Re: Vancouver's Hockey "Media" (or "Idiots" as Torts calls them)

[Mickey107]

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Courtesy Reddit; I hate stealing stuff but this is just plain funny;

Canucks eventually celebrate 100th Anniversary Season honouring the 6 cups that this core won together from 2022-2030.
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[Mickey107]

And the Canucks come right back with their own...

https://twitter.com/Canucks/status/1151234123396026369

click on the things. The detail is like almost gross...

[Mickey107]

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Patrick Johnston: The NHL-CHL agreement doesn't help development of Canadian juniors one bit

That is not exactly what he says in his article today but he brings up some interesting points>>>>>>>>>>eventually

https://theprovince.com/sports/hockey/n ... to-the-sun

Mike Gillis makes a brief appearance, audio only...

My thoughts are: "It could be tweaked". For example; 3 full yrs. put in?
He goes on about the markets and how they need the best players to keep the CHL franchises alive.
My thoughts are that; just like NHL teams, new young players are interesting an exciting.

[Cousin Strawberry]

Ahhh memories.

Thoughts Dude?

Mike Gillis: the Vancouver Canucks' best general manager ever
BY JESSE FERRERAS
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: MAY 8, 2012



Mike Gillis will be general manager of the Vancouver Canucks for the foreseeable future.

For the Canucks, that’s a great thing, because he’s probably the best GM that the team has ever had.

For a guy who only started in 2008, that might seem like effusive praise, but the results in this case belie the acclaim.




In 2008, the Canucks were in the dumps. One season after a first-round playoff exit, they missed the playoffs despite having a developing forward corps and, at the time, one of the NHL’s best goaltenders in Roberto Luongo.

Swiftly gone after the season was general manager Dave Nonis, the assistant to longtime former GM Brian Burke. Together they had overseen a period of erratic success for the Canucks, never advancing beyond the second round.

In came Gillis, then a player agent for former Canucks Pavel Bure and Markus Naslund. He was appointed quickly in a move that was a surprise to all longtime watchers of the team.




Gillis set right to work making his mark on the club. He did away with Nonis’s strategy of developing a defence-first system and opted for more two-way play. He made a splash at the start of free agency, throwing Mats Sundin a two-year, $20 million offer as the Big Swede was pursued aggressively by other teams including the New York Rangers and the Montreal Canadiens.

While it seemed an expensive move, Sundin agreed to a pro-rated $8.6 million partway through the season, and he assisted immensely in helping develop members of the Canucks’ forward system. He played on the second line with Pavol Demitra and Ryan Kesler, and assisted heavily in elevating the latter’s play. The result of Sundin working with Kesler has been that the pesky forward has gone from solid third-line centre to one of the league’s best two-way forwards, winning the 2011 Selke Trophy as the NHL’s best defensive forward.

Also of note in Gillis’s tenure have been his moves at the trade deadline. He has never subscribed to the idea of “rental players,” when you fork out players and prospects for an elite star nearing the end of his contract, who can help carry your team through the playoffs.



Instead, at the 2011 deadline, Gillis acquired Chris Higgins and Maxim Lapierre, players who have since been signed to contracts and become key second- and third-line players for the organization.

Then in 2012, Gillis made a bolder move at the deadline. He traded blue-chip prospect Cody Hodgson and defenceman Alexander Sulzer for Buffalo’s Zack Kassian, a prospect and power forward, along with offensive defenceman Marc-Andre Gragnani. It was a shocking move, to be sure, but a forward-looking one that put some bona fide sandpaper on the roster, as well as some youth that could serve the Canucks well in the years to come.

(How Gillis handled the Hodgson situation is still a matter of some debate, but when Hodgson was the price of acquiring Steve Ott from the Dallas Stars, it’s hard to argue with the return he got.)



Outside his acquisitions, Gillis has gone to great lengths to take care of his players and ensure they’re in top health. He monitors players to ensure they’re getting enough sleep and prescribes them with strict nutritional programs through team trainers.

Gillis’s record hasn’t been perfect. His acquisition of defenceman Keith Ballard has not paid off after two seasons and the GM’s trade activity has put the team out three straight first-round picks. As Ed Willes notes, the only player drafted, developed and contributing to the big club is college signing Chris Tanev.

Likewise, the Canucks have still not brought home a Stanley Cup. Certainly they made it as far as a team can go without winning one, but you could argue they really weren’t that close there, either.



But the team’s record under Gillis speaks volumes nonetheless. The Canucks have been a consistently successful team, winning two President’s Trophies for the two best seasons the club has ever seen. Two President’s Trophies are certainly better than missing the playoffs just a year after making them.

The coming years will perhaps be the true determinant of Gillis’s abilities as the Canucks GM. They will begin with whatever he decides to do with Luongo. What he gets in return will be a true testament to his ability at making trades.

Likewise his decision over coach Alain Vigneault’s future. Gillis and Vigneault have worked together to build a successful franchise, presiding over it through two of its best years ever.



Vigneault has one more year on his contract. He’s likely to serve it out. If the teams makes no progress next year, he’s likely out as part of a rebuilding process.

So if he isn’t the best general manager already, perhaps the years to come will be the ultimate determinant of Mike Gillis’s success with the Vancouver Canucks. The two best years in the club’s history makes him the best general manager right now, but how he sustains this club in future will provide the ultimate verdict on how good he is.

[Cousin Strawberry]

Stirring up the dude like asstraffic on dial up

[Chef Boi RD]

I have zero interest in reading that garbage

[Mickey107]

..What about this garbage.

Luke Fox
@lukefoxjukebox
July 19, 2019, 10:07 PM

TORONTO – Mike Gillis wants back in the National Hockey League, just not as a GM.

After being fired from the Vancouver Canucks in 2014, Gillis embarked on a five-year, globetrotting sabbatical, a personal mission intended to expand and deepen his thinking of the game.

The former player, coach, agent, executive and lifelong student of the game invested time studying how various sports teams and leagues outside of the NHL built, operated and created winning cultures.

Now Gillis is keen to lend his knowledge, vision and anti-groupthink point of view to a NHL franchise — yet the 2011 GM of the Year and builder of two Presidents’ Trophy winners maintains he’s not after one of the coveted 32 GM roles.

"I don’t think my role any longer is to be the GM of an NHL team," Gillis said Friday at the TeamSnap Hockey Coaches Conference in Toronto. "That one person, over time, gets worn out and starts to make poor decisions.

"I think the jobs are now far more difficult than they were five years ago, 10 years ago in particular, and 20 years ago it’s not even close."

“Experience, mentorship, opportunity. That's where leadership comes from. Leadership comes from the way you run your life. And it comes from understanding that everything is part of a process.”

Gillis denied a late-April report that he and Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini, the man who fired him, explored the possibility of a reunion in the wake of president Trevor Linden’s departure.

I did pla

"Not from my perspective. I think there’s some people in Vancouver, fans maybe, promoting that, but from my perspective, I’ve never thought about that," Gillis said. Adding that there was tremendous pressure from local hockey forums.

A general manager, Gillis believes, must devote his full-time efforts to keeping ownership happy, communicating with his head coach, overseeing player personnel, and making staffing decisions.

Gillis is inspired by the bigger picture: challenging the dimensions of the NHL rink and the time of day teams practice, suggesting a complete overhaul of traditional scouting processes, and imagining a future where a team dresses five forwards and a goalie (seriously).

"As a general manager of a team, you’re really myopic. You’re really focused on your team performance, on your individual player performance, on your coaching performance. I like that part of the job, but right now I’m more interested in how you build an organization, how you see results, how you measure results," said Gillis, who spoke to Sportsnet after delivering a wide-ranging hour-plus-long talk at Ryerson University for a lecture hall filled with coaches of all levels.

"I’m really interested in analytics, sports science, human performance, and how to blend those things into a high-culture organization."

“Collect the data then work backwards. The answer to the problem for each player is in there.”
So… special advisor? President of hockey ops?

"Whatever title is not what turns my crank," Gillis said. "I think when you have a truly high-functioning, well-organized company or sports organization that titles become less relevant. It’s more productivity and how you work together."

Gillis, who appreciates the Premier League organizational chart, believes an NHL front office could maximize its effectiveness by hiring four assistant GMs, plus a behind-the-scenes cast of problem-solvers devoted to maximizing its individual players through the study of hard evidence and suggesting their ideal linemates and situational usage to the GM and coach.

"You have to really believe in your conviction. We believed in that conviction when I was in Vancouver. We designed a team around that conviction — a puck-moving, dynamic, quick-transition team," Gillis said.

"If you don’t win the ultimate prize, suddenly that doesn’t work. Now, teams are all moving in that direction, and it’s a more entertaining game. I like watching it. And if I don’t like watching, it’s going to be hard to go to work every day

I added something. Sorry.

[Cherry Picker]

His failure was not recognizing when the team peaked and pivoting to younger players right away. Trading Bieksa, Kesler, Burrows, etc at peak value would have been gut-wrenching at the time but something that a stone-cold logic driven sociopath would have done. Actually, if Gillis had traded Burrows right after he slayed the dragon it would have been best for the long term development of the team. Of course he would have had to survive the tar, feathers, pitch forks, torches and keelhauling.

[Cousin Strawberry]

I have zero interest in reading that garbage

Best ever!

[Chef Boi RD]

The key reason why Gillis will never work in the NHL again is how he managed after losing the 2011 finals with a core team he inherited. After 2011 Mike could no longer ride the coattails of what he inherited and had to make the adjustments and tweaks putting his own mark on the team winning the cup and he failed miserably at it. All his peers at the time made multiple trips back to the finals - Chicago, LA, Boston while he gets miserably ass kicked out of the first round of the playoffs the following two years. Such a great core wasted, the Sedins should have hoisted the cup but that wasn’t going to happen with the lie that Gillis was. He’s not a rink rat hockey man, just a shit talker.

Melvin, your thoughts?

[Carl Yagro]

Those memories didn't last long... they turn on ya quick when the good times stop.

I'm sure Dude will be interesting in reading THIS!

Thoughts, UDL?

What a Mess Canucks GM Mike Gillis Has Made of This Team

GM Mike Gillis has left this current version of the Vancouver Canucks in a mess, to put it politely. First he couldn’t trade Roberto Luongo, which was then compounded by the media report that the Aquilini’s did not want to burn their investment with a buyout of Luongo’s contract.

Due to that it forced the Cory Schneider trade, a young starting goaltender that may go on to be an All-Star and lead his team to the Stanley Cup Finals. The key word of course is MAY, but if you look at his stats and his play recently – he sure looks capable.

Since NHL ownership and management knew Gillis was in between a rock and a hard place, by not being able to move Luongo, the Canucks were only able to obtain a first round draft choice (number nine) in Bo Horvat for Schneider. Cory was worth more like a first round draft choice – and a starting roster player.

The trade which brought Keith Ballard to the Canucks cost the Canucks a first round draft pick (25th over all) and Michael Grabner, who went on to score 34 (2010/11), 20 (2011/12) and 16 goals in 45 games in the 2012/13 shorten season – for the New York Islanders. Also included was Steve Bernier, a player that the Canucks felt could not play but has helped the New Jersey Devils with his gritty play in the post season. Something by the way the Canucks are still lacking.

Now the Canucks are forced to buyout Keith Ballard’s contract because a 5/6 D-man cannot be making $4.2 million. Too bad, because I still feel that Ballard is a good D-man along with being versatile.

Next came the David Booth trade which is costing them a cap hit of $4.2 million a season for a player that has played 68 games over two seasons and has scored 17 goals in the regular season – and NONE in the post season. But it doesn’t stop there.

The Canucks who would dearly love to use their remaining compliance buyout to create some much needed cap space cannot – because Booth is still injured from last season.

Now take a look at what remains to be done with a cap space of only $7.5 million. First RFA Chris Tanev needs to be re-signed and that will cost close to $2 million, which then leaves $5 million.

With that, the Canucks need to still sign another six players of which one, RFA Dale Weise, needs to be qualified, to complete their roster which includes a much-needed third line centre.

That’s not going to get done because a UFA third line centre like a Stephen Weiss type, who the Canucks have coveted, would take at least $3-4 million – which they don’t have. So if you do the math, the Canucks will have to settle on signing some players that will be in the $1 million range, which these days only buys you fourth line personnel, and promoting players from their farm team.

Forget about Free Agency day because the Canucks do not have any cap space to work with, due to you know who.

While the rest of the league understood the need for North American type players in the playoffs, Gillis stood pat in his belief that his power-play would take him to the promise land. Unfortunately with six players on the ice blocking shots, along with six pairs of arms and legs, scoring on the power play was like trying to thread an needle with gloves on.

From what I have observed from the mess that GM Mike Gillis has created, the Canucks fired the wrong person in Alain Vigneault. Why? Because it has been proven historically in the NHL, that the coach works with the players that the GM provides! Since Gillis arrived, he hasn’t provided enough of the right type to supplement a core that was already in place and now face a window of opportunity – that is closing on them quickly.

Ice Bits – New coach John Tortorella, will have his hands full coaxing this current team to make a playoff spot with the new alignment in a much tougher division.

Tort’s will surely have to make the Kesler line number one, with the Sedins sliding down to the second line. In my opinion the Sedins are passed their prime and should also be relegated to the second power play unit. Time for some fresh blood and ideas.

It’s also time to incorporate the youth that will be taking over very soon. For instance centre Brendan Gaunce and winger Nicklas Jensen who are very cap friendly.

Goaltender Eddie Lack was added to the roster a couple of days ago as per my tweet.

[Chef Boi RD]

Gillis is like our Bill LaForge of management. A terrible hockey man. When your best friend is Tony Gallagher what does that say?

[Cousin Strawberry]

Oh I know the guy was a short term GM. He was the league golden boy for a short run, burned out the future for his chance at a cup with what he had and when fired left the cupboards bare. 5 years was all he was going to last even before he had driven the team anywhere.

But...

He DID come within one win of the franchises 1st cup utilizing what he had to work with. He may have had the key horses already in place but so did cheeseburger nonis and he couldnt tweak his way past the black cocks.

Gillis bringing in Sundin was apparently fairly significant in Keslers development as well as helping the sundin sisters go from emerging to arrived. He cost nothing but play money and didnt leave the franchise any worse from his short stint with the team.

He was considered cutting edge with his sleep and nutrition study for pro athletes.

The team was one of the top 4 or 5 teams for a good 3 years til his horses got old. His expiry date was surpassed and he was appropriately gassed because of it. I wont say he was Bill Laforge since he was in charge of a cup contender for at least 3 years.

The dude is just bitter cuz Mikey skullet tossed him out of the showers at britannia rink all those years ago

[Mickey107]

Gillis is like our Bill LaForge of management. A terrible hockey man. When your best friend is Tony Gallagher what does that say?

But then:>>>>>>>>>>

[Chef Boi RD]

Last worked in the NHL April 2014. Nuff said