Ballisticsports.

(I mentioned years ago), That perhaps the NHLPA should negotiate a limit on a % of what any single player could make of the cap (when signed) and that way All the NHLPA members benefit from the cap increase evenly?

Is it possible that a professional coach's get too much credit or discredit for how a team plays? He is just another chemistry make up of the team that all have to follow each other He is another leader of the the pack with direction (like Epstein was for the Beatles-just watched the documentary ) Why is it some players can stay with a team their whole career and not a coach or GM? In real life an employee can start with a company and become a Supervisor or foreman until they retire (if they choose to stay) and the workers, know they were hired to do a job and just do it and realize someone has to be in charge to organize and accept it Having said that I like the way this team looks like it will have to be more accountable to one another (and not just the coaches) and change the culture here, like lazy skates to the bench on a change (if you can't get your butt to the bench because you stayed out too long, your saunter to the bench could have stopped and advantage on scoring or being scored on or caused a 2 many men penalty in a game of secs (I wanna see hustle) especially when you only play 10-15 min a day Break your pay down to the hour and it is absurd to not give a full shift of effort

The problem is JB was giving away picks for bottom 6 guys who sat on the bench, in the minors, or then traded them with more of our picks to move them, horrible moves while we had our future core on ELC and needed more younger players to insert into the lineup into the future as we began paying our stars, Plus having us capped out while at the bottom of the league all those years, left us with little options to improve acquiring picks or players Just as we will be forced to move OEL/Garland, we were forced to provide our stars with good surrounding players in weak positions we didn't develop and without tearing the core apart and building properly, this was a very good move for what was needed. With the right building & developing of our high 2nd and on round picks, we should be emerging as a top contender already

Where could he sign for the money and expect to be on a contending team though / If he wants to be "the guy" and be paid for it, you will be the guy to make everyone better with your desire and lead the other's If he wants to be a supporting player on a winning team he will be paid supporting player (as contending teams are set and capped) I think he will stay here and lead the team to be more competitive

Neither am I . How many rebuilding teams even use assets on rentals? A 2nd rounder being at the bottom of league is like a late 1st rounder As a rebuilding team we could not afford to be always throw picks away like we had on bottom 6 plugs, while over paying them JB made huge amounts of mistakes in "building" a team, but I am not as generous as you on using assets on a rental, who even wanted to stay (even cheap) and then let walk for nothing (I wanted Jake to walk for nothing rather than sign him I did not agree with getting TT, but he was an asset we had to use or convert to a better pick than we spent to get him and still build

They must REALLY appreciate what Meyers did for $6 million each year to do that

Seems you were right on this Alf I just read “We all felt the team needed a different viewpoint but it became apparent to me early on that this (Tortorella as head coach) wasn’t going to work, and as I made those feelings clearer– I said later on that I didn’t like the direction of the team and where we were headed – I knew I was becoming part of the problem and not the solution by doing that. “The solution is to find your way out of it and do your best, but I didn’t see a way we could emerge from this intact. I was watching a lot of the things we had done that gave us a competitive advantage go out the window, and I made my position clear. And in professional sports, 90 per cent of the time, as Laurence likes to say, you get rid of your problem. I was the problem and I deserved to go because I disagreed with certain things.” Asked if Tortorella’s hiring was the beginning of the end for him, Gillis said: “When I couldn’t be influential in the things I thought I should be influential in, I guess so. (making trades, coach decision etc) “It wasn’t a fit. It just wasn’t a fit. I disagreed with abusing the players. I disagreed with the fire and brimstone stuff, and clearly the attempt on Hockey Night in Canada to go and fight Bob Hartley, those are things that just didn’t fit with where I thought we should be, professionally. “It makes good television I guess, but when your head coach gets suspended for 15 games, you’re done, it’s over.”

I thought Gilman and the Canucks ability in re-signing their own or bringing players into the fold through free agency, was above and beyond that of their peers. the Sedin twins at $6-million apiece in their prime years, Ryan Kesler at $5-million per in his prime years, Kevin Bieksa at $4.6-million, Alexandre Burrows at $2.5-million for four excellent years, Alexander Edler at $5-million per season. For many, those contracts look worse in retrospect with the impact that no-trade clauses had on many of them. I’ve always found those arguments disingenuous, given the climate in which Gillis and company signed those contracts. It wasn’t about the future — it was about winning a Stanley Cup. That was the way they kept the annual average down, and it worked. The number of no-trades on the team was right at about the middle of the league. It wasn’t at the top end or at the bottom end. It was centralized. The only no-move contracts that they handed out were to Daniel and Henrik, and that was obvious — they weren’t going to go anywhere without each other anyway. With a no-trade contract to a player, It means a player will be kept if he is still useful to the team and holds up his end of the bargain, if you get to a point where you really wanted to move that player, the threat of sending them to the minors almost always results in the player being more open or completely open to being traded. It is the NMC that is worrisome I recall Gillis talking how he would’ve recaptured the draft picks the Canucks had traded away to help win them the Cup. “We had a plan for that,” said Gillis. “We had really strong players who were highly desirable. We had some trades on the table at the deadline before I got fired that would’ve changed the landscape of the team.” “There were a couple and they didn’t happen. That was an organizational decision that didn’t happen.” (If you didn’t catch that, that “organizational decision” means his trades were vetoed by the one party who has the power to veto his decisions). They also were after Larkin (instead of JV) and along with Horvat (Henrik) would have been a good middle

I was thinking Pesce was a 3rd rounder When have the Canucks drafted a good 3rd+ rounder and one that could get a 1st round pick? (Bure was a fluke because of the iron curtain, but in todays world he never would have been)

Also with Florida tax break and being on a stronger team he would have waned even more to be lured away to the Canucks

Taxpayers pay millions to Hockey Canada (an yet the NHL as far as i know pays nothing)? The players and owners who have made millions off the system don't feel the need to support what made them millions? If the NHL supported minor hockey, then it would be like they are apprenticing players and the draft is employing there apprentices until 25 yrs old The NHLPA is online with the draft as it is, it's not stuck in 1623 though, without the draft as it is it the business and league would die and there would be less players and teams, making less money in a weaker league

They do it to get people talking Can you imagine the talk here if we had Montreal's spot and picked who they did? Didn't they go off the board last year too?

I for one will be glad when the pool has emptied out Never been a fan of overpaying for long term retirement contracts Unless they just want to be here for far less than market value and term, I think we should have learned our lesson by now

This is the guy who should be talking about the draft, after all this is the scouts day for all the work they put in

What happened to the bad old days of giving picks for overpaid plugs with long term, just so you could get rid of them giving away more picks or buy them out?

I agree I don't know enough about any of these kids and surely no one on here has more knowledge than what our scouting team has seen and heard from the kid He just wants to play hockey and in Vancouver, so I hope the best for TW and to be better than what management even expects As in any draft, players picked below him may turn into stars, (as may TW) and plays in a harder to find position

I wonder if Chicago would have wanted Boeser before Hall ? Also wonder what the response would have been here, if we had done that deal with Chicago with Boeser or Garland

Unlike our strategy for 8 years of trading picks and paying top $ and term for bottom 6 anchors We could have been sitting pretty good right now with this approach

Hopefully BPA is a Canadian with desire, grit and speed We had 12 Canadians this year with Ethan Bear Anthony Beauvillier Travis Dermott Micheal Ferland (on the roster not the ice ) Jack Studnicka Tanner Pearson Phillip Di Giuseppe

The general manager of a team typically controls player transactions and bears the primary responsibility on behalf of the hockey club during contract discussions with players.(so omitting OEL is silly) The GM is not the Scouting Dept. but is in charge of it, and it can take years to see if scouting staff are good at their jobs i can't believe how many on here judge a GM by who the scouts sold to the Managerial team based on the scouts research Again, the General Manager is a team executive, responsible for acquiring the rights to player personnel, negotiating their contracts, and reassigning or dismissing players no longer desired on the team. The general manager may also have responsibility for hiring the head coach of the team.(how many overpaid 3rd and 4th liners did JB invest in putting us at the cap and trading picks to sit on the bench in the minors or paid to play for other teams, while always having us at the bottom of the league) I always argued why are we spending so much on those players when you should build from the Goalie out, We easily had the most expensive bottom 9 forward players As far as managing between what seems to be the most common comparison of past GM's I think there is no comparison between the two as far as managing a team I think Gillis being a players agent knew what the player's wanted and he wanted to turn Vancouver into a destination for NHL players—not easy for a team with an onerous travel schedule and a spotty playoff history. The Canucks also didn't own their own farm and development team until Gillis in 2013 As an agent (and former player), though, MG understood exactly what players wanted and valued. Sleep experts from the U.S. Air Force were consulted on ways to minimize the effects of the taxing travel demands. Chefs and nutritionists were engaged to prepare optimal diets for players whose default choice was McDonald’s. Psychologists were made available to deal with personal and professional stresses. The dressing room was reconfigured into a circle. The idea, says Gillis, was “to make Vancouver a place where players tell their agent they want to play.” One's perspective is a funny thing, though. The one that takes precedent in the minds of most who follow the Canucks is the way that era of Canucks’ hockey ended and the mess that was left behind. Objectively,(there’s a pretty strong case). The Canucks owed to the highest points percentage of their existence under Gillis’ watchful eye, and the best playoff record, too. The team MG inherited scored 2.52 points per game and raised that to 3.27 in the 2009-10 season and 3.11 in the 2010-11 season, a number that led the entire league. This is as good as it ever got. It’s just that simple. This isn’t to say Gillis was perfect in his role. There’s ample material for the cons side of the ledger, too. His relationship with the media, and perhaps even the fans at times, will have a prominent place Gilman expressed his regret in not making changes to their scouting staff far earlier in the process. Does Gillis share those regrets? You bet. They’re among his biggest regrets from his entire tenure with the Canucks. It should go without saying that Gillis’ relationship with the media during his tenure was spotty at best. He seemed terse, impatient and even downright arrogant from time to time; he came off as someone who thought himself the smartest man in the room, regardless of where he stood. I was indifferent to it and didn't upset me The Canucks ability to make hay on contracts, whether it was re-signing their own or bringing players into the fold through free agency, was above and beyond that of their peers. Here’s the greatest hits: the Sedin twins at $6-million apiece in their prime years, Ryan Kesler at $5-million per in his prime years, Kevin Bieksa at $4.6-million, Alexandre Burrows at $2.5-million for four excellent years, Alexander Edler at $5-million per season . For many, those contracts look worse in retrospect with the impact that no-trade clauses had on many of them. I’ve always found those arguments disingenuous, given the climate in which Gillis and company signed those contracts. It wasn’t about the future — it was about winning a Stanley Cup. That was the way they kept the annual average down, and it worked. Gillis had said “ Our mandate was to win, when you’re constructing a team, the quid pro quo when you’re doing contracts — and Laurence Gilman and I have probably had done more player contracts than any two people on the planet, and he likes to say you’re either on the pill or you’re trying to get pregnant. We were trying to win, so you do things. “Again, the number of no-trades on the team was right at about the middle of the league. It wasn’t at the top end or at the bottom end. It was centralized. We didn’t feel like we were skewed one way or the other. The only no-move contracts that we handed out were to Daniel and Henrik, and that was obvious — they weren’t going to go anywhere without each other anyway. “We always felt that if you even gave a no-trade contract to a player, if you got to a point where you really wanted to move that player, the threat of sending them to the minors almost always resulted in the player being more open or completely open to being traded. (Something I think JB failed) Players are really acute to other players that are coming in that are going to take their position. One of the things that we did with all of the players was that we invested in them, and we invested in their careers. We explained to them, that by doing so, they would have longer careers. If you do the math, and you add three years onto any NHL player’s career, it’s an incredible amount of money. “In doing so, if there’s a younger player coming along — maybe like Roberto and Cory in that situation — the older player started to go “OK, my mortality is staring me in the face, maybe I need to go somewhere else where I’m going to have more of an opportunity to play longer.” Roberto might not be the best case for that with the length of his contract, but that’s what players are thinking. No-trades don’t have the stigma that people like to attach to them if handled properly.” Gillis’ tenure is completely different if the Canucks win one more hockey game in the 2011 Stanley Cup final, they’d have built a statue for him outside of Rogers Arena. But they didn’t win that game, and what transpired afterwards has changed that conversation entirely. As many have suspected, ownership essentially vetoed Gillis’ plan to rebuild the club far earlier than his dismissal. It’s a complicated thing to tackle — Gillis’ legacy. It’s inarguable that his time with the club was the best that Vancouver has ever known from a hockey perspective. At the very least, one has to grant that it was the most compelling. Sure, it was flawed, too. But that goes for any management team. The advances this club made in sports science, salary cap infrastructure and analytics alone can’t be understated under Gillis and that showed up in their results Discussing Gillis’ time with the Canucks will never be easy. There’s joy, pain, pride, shame, sorrow, and any other human emotion imaginable attached to that era of Vancouver hockey. I am not living in the past holding onto either of these or past GM's as the be all to end all When in fact both failed to bring the cup to Vancouver I am just waiting for that day when we do build that statue for the GM that brings us the cup (having said that i won't further the debate any further on it)

This exactly He wasn't the scout of this team One doesn't have time to do that while managing a team and why they employ a full-time scouting team in different leagues and why GM's say the draft is the scouting day to shine A GM is more familiar with already Proven NHL players (like OEL whom poster wanted to omit) and go after them (,except for Miller in nearly a decade JB failed on trades of players he was familiar with) What great GENERAL Managing (not scout) did he actually accomplish that is worthy? He built a overpriced team of individuals with no culture and sold the farm (while in the basement, not going for a Cup) He divided his managing team (except Weisbrod) He divided his fanbase and lost a lot of diehard fans

Why would they though? He helped them get a cup in just 5 years and always a top team from the start Now Bettman can sell teams on costly expansion fees

We need more Canadian players

I am baffled why you defend one of the worst managing GM in Canuck history instead of moving on? (Just listen to Smyl and others discuss his lack of managing and communicating with staff) You say he had a bad hand and Yet in 2016 Even JB Disagreed with you and said the exact opposite and that we would be up competing with the elite teams in 2018 and 2019 (Not only are you disputing posters but JB himself) Linden at the same time said it was 4-5 years Linden helped get JB his extension and from that point JB was reporting directly to owners From those close to Linden, the story was that it was Weisbrod who went directly to ownership, directly or indirectly, and worked to convince them Linden's plan was the wrong direction for them and promised Ownership 2 yrs instead “Realistically, if you’re asking me when will the day be that we can compete with the best teams in the league, I think that [Sedin contract] timeline is fair,” said Benning. “This is year two, and by our fourth or fifth year, I hope we’ll be there with the elite teams in the league.” In response to later questions asking for more of a plan or a timeline, Benning said that, after seven years, he needs a couple more. To remind you, it is now the 2023/24 Season (Even Aquaman now knows he was hoodwinked and said he should have released him a few years ago) and the years he stayed on after that statement, even set us further back with more blunders than Linden's plan in 2016 JB had no plan and was bumbling around, He was like a kid when given his allowance had great ambitions to put in in the bank and save for something expensive he really wanted, but when he went into the candy shop he was broke again There is no reason to sign overpaid vets to long term contracts and outbid the rest of the league to get them, there are plenty of quality hard working players who are not big names to do that (VGK and Seattle as examples) to play beside your youngsters to lead them He had a longer kick at the can than any GM and kept them at the bottom of the standing longer than anyone, with the highest amount of draft picks available I am not sure if you are serious or just enjoy countertalk as their is no Canuck hockey ?

I took him for his word at the beginning Turns out he only amassed players instead of building a team You asked someone what their expectations of JB were? How about JB own words ? Back in 2016, he laid out a timeline for when the team would be a true contender. “Realistically, if you’re asking me when will the day be that we can compete with the best teams in the league, I think that [Sedin contract] timeline is fair,” said Benning. “This is year two, and by our fourth or fifth year, I hope we’ll be there with the elite teams in the league.” The Sedins’ contracts ended and they retired without getting back to the playoffs. So MANY years late rand the Canucks are Still not there with the elite teams. They’re in all likelihood not even a playoff team. When asked when fans could expect the Canucks to be an elite team, Benning equivocated. “We're gonna have to have patience. When you talk about drafting, developing, and when these players are ready to play, stepping in,” he said. “We have some players that step in right away like Petey and Quinn and they have success right away and then there's other players like Olli Juolevi that takes a little bit longer to develop.” In response to later questions asking for more of a plan or a timeline, Benning said that, after seven years, he needs a couple more. The guy wasn't a builder