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

[nuck nit]

He said that he felt Cody wanted out and he found him an out.

if Kassian develops....

It's not about entitlement it's about setting the record straight in as delicate a manner as possible.

A player wanted out and Gillis found an out for him.....

[Skks_King]

Why does almost everyone in the first page have so many plusses

It's similar to Clutch's Burrows thread

[It's Bieksa's Fault]

A lot of people forget that Kassian is a year behind Hodgson in development. Kassian had 1-2-3 in 17 games as a Canuck, while Hodgson had 1-1-2 in 8 games the year before. Since the sample size is extremely small, saying Hodgson's 0.25 PPG is much better than Kassian's 0.176 PPG is inaccurate. Neither player was outstanding or anything. Enough about Kassian, though.

Nobody mentions the nobodies that Roberts deals with; as one poster said, if you're given a Stamkos, you're going to return a Stamkos. I wouldn't say that Roberts is bad at what he does or anything, but the media has chosen the Stamkos route instead of the [insert nobody's name here] route. The media's stance is against MG in that article.

To be honest, I'd disregard the whole article as meaningless news. Roberts is obviously defending one of his clients, and MG is obviously defending his actions as a GM. Both said things they should have thought twice about, but we don't really know the full story.

[6string]

hodgson was mis-managed in his first camp here, he was outstanding ( for those of you who have short memories, the press here keeps this quiet ), he should of stayed up, than to waste time in juniors where he was cleaning up on awards.....

i'm sure if we had nugent-hopkins here this past season they would have sent him down too, gillis n vigneault have no patience for youth development at the top level, which is so economical too!

gary roberts may have been a bit strong with his wording, but i have to agree with him and the canucks should have been gratefull for his team of trainers to discover cody's back problem....maybe zac should hire mr. roberts!

[Red Light Racicot]

Sure he doesn't owe anybody anything but the question was asked repeatedly and misinformation was being tossed around and he answered the question. He did say Cody was a "doosh" he just said he had to deal with more issues dealing with CoHo than every other player combined. He said that he felt Cody wanted out and he found him an out.

Now you can call it a silly trade if you want but I think that's a silly thing to do. Will you eat your words if Kassian develops or are you like the brunt of ProCo folks who are just going to crap on Kassian because he's not their precious? He didn't burn a bridge he explained a situation. We may not like the response but it is what it is. He didn't have to make it but it wasn't a mistake to make it either. The only mistake really seems to be in how it's interpreted as you have so eloquently shown here.

[EmployeeoftheMonth]

Gillis was quoted as saying they determined Cody wanted out-not 'Cody wanted out" .

[EmployeeoftheMonth]

Given the timing and inability of Pahlsson to play his role... and because there was no need to enlighten the public about any of this... It doesnt look good and Im sure could easily be interpreted that hes covering his ass... so you are correct on that.

That in itself is a pretty good reason for him not to make such comments in the first place.

And while I cant determine in the long run that Kassian will pan out, and Ill admit he could potentially be what the Canucks are in dire need of. The main reason I didnt understand the move is because youre trading away a proven talent that could produce now, for a guy who may or may not pan out. On the surface its a very puzzing move.

[taib mahmud]

Already started looking like the Cam Neely saga. Only needs CoHo to score 50 next season to repeat the debacle. MG can now only hope Kassian will live up to expectations to negate that horror, if indeed CoHo is what G. Roberts makes him out to be.

[TOMapleLaughs]

People forget that Winter tweeted that Hodgson wanted out for years on the day of the trade. He later deleted his Hodgson tweets and blamed hackers for them. However, the power of the internet still has the tweets available to those who care to look.

To me, if Hodgson has wanted out all this time and he tries to pawn off the responsibilty of 'tough talk' to Gary Roberts, his mommy and daddy and his multiple agents, then he looks like a bit of a cowardly, two-faced liar.

'High road' indeed. Maybe the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. His daddy is some bigshot TO politician, and we all know what politicians are like.

The more i think about it, the more i like what Gillis said about Hodgson. He didn't say much about him, but he didn't have to. It should be quite clear that Hodgson has been the biggest pain in the ass for this team since being drafted.

What, did the kid come into camp that first time expecting to be labelled a white knight? Yes. Yes he did. So those hurt feelings weren't caused by his back injury mishap. They started well before then. Hodgson's holier-than-thou attitude didn't sit well with AV OR the rest of the team. Esp. when he STUNK.

Gillis had to work with Hodgson alright. But mainly to get him to freakin' mature a little bit.

'Life coach?' Are you serious?

This kid grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth. Who the hell's gonna respect that? And what kind of ' future leader' hides behind his parents, his veteran peers and his agent when he sends out his messages of 'i'm really a nice guy' bs, when in actuality he's a freakin' traitor? Leader? Gimme a break. Major Immaturity more like it. I hope Claude Lemieux 'life coaches' him to be a bit more accountable for his shady actions from here on out. Just like Claude Lemieux was... Pfft.

Hey Cody! Your 'life coach' is one of the most hated NHL players EVER! Good decision. Just like all the good decisions you've made. Like doing that stupid leg lift that almost reduced your NHL career to nothingness. Good call.

Two-faced traitor liar cowards burn in the deepest parts of hell. Cheers.

TOML

[-DLC-]

Here's what baffles me: the Cody camp pushed for more minutes, but they also say the Canucks mismanaged his injury. So which is it?...was he hurting/needed extra rest and attention or was he not being played enough? Easy to say his injury wasn't dealt with properly but where was Daddy and the support team then?

He had own top notch trainers - where were they earlier? Nice to step up and name call now, but why didn't Camp Cody step in and take charge? I mean, it wasn't like it was above them to do so and I wonder why they sat back and allowed for things to be "mismanaged". Camp Cody had no problem firing agents and trainers - why did THEY let things slip or get to where they were?

Because for as much as the Canucks management may have botched things (not sure they did), Camp Cody seemed to pull no punches so why'd they sit back and let it happen? He wasn't getting enough minutes but he was coming off an injury so it almost seems that it was an impossible situation. When he was pushed to play, he was rushed and no one believed him. When he wasn't getting minutes, that was problematic.

It seems that egos are stepping in the way - when name calling enters the pictures it's usually degraded to something that's deflecting from the real issues at hand. I agree with MG doing what he did, again - he HAD to put this to rest in order for his team to rise from the ashes of this trade and move forward.

Cody isn't proven (yet) but people in his camp act like he's a superstar who needed kid glove treatment. Hogwash. He's but one of many players in the league and that was the case on the team.

If Gary Roberts has all the answers now, why didn't he then (when Cody was being mistreated by morons)? Of course, it serves his personal agenda to be the self proclaimed trainer who got things right.

Cody's agent has slinked away and now someone new is piping in, but this is from a camp taking the high road. Yeah, ok, sure you are. Can we get his grandma who baked cookies after practice to add her two cents while they're saying nothing?

[Brick Tamland]

Hey, no one is talking about me and my training program? I better make some phone calls and cause a buzz, otherwise people will forget I continue to exist - Gary Roberts

[6string]

Hey, no one is talking about me and my training program? I better make some phone calls and cause a buzz, otherwise people will forget I continue to exist - Gary Roberts

[dKs89]

lol who said that? I love Coho still got his jersey. But there is no way in hell we would of won if Cody was still here

[ausmo]

Cody's personal opinion of Gillis, the Canucks, or visa-versa is not relavent. No self respecting player would do anything less than play his heart out for what ever team he is on. Had he stayed we would not be having this thread. The team worked and was successful and Gillis attempted to fix what was not broken.

The scary part of all this is that Gillis will make a futile attempt at turning Kassian into a the star power forward that he hoped for but failed to get. The kid is a project that will continue to rob the Canucks of valuable training resources. They should cut thier loses early, dump him, and chalk that trade up to trying to make a trade when none was needed.

The real efforts should have been made at the GM's meeting where Gary Bettmans twisted version of the NHL should have been challenged. GB has sacrificed excitment, speed and skill for a boring, trapping, low scoring, inconsistantly reffed abomination of what the NHL should be.

As long as Gary Bettman is allowed to keep destroying the great game of hockey, GMs will make bonehead trades like this.

[Brockbuster]

2 things... The Canucks allowed Cody the right spots to pad his points in order to trade him. How do you explain a kid with 1 year in the NHL having gone through 3 agents already?

[Millerdraft]

And when posters realise GIllis promised an up tempo team and then traded his offense for futures?

Why did Gillis allow Kesler to play injured when he had a centre man that could have filled that role?

I am waiting for Rich Winter and Cody's father to come on the TEAM 1040 as per the extended invitation.

[jimmyking8888]

Gillis is close to a moron, but he is definitely not a moron.

[Tearloch7]

Right on Gary! Gillis is a moron.

[Millerdraft]

Can't wait till next season and kassian still isn't producing, atleast people won't have the "look how bad cody was his first year" excuse

edit: and I cant wait for the season after that so that people can't say "it takes longer for power forwards to develop"

[js604]

So you'd rather be right than see the Canucks succeed in developing Kassian? Or are you just a bigger fan of Hodgson than the Canucks?