[Report] Canucks to part ways with Judd Bracket

[wildcam]

34 minutes ago, Jimmy McGill said:

yup. But now the army of Benning haters has a new shiny toy. Its pretty sad the amount of pure hate thrown the guys way in this market. I wish they would just shut up but its a free country. 

I agree with you..These are also the haters that never like the Miller trade...In 4 years these ridiculous fans will say the Miller trade was bad..

Benning and group know there are those 10-15% that trash ever move...Those people are ridiculous about everything, it motivates them  to be negative? 

We all know and see in your work place daily...Those people need to get a life and cheer up feel sorry for there families...

Edited May 30, 2020 by wildcam

[dpn1]

All draft picks have to go through Jim.  If Brackett was good at his job he would have been training people to do work in his area of responsiblility (mentoring).  If there is a smooth transition,  Brackett did his Job well.

[Nave]

1 hour ago, Maddogy said:

I just listened to J.B.’s interview regarding Judd’s departure. J.B. sounds very sincere. It is clear that as a former director of amateur scouting himself

he takes drafts personally. This could turn out good or bad for the Canucks. However, if he identified Judd as a talent and promoted him throughout the ranks, I am confident that J.B. can find another competent guy to fill the role.

 

Here are what I think are J.B’s biases:

 

- he doesn’t seem to know much about goalies

 

- He likes skilled D like Hughes and Rathbone, he does not hold their small size against them

 

- He loves physicality, size and skating for forwards, he does not have a problem adding skill to the team even if some size are lacking, for instance Hoglander. However overall he favours a tough physical team over what Montreal seems to be building.

 

These are the biases that are expected to continue or even amplify when a new director of amateur scouting arrives.

He was a big reason the Sabres drafted Ryan Miller. 

[Nave]

Sorry to see Bracket go, but I'm confident Benning will continue his great drafting. If Judd was indeed hoping to make all the calls at every draft, I don't think he's going to find what he was looking for anywhere else. Still, I'm sure he will land with another team, and am grateful for his services. 

[aGENT]

11 hours ago, Curmudgeon said:

Just connecting dots here, but if Mike Gillis is hired as President or Czar or Pope in New Jersey, he may hire Brackett to something more than he was here. Don't forget that it was Gillis who hired Brackett here in the first place.

 

And I wouldn't be sure about Biech, unless the scouting staff has embraced analytics as their primary scouting tools. Somehow, I don't see Benning turning the department over to the computer guys.

Not necessarily promoting the idea, but in theory, it could work very well in a 'ying and yang' setup.

 

Biech and other staff do a deep dive in the analytics, Benning and other scouts do more traditional in person, character and 'eyeball' etc scouting. Anyone that overlaps, you try to nab.

Edited May 30, 2020 by aGENT

[SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME]

3 hours ago, shiznak said:

It’s not abnormal for a GM to give up control of the scouting department. Yzerman let Al Murray take full control of the scouting department for Tampa. Same with Trevor Timmins for Montreal.

Judd Brackett is a long way from being at the same level as Al Murray or Trevor Timmons. 
 

And as far as giving up control, here are a couple examples of how scouting department hirings worked in Tampa Bay:

 

Soon he found himself sitting in a room with Lightning GM Steve Yzerman, Steve Thomas, former Bulldogs’ GM Julien BriseBois and the rest of the staff being grilled on everything he might bring to the organization.

“I was saying to myself, ‘If they offer me something, I’m taking it right away,’ ” Kitamura chuckles. “But I had to hide that a bit.”

A week later, the job was his. The 39-year-old — who grew up a block from Hockey Night in Canada director Sherali Najak and whose father, Yosh, has long been involved in rep hockey in this city — will be Ontario area scout for the team. Meaning he’ll be the guy recommending which players from this province the team should draft.

https://www.thespec.com/sports/hamilton-region/2011/06/21/when-stevie-y-called-he-said-yes.html

 

Angelidis has called it quits on his playing career, opening the door for Tampa Bay to hire him as a pro scout. That job will take him games across North America, including a few check-ins with the Crunch and its foes.

"All of us with the Lightning have always valued Mike's opinion on players and hockey matters,'' said Lightning assistant general manager Julien BriseBois. "It was very natural for us to think of hiring him as a scout when an opening came up on our staff. We had Mike attend our most recent pro scouting meeting in early June to see if he would like it and we are pleased he has agreed to come back to our organization in a scouting capacity.''

https://www.syracuse.com/crunch/2018/06/ex-syracuse_crunch_captain_lands_new_job_with_tampa_bay_lightning.html

 

In Montreal, Timmons has run amateur scouting and the draft under 4 GMs, but in that time, he’s watched as stuff like this has happened:

 

Pierre Gauthier, in the first major move of  his tenure as General Manager,  brought the hammer down on forty percent of his scouting staff.   

RDS reported today that Gauthier has not renewed the contracts of six of the team’s fifteen scouts including, from the amateur department,  Dave Mayville, Denis Morel (Quebec), Pelle Eklund (Sweden),  Antonin Routa (Europe) and Nikolai Vakourov (Russia), plus pro scout Gordie Roberts.

 The firings come only three weeks before the NHL’s entry draft.    Replacements, if any, have not been named.

Trevor Timmins remains the head of the scouting department with the title of Director of Player Recruitment and Development.

http://intentionaloffside.com/?p=1408

 

Bergevin certainly defers to Timmons often during the draft (similar to how we saw Benning work with Brackett), but the current Habs GM also feels free to hire and fire scouts as he wishes:

 

Canadiens rookie GM Marc Bergevinmade his first front-office appointment on Thursday hiring  Bobby Kinsella, director of scouting and assistant coach for the Dubuque Fighting Saints.  Kinsella will be based in Chicago and scout the U.S. Midwest for the Canadiens, with primary responsibility for the USHL, NCAA and top-tier high schools.

http://allhabs.net/headlines-bergevin-kinsella-fan-power-mortenson/

 

I could go on with this, but I think the point has been made.

 

GMs don’t give up full control of amateur scouting departments to their directors of amateur scouting, especially when it comes to personnel decisions. The type of autonomy that Brackett was reported to have been seeking would really be unprecedented for a director of scouting. Even guys like Murray and Timmons, with decades of experience (and holding titles like AGM, in addition to their director title), have to report to their GM, and have to make decisions in consultation with their GM, and sometimes get overruled entirely by their GM, especially when it comes to hiring/firing scouts.
 

 

[SilentSam]

10 hours ago, ba;;isticsports said:

My guess would be Judd knows the better picks were his (maybe even the ones they never made too) and probably feels he has earned more say

I highly doubt, that, if he was just a tag along he would be that confident

He probably feels in hindsight I have pushed all the right guys that you picked and maybe didn't

Didn't Weisbrod come from Boston and have connections with JB?

In those videos, Weisbrod sure looked like the typical company yes man

CanucksAbbyFan2 (@Fan2Abby) Tweeted:
#Canucks Reminder: 

Ted Hampson and Ryan Johnson pushed hardest to select Brock Boeser.  

Ron Delorme was the first to push hard for Elias Pettersson.  

John Weisbrod is friends with Jim Hughes and he literally scouted Quinn Hughes since his birth. https://t.co/G3iy0lCiT6

 

Edited May 30, 2020 by SilentSam

[Where's Wellwood]

15 hours ago, Squamfan said:

 

That Taj tweet really cherry picked a quote from this

[SilentSam]

I appreciate any body who has worked with this franchise.

 To have a team appear in the Stanley Cup Final on an average of every 10 years since it’s inception into the NHL is not any easy undertaking.

I think the “dream” management/coach TEAM would consist of:  Quinn,  Benning,GILLIS, Gilman, Vigneault, Green.

 

I think Mr Brackets work here was part of a team effort,  but perhaps he coughed up a fur ball wanting signing off on authorities that are above his position.

Perhaps one day he will realize that Benning was trying to protect him from that..  soon enough he will not even get the opportunities he sought, starting over anywhere else.

 

 

[Fred65]

18 hours ago, aGENT said:

No, Fred(reading comprehension)65, the spin, editorialization and hyperbole were what people have taken issue with, not that Judd potentially leaving was 'fake news'.

Sorry but I call BS on that, comments on the not being able to believe any thing Burke writes and other Tweets ( Taj ?? )that were downgraded to unbelievable by many. I guess some just don't have the character to admit fault. It's easy. Lots of weasel word

[Qwags]

I just don't see why this has to be so vitriolic. Brackett wanted a higher position of authority, and Benning wasn't gonna concede to that. There's no maliciousness, just simple business. I wish Brackett the best, who ever hires him is getting an excellent scout.

 

That being said, it's not like the Canucks are short on quality scouts either. Gradin perhaps?

[PhillipBlunt]

Only in Vancouver would this be news. Dried up rabbit droppings like Burke were salivating waiting to comment on this. 
 

He’s a &^@#ing scout. Not a first line center. Not a coach. Not a star goalie. A scout. 

Edited May 31, 2020 by PhillipBlunt

[Fred65]

19 minutes ago, Where's Wellwood said:

That Taj tweet really cherry picked a quote from this

I suppose no one on the outside will know for sure. Pure speculation, I think Brackett saw errors and wanted to be able to either correct it or have no part of it. I see Weisbrod as the benefactor but also the conductor of this chnage. Sadly I see the guy that will eventually be condemned by the move as Benning himself, it may well be the hill he dies on. However I must sat Benning's timing is superb. We don't have a 1st or a 2nd in this years draft which defers judgement until the 2021 draft and by then Vcr will likely be drafting in the lower half of the draft. If there was a good time to get a pest out of your scouting Dept this was it 

[Fred65]

3 minutes ago, PhillipBlunt said:

Only in Vancouver would this be news. Dried up rabbit droppings like Burke were salivating waiting time comment on this. 
 

He’s a &^@#ing scout. Not a first line center. Not a coach. Not a star goalie. A scout. 

Scouts = future of the franchise

 

Fiirst line centres = trade acquisition 

 

Where would this team be without Petttersson, Hughes, Boeser and maybe Podkolzin, all draft picks selected  by the scouts

 

and all upgrades on Vertanin, McCann and Juolevi

[theo5789]

3 minutes ago, Fred65 said:

I suppose no one on the outside will know for sure. Pure speculation, I think Brackett saw errors and wanted to be able to either correct it or have no part of it. I see Weisbrod as the benefactor but also the conductor of this chnage. Sadly I see the guy that will eventually be condemned by the move as Benning himself, it may well be the hill he dies on. However I must sat Benning's timing is superb. We don't have a 1st or a 2nd in this years draft which defers judgement until the 2021 draft and by then Vcr will likely be drafting in the lower half of the draft. If there was a good time to get a pest out of your scouting Dept this was it 

Benning offered him a contract to stay. Brackett had stipulations on signing that required more or total autonomy. How did Benning time this?

 

Why can it not be perceived that Benning saw some holes in the scouting department (as a former scout and director himself) and thus why he wants to get involved more with his experience?

[Twilight Sparkle]

When you have the most exciting and interesting team in the league, and it's not even the on-ice product... 

[theo5789]

54 minutes ago, Where's Wellwood said:

That Taj tweet really cherry picked a quote from this

He's working diligently on trying to secure a job at TSN.

[theo5789]

37 minutes ago, Fred65 said:

Sorry but I call BS on that, comments on the not being able to believe any thing Burke writes and other Tweets ( Taj ?? )that were downgraded to unbelievable by many. I guess some just don't have the character to admit fault. It's easy. Lots of weasel word

Interesting for a person to question character,  when that person calls out our drafting due to lack of prospects going through our farm as a flaw to Benning and then flip flops to us having amazing drafting also as a flaw to Benning and singlehandedly praising Brackett for it. So which is it?

 

No one was suggesting there wasn't a possibility that Brackett may be leaving. Many just didn't think we would be crippled if he did as some believed.

 

People were questioning those tweets that suggesting all the successful picks were Brackett and all the "bad" decisions were Benning's. Taj's credibility was questioned with his blatant hate bias towards Benning. JD Burke isn't far off with his assessments (do you agree with him that the Miller trade is bad even to this day?).

[PhillipBlunt]

32 minutes ago, Fred65 said:

Scouts = future of the franchise

Scouts - Player acquisition

32 minutes ago, Fred65 said:

Fiirst line centres = trade acquisition 

Most first line centers are drafted actually, and until there is concrete proof outside of some yahoos speculating on Twitter that Brackett was the scout most responsible for the success at the draft, this is nothing more than a scout moving on. 

32 minutes ago, Fred65 said:

Where would this team be without Petttersson, Hughes, Boeser and maybe Podkolzin, all draft picks selected  by the scouts

Benning is one of the scouts, remember that. 

32 minutes ago, Fred65 said:

 

and all upgrades on Vertanin, McCann and Juolevi

Virtanen has a banner year this season. 

[Ghostsof1915]

As long as Delorme isn't director of scouting again......