Re: The Current Predicament
Well to be fair it wasn't completely MG's fault. The move to Chicago was forced.RoyalDude wrote: It's what yer good buddy the players agent and his NTC's did after Manitoba, the Chicago era was god awful from the prospects, developing etc. Dropped the ball BiG time!
The Wolves were never owned or operated by the Canucks organization, which is why the acquisition and move to Utica was huge as far as a developmental standpoint. They had no concern about developing our prospects or maintaining a consistent game plan from the minor league affiliate to the parent club.
They wanted to win and worry about their own bottom line!
Having control of your own AHL club will pay off big time. And IIRC MG did play a role in securing the Comets franchise.
Re: The Current Predicament
Unfortunately, when the Moose folded in 2011 there were a couple of seasons there where we were stuck with Chicago as an affiliate. There were few (no?) other options as I recall. It took a couple of seasons before the Comets were purchased.
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the toucan kid
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Re: The Current Predicament
Yeah hard to knock the Hodgson pick. At the time it was seen as a home run... the Bourdon thing was a terrible blow. Otherwise though...Hindsight is a euphemism for having your head up your ass.
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/team ... 08756.html go back to 2005 and start scrolling up. Sweet merciful crap. And there absolutely were some weird picks along the way that blew up in the now (thankfully) departed faces of Gillis and Nonis.
Anyone have some time to run a study about percentage of picks that play NHL games over the last ten years? I wonder if it's as bad as it looks. I also haven't been following closely enough to get a sense of the scouting turnover during that time, but we have switched front offices and AHL affiliates along the way so it's not for lack of mixing it up. Bad luck/bad hires I guess. Hopefully we're on the uptick, I feel okay about the last two drafts, and I don't mind the "predicament" or gradual transition that Benning seems to be taking us through.