Dazzle

This is a very dishonest take. Demko - 2nd round. Gillis couldn't draft one in any of the 2nd rounders that he did have, nor ANY of the picks he had. Mikey Dipietro? And there's actually a decent crop of potential crops coming up here. Rathbone/Woo. Lots of potential. Brisebois is not bad for a 3rd rounder, if a bit underwhelming. Gillis really struggled with development. Gillis had nothing. Hutton? Yeah, no. Forwards - aside from Horvat, which ironically was acquired from Gillis "drafting high", what forwards did Gillis have that were homegrown? He threw away a lot of the assets that he did have to fill temporary spots. I don't think anyone will deny that Gillis knew how to fill supplementary roles. But like Benning, he only knew one/limited parts of GMing. Yet the praise that Gillis still gets today is unwarranted. There is a reason why he isn't a GM for any other team. Part of that was how he handled himself in executive roles, specifically with his past as a player agent.

Totally agreed. Although JB had an impressive offseason which no one will dispute, the problem has always been for him to fill holes in his lineup in the most effective ways. It realy does seem like nothing Benning does helps, although pieces like Miller and Garland are really good.

Actually, I wouldn't say I lied, but I would say maybe I exaggerated a bit to make an overall point. The fact that Gillis had NO REPLACEMENTS would ultimately lead to a decline for the overall team. Furthermore, I really see how your points about Gillis' success in the season (not really a dispute) are somehow more important than all the draft picks/development he squandered; it's not like Gillis didn't have picks. He just missed all of them when he did, and traded away some potential ones without any sort of plan on replacing them. My theme with this is that Gillis had no strategy for the future. It was all or nothing with him, and that is just foolish GMing. Benning's problem has always been that he could never bring this team over the top with supplemental pieces. This was something that Gillis was very very good at it. One thing for sure is that when Benning is gone, the team has a much better chance of competing well in the future. When Gillis left the team, no one was going to succeed. The team lacked: a) starter goalie - Schneider was gone, leaving an old Luongo. One hole was made open to fill another hole. b) no top four defenseman. Hell, not even a serviceable depth defenseman. Tanev was a free asset, but not enough. c) no solid forwards not named Horvat. How could any GM after Gillis succeed right off the bat? Benning, in hindsight, shouldn't have boasted that this team would be a playoff team. He made his job a lot more difficult than he realized. Moreover, Benning's final coffin is likely his re-hiring of Green. I don't know if was his choice or Aquilini, but the fact that Green was kept demonstrates incompetence at the top level. So in short, romanticizing Gillis misses out on some major discussion points of this team, all of which are still relevant today.

Sean Avery stopped being relevant a while ago.

It certainly does feel that way. That being said, Garland is great.

Uh, no. Gaudette had crap faceoffs, but not only was he scoring, he was not a good penalty killer. While I don't think Dickenson has shown off his worth, it's clear that Gaudette is not even worth much to Chicago because of his one-dimensional game.

And none of the core pieces were GIllis'. It's his supplemental pieces that were far more effective than whatever Benning brought to table. When you have a team that was LITERALLY carried by the other GMS before him, you'll realize just how spoiled Gillis was with talent. He didn't know how to maintain it, nor prolong it. By the time Gillis got fired, he mortgaged so much of the future that you only got a barebones version of a hockey team. The points don't matter when he was wheeling and dealing as much as he did WITHOUT success. Gillis seems like a decent guy though. At least he admitted he sucked at drafting in hindsight. Let's not kid ourselves here. I was a big fan of Gillis when he was GM. I just saw the price he paid afterwards that left me thoroughly disgusted. If he was SO GOOD at being a GM as you are implying, why wasn't he even a frontrunner for Pittsburgh? That was his most recent bid to possibly be a GM. It's rather damning that Gillis could not get another executive job again - EVEN with his so-called success. i'll have you know, he wasn't even CONSIDERED even though he put together a package about himself that got ultimately leaked. To put things into perspective, this is what happened. Gillis inherited a muscle car from his dad. He put some spoilers and a nice muffler. However, he doesn't know how to fix his engines, nor did he even bother to take it to the shop for maintenance. The car he inherited ended up being sold for scrap metal because he blew the engine, the motors, and the suspensions, before ultimately having the car stripped of its parts and sold at the lowest figure. That's what Gillis did with that muscle car. Oh and don't forget about that debt he incurred. That debt is why we are still where we are. We still don't have a legitimate top pairing defenseman DRAFTED, which should have been on the roster in his prime RIGHT NOW. That player is not here on this team because Gillis couldn't draft one - at ANY round. In fact, he drafted/developed very few NHL players. Gillis is the epitome of mismanagement. Benning drafted A LOT better than Gillis, but never had the main pieces that Gillis inherited. Both GMs hired bad coaches throughout their tenures. What we see is mediocrity/poor performances with both GMs.

Aside from the 2011 stretch, there weren't many times when Gillis was truly a contender GM. If you actually looked back at our records, Vancouver was very much in decline, and that started with the Sedins down. This was ultimately the result of a team that had no replacements incoming. Look no further when there were no equivalent or prominent replacements for the Sedins. No replacement for Edler or any other defensive position, and shockingly, the only prospect worth mentioning aside from Horvat was Schneider. Also traded away. You might want to revisit what you mean by contenders. I can't think of a team that has that level of visible decline that also missed playoffs would be considered a contender. Lol... You crack me up Provost.

This is exactly what we should keep in mind. But the angry mass seem to think that firing the owner is a thing. Also, there is a significant lack of perspective if people think Aquilino is a 'cheap' owner lol. This forum has a lot of complaining, and rightfully so. But they are often aimed at the wrong people. A coach is responsible for the day to day stuff of the team, including preparation. Too many times has Green been given 'slack' because most of the blame has put on Benning. Does it mean Benning doesn't deserve criticism? Not at all, but he should be evaluated for what he has or hasn't done as GM. The biggest blunder of Benning that he could've controlled? Extending Green. It's insanity to expect he would be different than previous years. In fact, until the bubble, Green didn't have any real standout years, unlike WD. Why management believed in him is beyond me.

It's rather hypocritical was my point. If you're gonna criticize a GM for not doing something, well which other GM previously did better? Not Gillis. Keep in mind, there are still many on this board who think Gillis is the best GM ever when really those people highlight his accomplishments, but ignore his faults.

WD has literally been with just us, minus some minor stops in LA... And green has had a much better roster than what WD ever had. Not to mention, WD overachieved significantly in his first season. The Canucks were at the top of the league. The closest that Green has done is the bubble.

I'm all for throwing this season away. Trade Miller for a good pick, but keep the younger players. Sorry, but Bo should be traded for a strong pick. Pettersson/Hughes can stay, and so can Boeser. Sell high for the pieces you can get, and rebuild through the draft/trade deadline. The Canucks can absolutely profit off this.

The problem is that most observers, including myself, knew that Green was probably a poor choice, in light of his overall record. This is a guy who has a hot run in the bubble, but overall had a winning record of around 50 percent. That is akin to WD who is no longer coaching, and he had poor rosters throughout his time here. Green, however, doesn't get to use this excuse. And here, management still extended Green. You'd have to be insane if doing the same thing over and over would produce a better or different result. Green should've been fired weeks ago. The preseason he strung together was absolutely garbage. The way he handled Juolevi was trash, along with Gadjovich. And we saw early on in the season that there was a lot of stuff to fix from preseason. It makes me wonder about how Green could still be thought of as a good coach. Where's the evidence for this? The problem with this team and management has been to continually shoot themselves with poor decisions. Green's extension is probably the worst, especially since we knew what Green was like.

We were lost when management extended Green. I was flabbergasted that they retained a coach who has such a similar winning record as Willie freaking Desjardins. At the very least he had a stellar first season before going downwards. Green has been mediocre from start to finish, and Benning or whoever decides he was worth a two year contract. Benning really did himself a disservice after all the work he did this offseason to fix the team. He might never get another chance.

Good trade for both teams then.

It's what happens when you have a coach remaining on the team that has a coaching record which doesn't show that much promise.

Why didn't Toronto just claim the first time around? I guess now he can be assigned to AHL, but still.. A trade for the sake of making a trade, practically.

Dunno about that. He doesn't have a glowing record at all career wise. Not sure why people think he's gonna be sought after around the league. He's done very little (in the grand scheme of things with coaches) to deserve this apparent praise that he's a good coach.

And how did Gillis do with development again? Oh right, there was nothing in the pipeline. Also, Rathbone and Woo are very much in the mix, especially Rathbone. Conveniently forgotten of course.

I'm fairly certain that you don't want to bad mouth the previous coach just to boost yourself. MacTavish has had a much more established career as a coach, so he doesn't need to push a nobody like Green (by comaparison) down to make himself stand out. I wouldn't take a person's public comments as genuine. It is more than likely they will criticize someone OFF THE RECORD.

Where did you hear this?

Perhaps Benning has his hands tied because Green is apparently well-liked by management? IMHO, both need to be fired, but an argument could be made not to extend Green earlier. I just don't know why they stuck their guns with this coaching staff. Maybe Newell Brown wasn't the problem.

Ah, I thought he was convicted and sent to prison.

Are we that desperate for coaching staff that we have to pull this dude from prison?

Petey regressed hard after signing this contract. It sucks that in hindsight, we should've traded him for Eichel.