Gary Roberts Calls Mike Gillis A 'moron' For Comments About Hodgson

[BoKnows53]

Yah I am serious, think about a FA that just moved his Family to a new city, maybe bought a house or leased a Condo for a year, believing they are part of a teams overall plan moving forward at least for the near future, then oh sorry you're traded to the other side of the continent. Yes they are big boys and are professionals but I am positive that there is a certiain degree of seeing what a GMs track record is in the final signing desicion.

[Phil_314]

This is what Roberts’ had to say about Mike Gillis’ comments:

I talked to Cody after this came out with Gillis,” Roberts said. “I know he’s on vacation, and I said, ‘Hey, I know you went through a lot of stress. How are you feeling about some of those comments?’ He said, ‘Gary, I’ve dealt with a lot of stuff there in the last three years, and I’m just going to take the high road.

“For me, I’d like to be the guy that looks at Mike Gillis and says, ‘You’re a moron.’ It doesn’t really do anybody any good other than the fact that Mike Gillis looks like, as they say on TSN, a dud.”

But this is Gary Roberts, the guy that is systematically pumping out more NHL talent than the midwife at the Staal farm. Roberts continued on with his critique of Mike Gillis’ comments:

“I listened to Mike Gillis the other day,” Roberts said by phone over the weekend, “and my impression was, ‘Are you kidding me?’

“If anybody knew this kid, this young man, to know what he went through mentally and physically for two summers trying to find out what the heck was wrong with him — of course they dealt with his issues more than anybody else in the organization because he was injured and they couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him.

“It almost was like they thought he didn’t want to work. Well, I can tell you that this kid out of all the kids that I train, he’s up there in the [steven] Stamkos group as far as commitment and determination. What I tell him, he does, so I know he’s coachable and I love working with him.”

“Last summer, we trained him the way he should be trained. That was one summer of training in three he was really able to do what he needed to do.”- Gary Roberts

“He’s a pretty strong kid, but it’s his speed and power that we’re really going to focus on this summer. Now that he’s healthy I have a pretty good feeling that he will be a faster and more powerful guy in September, which will help him develop into the player that he should have been two years ago if he would have been healthy.” – Gary Roberts

[tayloreg]

So Roberts is backing his client? I'd expect nothing less.

[Gollumpus]

Former NHL curmudgeon Gary Roberts...

[Aladeen]

I'm sick and tired of these idiotic comments. Like, "if you trade Luongo, no Ufa will ever want to sign here". Guess what I have a few names for you. Gomez and Redden. Who signed still Gaborik and Richards.

[Puck'nAnimal]

I hope that was sarcasm... Looks like the same reaction as every other player that gets drafted. They're not going to hop and skip to the podium

[BoKnows53]

What planet are you on? where did I say if you trade Luongo no UFA will ever want to sign here? Where the F#$@ do you get Gomez and Redden whose situations were way way different than Marco Sturm. Grab a clue bud.

[Canuckfan1968]

Gary Roberts needs to stfu who asked this moron for his opinion and who really cares,its done its over with,leave it be. Stay in the gym you babbling monkey. His parents should have taught him to mind his own business.

[Snake Doctor]

Coments like this do not help us at all.

[iinteenseee]

Anyone can defend Gillis if they want, but the one fact that makes Gillis' comments about Hodgson an ABSOLUTE JOKE:

In the last 3 years, we've lost Luc Bourdon to a fatal crash, Rick Rypien commits suicide....... but Cody Hodgson has had more time spent on him than all other players COMBINED??!?!?!?!!

WTF was Gillis thinking with that one?

[Sanford]

Gary is right, Gillis was a complete moron on this.

[Ilya Mikheyev]

Gary was a player that struggled with long term injury as well, I can see him being sensitive about this kind of thing.

[Millerdraft]

imo It's not so much the whole back injury debacle, but the THREE AGENTS so far in his brief career that put a red flag up on Cody.

So he gets hurt in camp. Why another agent? And then why another? What are those agents going to do to help him with his injury? All they would do is assist him in his quest to be traded.

To me, it appears that Cody never wanted to be a Canuck. Our version of Kyle Turris and Blake Wheeler.

What i don't buy for a second is the icetime argument. He got 2nd power play time and cushy 3rd line center time.

What i am worried about is the shill job on Kassian as well. Gillis says players like him are never made available in a trade. Well, then why was he made available?!? Cheers.

TOML

[Baka]

What contract did Philly bury?

[ChronCanuck]

coach AV does not usually like playing with youngsters, and usually plays favorites. e.g tanner glass gets more ice time than kassian in the playoffs, or benching ballard destroying his confidence and prefers having journeyman plug rome over him. get rid of him first. then hodgson's request about trading could very well change.

besides booth hodgson kesler 2nd line would work as hodgson IS a playmaker but ???? AV doesnt see that and NEVER gave that a chance that at least. kesler could also use his speed more. as a center u dont need to be super fast if ure a playmaker u can set up goals which booth and kesler are both shooters.

then u would have higgins pahlsson hansen as 3rd line.

and all the hodgson trade for kassian, where was he? right he was...non-existant in the playoffs. gragnani didnt even play which that is completely understandable as we had full healthy D lineup.

[Jester@wraiths.ca]

In my view, there never would have been such problems if AV hadn't been a prick, calling out Hodgson in the media making it seem like Hodgson was just lazy and looking for excuses. Doing that to the organization's prized prospect serves no purpose.

When Hodgson was finally getting healthy, we saw a good player, who when lined up against other rookies in the league was performing as well as those being mentioned for Calder consideration, except he was playing 5-6 minutes less per game than those players but keeping reasonable pace with them in scoring. As I said before, other teams managed 3 good centers icetime FAR better. Hodgson's camp had said, they simply asked for more ice time. AV didn't want to do that, even when Kesler was injured. No logic there.

When Hodgson got traded, he honestly sounded shocked. He didn't sound like a guy who had asked to be moved. I personally think he asked to get more ice time, AV wasn't going to do it, and MG moved him.

Roberts knows about hard work, his picture should be used as the definition. He has always been a character guy that is widely respected. If he says Hodgson works as hard as anyone, I believe what he said.

My money says, Hodgson asked for more icetime, which was deserved, AV still had his grudge against Hodgson and wouldn't use him more, MG moved him because it wasn't going to get resolved with both AV and Hodgson here, the trade did not turn out as good as he hoped and MG became very defensive - trying to deflect blame from himself. I've been an MG supporter all along, but this felt cowardly to me.

[sQuish]

This will go down as one of the biggest flop trades in Canucks history; all because Gillis didn't know how to manage a misdiagnosed back injury and let personal issues with a player's agent/family get in the way of a sound business decision.

Just wait until next season when Cody's pumping out 60-70 points in Buffalo and Zach's riding the pine or playing for the Wolves. What a waste of the best prospect we've had since Kesler.

It's not like we had to trade him. So what if Cody's camp was asking for more ice-time, does that mean he gets it? Does that mean Cody was going to stop playing or showing up to practice if he didn't get it? No. He was still under contract. He would have still performed. After all, Cody loves the game, and still wanted to establish himself and get proven.

[Nomadman]

I rewatched his draft day...His body language didn't make it look as if he wanted to be here.

[stawns]

I'm sick of the myth of Gary Roberts........of course he churns out young superstars..........he only takes on the cream of the crop in his program. It's pretty easy to produc a Stamkos when you get a Stamkos to begin with. I'll be impressed when he takes a 5th rounder and turns him into a Skinner......of course that will never happen because he only takes on kids who are stars before they ever come to him.

[UFCanuck]

Tyler Ennis and Derek Roy are better 2-way center ice-man than Cody Hodgson. He's going to have to play wing or go to the 3rd line center slot.