Mental_Ghost Posted November 29, 2014 Share Posted November 29, 2014 I'll always remember Gillis for being able to find under valued talent/gems. He was a big part of making our team good. Mikael Samuelson Chris Higgins Maxim Lapierre Raffi Torres Manny Malhotra Christian Ehrhoff Chris Tanev Eddie Lack Brad Richardson Mike Santorelli Tanner Glass Aaron Rome He got a few things wrong, but he was a smart hockey man. This is just me, but i agree but probably not Tanner Glass. Just want to make a side by side (top/bottom) comparison with the bad parts for MG. Loungo (Hard to predict about contract length then so its not his fault entirely) Goalie controversy (3 years to fix it but didnt/couldnt) Ballard (At the time I thought he was a good addition, more dept) (Grabner was a good player too though) Ehrhoff (PP started to dip after) Hodgson (Everyone thought Hodgson was better [rightfully so with experience and points at that point]) Schnieder (EVERYONE was waiting for the announcement from Bettman for him to say "AND")(hindsight Horvat is good) These problems started to compound and it really hurt the Canucks. In the end he did some good and some bad and probably should had won the cup but injuries to the team devastated them. Being a GM is a hard job, for me I would say he was "ok", also after years of bad drafting from him I thought his best draft was his last(2013), even without drafting horvat, adding Shinkaruk, Cassel, and Subban looks good so far. The biggest thing I hated is the goalie controversy, could save us 1-2 mill of cap for us to spend on other areas right now. Looking to the future, it did allow the Canucks to reset. Allowed Linden, Benning, WD, Horvat, Virtanen, bits and pieces from Kesler and Garrison. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sting Posted November 29, 2014 Share Posted November 29, 2014 Gillis was one win away from immortality in this Cup starved city. He made some good moves. Has a GM of the year award, 2 President trophies and the best Canuck team was under his watch. That said....he almost choked away the Sedin's twice, thought Ballard could replace Ehrhoff, invested in Booth, traded Hodgson and got nothing that helped a team that couldn't score. He drafted terribly, spent years trying to sort out our AHL team and scouting staff and made a mockery out of the goalie situation. All while throwing countless people under the bus. In the end his arrogance and paralysis by analysis got him what he deserved. This franchise in the long term will be better for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robongo Posted December 5, 2014 Author Share Posted December 5, 2014 GAUGING MIKE GILLIS – PART 3: MONEY SAVING CONTRACTS It’s wrong that Mike Gillis gets ridiculed in this city.I know that’s not a popular view, but it angers me that the most successful general manager in Vancouver Canucks history would get booed mercilessly if he showed his face at Rogers Arena. In this ten-part story, Vancity Buzz breaks down the seminal moments of Gillis’ reign, offering pertinent insight into the defining moments of the franchise’s brightest period. We’ll take a look at it all: the good, the bad and the awkward. In six seasons under Mike Gillis, the Canucks won their division four times, won two Presidents’ Trophies and came within a whisker of winning the first Stanley Cup in franchise history. Did he build the team from scratch? Of course not, nobody does, but he played a large part in the rise and the fall of the Vancouver Canucks. Today, I would like to focus on the rise. The Canucks had the best team in the NHL in 2010-11, plain and simple. They proved it by being the clear class of the regular season, winning the Presidents’ Trophy by a whopping 10 points. They had six more regulation/overtime wins than any other team. They had the best power play and the third best penalty killing. They scored the most goals and gave up the fewest. This was not a run-of-the-mill regular season. And contrary to popular belief, they didn’t do it by simply beating up on the other four members of the Northwest Division. Certainly playing in a weak division helped, but only moderately. They played the Edmonton Oilers on six occasions. The San Jose Sharks played Edmonton four times. And the Canucks actually lost to them twice near the end of the regular season 4-1 and 2-0 after they had the Presidents Trophy clinched. Had they not run into a string of injuries and bad luck, they would have won the Stanley Cup too. The 2010-11 team is lamented for not having an effective 4th line. After the trade deadline passed in 2011 (ie. the last chance Mike Gillis could tinker with his team), the Canucks had a 4th line that consisted of Max Lapierre, Chris Higgins and Tanner Glass. Not bad. So how did the Canucks go from being out of the playoffs in Dave Nonis’ final year to best team in the league? Good Great contracts. The Canucks were full of them in 2010-11 and the vast majority of them were signed by Michael D. Gillis. Here are the notable ones signed by Gillis that were in effect in 2010-11: Player Cap Hit Henrik Sedin $6.1 M Daniel Sedin $6.1 M Roberto Luongo $5.333 M Ryan Kesler $5 M Dan Hamhuis $4.5 M Alex Edler $3.25 M Mason Raymond $2.55 M Mikael Samuelsson $2.5 M Manny Malhotra $2.5 M Alex Burrows $2 M Raffi Torres $1 M Jannik Hansen $0.825 M Tanner Glass $0.625 M In the spring of 2011 these were all excellent contracts to have. Daniel and Henrik Sedin were two of the best offensive players in the league and their cap hits ranked #38 and 39 in the league. That was less than the likes of Jason Spezza, Paul Stastny and Ryan Smyth. In 2011, under the terms of the old collective bargaining agreement, Roberto Luongo’s contract did not suck. In fact, it was excellent. Luongo’s cap circumventing deal had a cap hit of just $5.333 M, which ranked him 9th among goalies (less than Tomas Vokoun and Cristobal Huet!). Before that contract was signed, Luongo had the 2nd highest cap hit among goalies and was one of the best netminders in the league. Luongo’s contract became unmovable after the unprecedented move by Gary Bettman to change the rules of cap circumventing contracts after the 2013-14 lockout. It was a move that no general manager could have predicted when the contract was signed. His crown jewel was the 4-year $2 M per season contract signed by Alex Burrows. Burrows, who was in the midst of a breakout 28 goal season when he signed the deal, was the best value-for-money in the NHL. Burrows scored 28, 35, 26 and 28 goals during those years. In some cases, Gillis was able to get players to sign in Vancouver for less money than they were offered elsewhere. This was the case, in part, because the Canucks became destination franchise. That team also benefited from Sami Salo and Kevin Bieksa’s contracts, leftover from the Dave Nonis era, but otherwise it was essentially a team signed/re-signed/acquired by Mike Gillis. Critics of Gillis would say that he used his cap savings on bust players like Keith Ballard and David Booth, and they would be right. Gillis struggled in the trade department, but that didn’t fester much until after 2011. Until then, the Keith Ballard trade was really his only major misstep. In the contract signing department, Gillis was the best in the league. He did make some mistakes, but they were usually on short-term deals. Mats Sundin ($8.6 M pro-rated), who was an effective player in the playoffs in Vancouver, was signed for just half a season. Pavol Demitra ($4 M) was under contract for two seasons and put up 53 points in his first in Vancouver. Mathieu Schneider ($2.75 M) was a horrendous deal, but he was under contract for just one season and jettisoned quickly. Some of the shine wore off Gillis’ contract signing prowess after 2011, but he was still rather good. Jason Garrison’s 6-year contract worth $4.6 M draws a lot of ire, but it was at least still tradeable. Gillis never signed a debilitating contract like Colby Armstrong (3 years, $3 M), Mike Komisarek (5 years, $4.5 M) or David Clarkson (7 years, $5.25 M). He may have traded for one or two of them (David Booth and Keith Ballard), but when he was in the negotiating room, there was no one better. The Canucks went downhill after 2011, although that did include a second Presidents’ Trophy, I might add. And we are seeing this year that the team that Gillis left for Trevor Linden and company wasn’t as bad as some may have thought. The people lamenting Gillis for re-signing the Sedins ($7 M), Edler ($5 M), Burrows ($4.5 M), Higgins ($2.5 M) and Hansen ($2.5 M) aren’t as loud as they were six months ago. The late Pat Quinn is viewed as a hero in this city and for good reason. I have written about all the great things he did for the Vancouver Canucks. But when he was fired in 1997, the Canucks were a team that had missed the playoffs the previous year and were in disarray. The team did not have a legitimate starting goaltender and did not have a legitimate first line centre. He didn’t have a particularly great drafting record and he angered Pavel Bure enough to make him want to leave town. He let Cliff Ronning and Geoff Courtnall walk for nothing in free agency and he held onto players like Jyrki Lumme, Dana Murzyn and Dave Babych for too long. That’s obviously a cynical way to look at Pat Quinn’s tenure in Vancouver, but that’s also the way Mike Gillis is unfairly viewed. He was far from perfect but he did some good things and he helped produce some of the best hockey this city has ever seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuck nit Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 .In the end his arrogance and paralysis by analysis got him what he deserved. This franchise in the long term will be better for it. I keep thinking his arrogance,lack of social acumen and common sense brought him Tortorella. Tortorella was Gillis' karmic end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alfstonker Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 Gillis was ok, not great, until it came to putting in place what a SC final losing team needed. JB has done most of what it needed in a fraction of the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robongo Posted December 17, 2014 Author Share Posted December 17, 2014 Gauging Mike Gillis – Part 4: Ballard and Booth Blunders They are perhaps the two most non-goalie defining moments of Mike Gillis’ tenure with the Vancouver Canucks. In this ten-part story, Vancity Buzz breaks down the seminal moments of Gillis’ reign, offering pertinent insight into the defining moments of the franchise’s brightest period. We’ll take a look at it all: the good, the bad and the awkward. The 2010 draft was the beginning of the most important offseason in Canucks history. The Canucks had just finished their second season under new GM Mike Gillis and were coming off a second straight second round defeat at the hands of the eventual Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks. They had just won their second consecutive division title in a division that had no yet become the laughing stock of the NHL (that title belonged to the Southeast Division back then). Henrik Sedin had just won the first Hart Trophy in franchise history and his brother Daniel could have been a finalist too had he not missed 19 games due to injury. Ryan Kesler set a career high in points, with 75. Alex Burrows set a career high in goals, with 35. Roberto Luongo proved he could win the big game, helping Canada win gold at the 2010 Olympics. The Canucks were a team on the rise, with most of their top players in the prime of their careers. Meanwhile, the other Western Conference powers all seemed to take a step back. The window was officially open. Their playoff nemesis, the Blackhawks, were in salary cap hell, having to part with key players: Andrew Ladd, Dustin Byfuglien, Kris Versteeg, Troy Brouwer, Brian Campbell and Antti Niemi. Perennial powerhouse Detroit was aging and proving that they were not a super power anymore. San Jose looked good, but hey, they never win in the playoffs, right? Keith Ballard What Mike Gillis needed to do was bolster his defence. The Canucks’ blueline was good, but injury-prone. Willie Mitchell missed the final 34 games of the regular season and all of the playoffs with what was feared as a career threatening concussion. He would not be re-signed. Kevin Bieksa missed 27 games. And Sami Salo was, well, Sami Salo. The Canucks needed depth and they needed an impact d-man. Unfortunately Mike Gillis chose Keith Ballard. In an offseason where Gillis made so many great free agent signings (Hamhuis, Malhotra, Torres), the decision to trade for Keith Ballard at the 2010 draft may have cost them a Stanley Cup. Gillis traded Michael Grabner, Steve Bernier and a 1st round draft pick to Florida for Ballard and Victor Oreskovich. It was the right trade, for the wrong player. Grabner was young and had shown some flashes, but would need to clear waivers in order to be sent to the AHL. He was not likely an everyday player on a Stanley Cup contender. If there was ever a time to mortgage a part of the future for the present, it was in the summer of 2010. Ballard was a high-risk, high-reward player. That meant that he would never get much of a chance with head coach Alain Vigneault. On the Canucks, Ballard was a 5th or 6th defenceman and Vigneault wanted a player in that role to be low risk. What the Canucks needed was a good, dependable stay-at-home defenceman. Say, like Willie Mitchell. When the Canucks’ depth was ultimately tested in the Stanley Cup Final, Ballard was used just once. He was unable to replace Dan Hamhuis, or even Aaron Rome, for that matter. Ballard was paired with Kevin Bieksa in game 4 in Boston, and failed miserably. Some of that falls on Vigneault, who wasn’t able to work him into the lineup all year, and some of that falls on Gillis for acquiring the wrong player. David Booth Coming off a crushing game 7 loss in the Stanley Cup Final, the Canucks were still an elite team in 2011-12. Christian Ehrhoff and Raffi Torres were gone, but the rest of the team was retained. Popular belief was that the Canucks needed a goal scoring winger and more size/toughness. On October 22, 2011 Mike Gillis pulled the trigger on a deal that was supposed to help with all of those things. The Canucks sent Mikael Samuelsson and Marco Sturm to the Florida Panthers in exchange for David Booth, Steve Reinprecht and a 3rd round pick in 2013 (Cole Cassels). Samuelsson, who was on expiring contract, proved he had some gas left in the tank. With the Panthers, he notched 28 points in 48 games during the regular season and 5 points in 7 playoff games. Marco Sturm was on expiring contract too, but was running on empty. Booth was supposed to be the power forward the Canucks needed. Coming off a 23-goal season and just three years removed from a 31-goal season, Booth was expected to form a strong duo with second line centre Ryan Kesler. Just like with Keith Ballard, it was the right type of move, at the right time, for the wrong player. Booth was big and strong, but he never meshed well with Ryan Kesler. Kesler had a shoot-first mentality and needed a playmaker to play with. Booth, who regularly scored more goals than assists in his career, was a straight-forward shooter. The Canucks lost to the LA Kings in the first round that season, primarily because they couldn’t score goals. The David Booth trade wasn’t the only reason, but it was a contributing factor to that loss. The shifty Samuelsson was probably a better fit with Ryan Kesler and was certainly a better with the Sedins, who Booth ended up playing with in the playoffs. Keeping Mikael Samuelsson may not have been the answer, but at least he wouldn’t have hamstrung the organization with an unfriendly cap hit going forward. Poster Boys Keith Ballard and David Booth are the poster boys for regrettable trades with the Florida Panthers. They were both brought in at key times during the Stanley Cup window of Gillis’ Canucks. While Mike Gillis seemed to strike all of the right notes with regards to free agency and re-signing core players, he failed to trade for the right piece to put the team over the top. A lot of the money that Gillis saved with the great contracts he signed was wasted away with $4.2M Ballard (a depth defenceman) and $4.25M Booth (a third line winger). Not only did both players prove to be terrible fits with the team, they were both eventually bought out of their long term contracts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TOMapleLaughs Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 We had to subsidize the south, so Gillis is given a pardon on Ballard and Booth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robongo Posted December 17, 2014 Author Share Posted December 17, 2014 We had to subsidize the south, so Gillis is given a pardon on Ballard and Booth. We really accomplished that by giving them all of those high end pieces: Grabner (Waivers), 1st Howden(Pretty much a Bust), Bernier (Walked), Samuelsson (Walked), Sturm(Useless) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TOMapleLaughs Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 We really accomplished that by giving them all of those high end pieces: Grabner (Waivers), 1st Howden(Pretty much a Bust), Bernier (Walked), Samuelsson (Walked), Sturm(Useless)We cleared them of two bad contracts. Subsidization. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robongo Posted December 17, 2014 Author Share Posted December 17, 2014 We cleared them of two bad contracts. Subsidization. Yes, Mike Gillis was secretly on the Florida Panthers payroll Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aGENT Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bookie Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 Keith Ballard someone needs to photoshop a dj booth in there so the ref is record scratching perfect Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TOMapleLaughs Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 Yes, Mike Gillis was secretly on the Florida Panthers payroll No there have been many deals like these. I've noticed it and labelled it for what it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
people please Posted December 17, 2014 Share Posted December 17, 2014 This guy is a gillis hater. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.