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Opinions on Mike Gillis


Bren Mo

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28th place PP

10th in the West.

20th place in league standings.

Six years ago he inherited this team :

15th best PP

3rd in the West

8th in league standings

Despite being gifted a team whose ownership allowed him to spend to the cap maximum and inheriting a 'core group' that took healthy discounts to win together as Canucks, the team is markedly worse than when he was gifted it.

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28th place PP

10th in the West.

20th place in league standings.

Six years ago he inherited this team :

15th best PP

3rd in the West

8th in league standings

Despite being gifted a team whose ownership spent to the cap and inheriting a 'core group' that took healthy discounts to win together as Canucks, the team is markedly worse than when he was gifted it.

The team he inheretid missed the playoffs. They were 11th in the west and 21st in the league. Also had the 12th worst PP.

THat's the team he inherited. You're talking about the team a year after he took over.

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Mike Gillis is stellar at two things: free agency, and cap management.

Most of the players he has signed over the years have turned out to be good to great. Hamhuis, Samuelson, Malhotra, Torres, Tanev, Lack, Garrison, Santorelli, and Richardson were great signings. Even other players like Sundin, Demitra, Wellwood, Glass, Rome, and Raycroft were pretty serviceable. The only notable duds I can think of were M.Schneider and Sturm.

Mike Gillis is seems to be terrible with trades and drafting.

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The Canucks won back to back Presidents Trophies followed by a division title. They then got smacked with a salary cap reduction.

Gillis managed to keep that core together while making several small moves that were phenomenal in hindsight.

At the time I was frustrated when he moved Corey Schneider, despite us having Luongo, a good young back-up and Lack, plus adding a blue chip prospect. I was hoping he would get at least a fringe 2nd line player or solid bottom pairing defenseman in addition to that pick.

Mike Santorelli and Ryan Stanton. Incredible pick-ups! More or less discarded players that provided insane value for their contracts.

Richardson was also a strong free agent signing. Re-upping Sestito for two years was a smart move as well (at the time it was terrible).

Again Mike Gillis added a good free prospect in Kellan Lain.

Considering he had very little to work with Gillis made excellent, shrewd moves in the offseason both brining in guys who contributed for cheap while also building for the future.

I put the blame of this season mostly on the players, perhaps on the coaching, but not on MG.

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Gillis has done a good job filling out the bottom of the roster.

With good backup goalies. Bottom six forwards and depth d-men like Stanton.

The problem is the core needs to be changed and it is not enough to just tinker around the outside anymore.

He needs to make at the very least 2 major moves involving core players this off-season or this team will be going nowhere again next year.

The cap is going to go up next season and Booth should be bought out. Plus Gillis will have the whole summer and the lessons he learned from overvaluing Luongo to pull the trigger on trades of core players.

Once that happens the only thing left to see is what kind of quality Gillis can get back.

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Santorelli, Stanton, and Richardson are all good pickups. I think the injuries of Santo and Stanton really hurt the team this season. I think the moment Ryan Stanton got injured is when the team started slumping not saying he is a difference maker but his presence could have been a factor in winning so many close games during December.

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Santorelli, Stanton, and Richardson are all good pickups. I think the injuries of Santo and Stanton really hurt the team this season. I think the moment Ryan Stanton got injured is when the team started slumping not saying he is a difference maker but his presence could have been a factor in winning so many close games during December.

If the Canucks season hinged on injuries to a journeyman 3rd-4th line forward and a waiver wire pick up depth d-man then this team was doomed from game 1 this season. Just sayin'...

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1) one of his main strengths is understanding the salary cap. He does a very good job at this actually and we have seen it in guys sitting on the IR maybe a tad longer than they could have as well as his convincing players to stay for a.little less $ (in exchange for ntcs, by making it more.comfortable for our players with the little things, and stuff like that)

2) he is patient to a fault. It worked when he kept av around and didnt.dismantle the team when he first came on board. That being said he doesnt act quickly on things either and they tend to get.drawn out over long periods of time.

3) i dont think he likes risk. He would rather do nothing than take a chance

4) he prefers balance than a combination of.elite players and lower tier players. He would.rather roll 4 lines of.guys who are all 2nd-3rd liners than have a true first line and true 4th line. On d he wants 4-5 top 2nd pairing guys rather than a true elite guy or 2 and a couple weak links

5) he prefers good skating and skill over toughness and determination

6) his trades are based on getting rid of small assetts in exchange for what he hopes will be diamonds in the rough. No blockbusters as.its too much risk

One of the biggest weaknesses of the Canucks, if not the biggest, is the lack of drafting over the past two decades. Nothing, really, has changed on that front. On points 2 and 4, lets recall how Pat Quinn gutted the 1994 roster by taking out a lot of those awesome hard working blue collar guys that made the team what it was. We all know where it went from there. Then we had that really intelligent Messier signing which nailed it.

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If the Canucks season hinged on injuries to a journeyman 3rd-4th line forward and a waiver wire pick up depth d-man then this team was doomed from game 1 this season. Just sayin'...

Truth.

Considering that Santorelli was more luck than anything. A great signing sure, but he wasn't even signed to be an NHLer.

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I'm not a big fan of MG but I don't think we can blame all the woes of the Nucks on him. Trying to keep the core (who did get the SCF) together when the salary cap went down, along with the continuously low 1st round draft picks (due to having a winning team) has made it hard to improve.

Right from the beginning of the season I considered this year a wash and that things would pick up in the next year or two. MG has some decent prospects coming along and with the cap going up, he will have more opportunities to improve the team.

I am very interested in seeing what he does about Lu, as well as the possibility of trading a core player. I do believe the team is 2 or 3 players shy of being a contender again (and that's not counting prospects that may prove themselves next season).

Unfortunatly, it appears that there are a growing number of players that do not want to play on a Canadian team, so it may be difficlult to make the changes needed. This of course will lead to gathering picks and prospect when making trades, so filling those holes will become more difficult.

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