(Rumour) Gillis and Gilman in talks with NY Islanders

[Monty]

First off. Gillis.

 

The average hockey fan always, ALWAYS focuses on the weaknesses of a GM, not the strengths. So did Gillis not draft well? Absolutely. Did he trade much? Not really.

 

However, his strengths tend to get overlooked. And even the positives he did during the "win now" phase, like the amount of NTC have been spun years later to ONLY be a negative. Nobody was complaining when the team was winning and those NTC helped to lock guy's up to cheaper contracts than the market was asking for those players, or players like them. 

 

The biggest positive was all the internal things that Gillis implemented. The amount of travel the Canucks have endured every year is unlike any team in the NHL. This effects injuries, sleep, and fatigue that have always plagued Vancouver, simply due to where the team is located. He invested a lot of resources into ensuring that players were treated well when they were off the ice (dressing room, sleep doctors, etc). Vancouver really transformed under his watch for all the "behind the scenes" stuff that only players see.

 

Obviously he mismanaged certain things, most notably Luongo/Schneider. Now, we do not know how much (if at all) ownership tied his hands with that situation. Luongo's contract ("My contract sucks"  ) is just as much his agent and ownerships fault as it is Gillis. You don't hand out that much money and term without checking with the guys who write the cheque; nor does a GM say "Here's your contract, sign it." However, as much as I've always said that getting a 9th overall pick for a backup goaltender (at the time) who had never played a full season was a great return, and that Horvat is terrific, trading Schneider was a mistake. Being in Winnipeg, and playing goalie myself from the ages of 6-16, I studied the position as much as any "fan" can. Schneider was special and trading him was an error. That is on Gillis and ownership.

 

Now, that was just on Gillis. As for Benning, most of his moves I have not been a fan of. Right at the time it happened, drafting Virtanen reeked of "He's from Vancouver. Having a local kid to sell to the fanbase is important." It was clear at the time that both Nylander and Ehlers were the better players. Drafting someone because you needed more sandpaper but was clearly not as talented, nor did he have as High hockey IQ (as was the scouting report on him) was really bad. 

 

Also, for a team that any knowledgable fan could see needed to rebuild, trading certain picks for "meh" young players was a huge error as well. To me, the Baertschi trade never made sense and will end up being a huge mistake. A lot of people (definitely not me), loved it at the time and loved it last year. However, wait until defenseman Rasmus Andersson (who the Flames drafted with that 2nd round pick), starts playing next year for the Flames. As a 20 year old in his first season in the AHL, his 12 points in 18 games and his +10 (2nd on the team) have him poised to likely get a call up this year alone. Once Wideman's gone next year, look for Andersson to take his spot on as the third pairing RHD.

 

Now, I will say that Boeser looks to be a solid pick, and "dropping" to the 5th overall pick this last year and selecting a defenseman in Juolevi was needed (they hadn't selected a defenseman in the first two rounds since 2008). He looks to be correcting some of those drafting errors he made, which is terrific to see.

 

However, botching those selections and signing Eriksson, who I've always loved, to a $6M x 6 contract was atrocious. This signing vaulted the Canucks from finishing 15th in the West to finishing 11th in the West.

[Rush17]

On 06/12/2016 at 0:11 PM, TheRussianRocket. said:

Say what you want but MG was the greatest GM in franchise history. The things he was able to accomplish were amazing and it led to the best stretch of Canucks hockey ever.

 

...I've been wondering for a couple years now why no one else has given him a shot seeing he has an incredible track record - the way he was able to turn Vancouver around. Would love to see both Gillis and Gilman back in the league - both are management wizards.

I can't tell if your being sarcastic.   none of the good players on the team were because of Gillis. with the acception of his one and only good pick in both Horvat. 

 

he added complimentary players well 1 season.  other then that he ran the franchise into the ground by solely focusing on the now and ignoring the future. 

 

I can't tell if ur poet is sincere or a troll.  I can't believe the + votes.  we are all entitled to our opinions though!

[Rush17]

On 06/12/2016 at 0:21 PM, coastal.view said:

haha

Pat Quinn says hi

and over his shoulder Brian Burke is also waving

Gillis was certainly decent and did a good job with what he inherited - he managed a team rich in talent

but you are ignoring his biggest flaw and that is the poor shape the organization was in when he left

he is not the best gm here and likely is not in the top 3

 

edit: and the fact that few or no teams expressed much interest up till now should also give you a clue about what other hockey people think/thought of him

 

the one and only quality draft pick in his final few years was bo. I think the credit for bo largely belong to crawford and Gillman if anyone.

 

Gillis did great for one season when the team was stacked and in their prime. his failure to get the team out of the first round though is his to bare. he only give av weaker and weaker teams the seasons after.  

 

not to mention he completely abandoned our teams successful model of fast pace hockey with the pursuit of becoming bigger and tougher.   the Kassian deal will remain his major turning point.  

 

I wish him well but he needs less workload to be successful.  president and Gm was too much for Gillis.  hope Gillman gets a shot. 

[Rush17]

21 hours ago, King Heffy said:

Garth Snow is a better GM than Gillis.  Wouldn't mind seeing that idiot destroy another team though.

can't wait to hear canucks fans say jb out gmd by mg.  that would be hilarious 

 

jb has made some bold moves.  I'm happy hes been able to bring in some quality players in Sutter, guddy, and granny.

[messier's_elbow]

On 2016-12-06 at 0:11 PM, TheRussianRocket. said:

Say what you want but MG was the greatest GM in franchise history. The things he was able to accomplish were amazing and it led to the best stretch of Canucks hockey ever.

 

...I've been wondering for a couple years now why no one else has given him a shot seeing he has an incredible track record - the way he was able to turn Vancouver around. Would love to see both Gillis and Gilman back in the league - both are management wizards.

I said these same thing 2 years ago and got bashed. Yet you get 30 rep points. Probably cause my names Messier lol

[TheRussianRocket.]

1 minute ago, messier's_elbow said:

I said these same thing 2 years ago and got bashed. Yet you get 30 rep points. Probably cause my names Messier lol

Lol, maybe. Probably because tho it was too soon and not enough time for people to wrap their head around what MG built. Takes a bit of time to realize and be thankful. Sometime you don't know the true value of things until you lose them.

 

 

 

2 hours ago, Rush17 said:

I can't tell if your being sarcastic.   none of the good players on the team were because of Gillis. with the acception of his one and only good pick in both Horvat. 

 

he added complimentary players well 1 season.  other then that he ran the franchise into the ground by solely focusing on the now and ignoring the future. 

 

I can't tell if ur poet is sincere or a troll.  I can't believe the + votes.  we are all entitled to our opinions though!

Likewise, I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or serious 

[CaNuCkSLoUiE23]

Gilman is not bad. Still wish we had him. 

[Harvey Spector]

On 2016-12-06 at 0:37 PM, apollo said:

I could be wrong but I think he's getting paid close to his full contract and that would be void if he accepted another job. Or at least he'd get less. 

 

So why not continue to live in BC and get paid top dollar? Last I heard he was teaching at UVic? 

 

He's without a doubt the greatest GM in franchise history... that being said, I've only been around since 2001ish so no disrespect to Pat Quinn who I hear did an incredible job as well. 

 

 

Pat Quinn drafted Trevor Linden and Pavel Bure. He also drafted Mike Peca and Mattias Ohlund. His real skill however was making trades. He traded for Cliff Ronning, Geoff Courtnall, Alex Mogilny, Kirk McLean, Greg Adams.  He was also a great coach. He took us to game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals. When he came to Vancouver we were in really bad shape. We were close to getting sold actually. The Griffiths family were bleeding money and there were 7,000 fans showing up at the Coliseum for games. It was ugly back in the 1980's. Other than the miracle Stanley Cup run of 1982 the 1980's were the worst period for the Canucks. Pat Quinn literally saved this franchise. He took us from the bottom of the barrel to Stanley Cup contender in under 5 years. 

 

Mike Gillis was also a very good GM in my opinion. He also took us to game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals. And so was Brian Burke. He brought us the Sedins. All three had their pluses and minuses. But at the end of the day if you look at the overall accomplishments of each of the three and compare them plus you add the intangibles like coaching, drafting, making trades and player development I would say that Pat Quinn was the greatest GM we ever had. 

[Honky Cat]

On 12/7/2016 at 9:46 AM, Monty said:

First off. Gillis.

 

The average hockey fan always, ALWAYS focuses on the weaknesses of a GM, not the strengths. So did Gillis not draft well? Absolutely. Did he trade much? Not really.

 

However, his strengths tend to get overlooked. And even the positives he did during the "win now" phase, like the amount of NTC have been spun years later to ONLY be a negative. Nobody was complaining when the team was winning and those NTC helped to lock guy's up to cheaper contracts than the market was asking for those players, or players like them. 

 

The biggest positive was all the internal things that Gillis implemented. The amount of travel the Canucks have endured every year is unlike any team in the NHL. This effects injuries, sleep, and fatigue that have always plagued Vancouver, simply due to where the team is located. He invested a lot of resources into ensuring that players were treated well when they were off the ice (dressing room, sleep doctors, etc). Vancouver really transformed under his watch for all the "behind the scenes" stuff that only players see.

 

Obviously he mismanaged certain things, most notably Luongo/Schneider. Now, we do not know how much (if at all) ownership tied his hands with that situation. Luongo's contract ("My contract sucks"  ) is just as much his agent and ownerships fault as it is Gillis. You don't hand out that much money and term without checking with the guys who write the cheque; nor does a GM say "Here's your contract, sign it." However, as much as I've always said that getting a 9th overall pick for a backup goaltender (at the time) who had never played a full season was a great return, and that Horvat is terrific, trading Schneider was a mistake. Being in Winnipeg, and playing goalie myself from the ages of 6-16, I studied the position as much as any "fan" can. Schneider was special and trading him was an error. That is on Gillis and ownership.

 

Now, that was just on Gillis. As for Benning, most of his moves I have not been a fan of. Right at the time it happened, drafting Virtanen reeked of "He's from Vancouver. Having a local kid to sell to the fanbase is important." It was clear at the time that both Nylander and Ehlers were the better players. Drafting someone because you needed more sandpaper but was clearly not as talented, nor did he have as High hockey IQ (as was the scouting report on him) was really bad. 

 

Also, for a team that any knowledgable fan could see needed to rebuild, trading certain picks for "meh" young players was a huge error as well. To me, the Baertschi trade never made sense and will end up being a huge mistake. A lot of people (definitely not me), loved it at the time and loved it last year. However, wait until defenseman Rasmus Andersson (who the Flames drafted with that 2nd round pick), starts playing next year for the Flames. As a 20 year old in his first season in the AHL, his 12 points in 18 games and his +10 (2nd on the team) have him poised to likely get a call up this year alone. Once Wideman's gone next year, look for Andersson to take his spot on as the third pairing RHD.

 

Now, I will say that Boeser looks to be a solid pick, and "dropping" to the 5th overall pick this last year and selecting a defenseman in Juolevi was needed (they hadn't selected a defenseman in the first two rounds since 2008). He looks to be correcting some of those drafting errors he made, which is terrific to see.

 

However, botching those selections and signing Eriksson, who I've always loved, to a $6M x 6 contract was atrocious. This signing vaulted the Canucks from finishing 15th in the West to finishing 11th in the West.

Good post..Although,personally ..I would not want Gillis anywhere near a rebuild of this team..His drafting and trades have demonstrated that he would be inept at the job...Benning has been far from perfect,but the 'central' theme of his job is to find and develop talent..That is the most important thing for this team moving forward.

[terrible.dee]

On 12/6/2016 at 11:56 AM, Ossi Vaananen said:

These guys are used to spending to the cap, while the Islanders have no interest in doing so. It'll be interesting to see. Neither are draft gurus either. 

Gillis' drafting seems about average

 

his main job is to keep Tavers happy

[MoneypuckOverlord]

Mike gillis was a solid gm.  Our best years came under him, and I welcome him back as a gm if things don't work out for him. His record is incredible as I think he was let go too quickly.

 

drafting.

 

anton rodin

Gaunc

horvat

hutton

 

among players that he drafted .

[Honky Cat]

9 hours ago, MoneypuckOverlord said:

Mike gillis was a solid gm.  Our best years came under him, and I welcome him back as a gm if things don't work out for him. His record is incredible as I think he was let go too quickly.

 

drafting.

 

anton rodin

Gaunc

horvat

hutton

 

among players that he drafted .

You think thats impressive?...Over the span of 6 drafts and 37 players selected..Rodin,Gaunce and Hutton (not counting Horvat because we gave up an elite goaltender to acquire him)..

 

Again,there's absolutely no indication that he could rebuild a team..Kudos to him for putting the finishing touches on an established core,but its evident that after 2011,he was swimming against the tide.

[Alflives]

2 hours ago, Honky Cat said:

You think thats impressive?...Over the span of 6 drafts and 37 players selected..Rodin,Gaunce and Hutton (not counting Horvat because we gave up an elite goaltender to acquire him)..

 

Again,there's absolutely no indication that he could rebuild a team..Kudos to him for putting the finishing touches on an established core,but its evident that after 2011,he was swimming against the tide.

Maybe Gillis wanted to rebuild, but our owner would not allow it, just like now?

[Honky Cat]

34 minutes ago, Alflives said:

Maybe Gillis wanted to rebuild, but our owner would not allow it, just like now?

That's a distinct possibility..there was all the rumours of owners blocking the Kesler deal etc...Although,I still cannot see how Gillis would be a guy to rebuild a team (based on drafting,which was abysmal,and trades).

[Jam126]

Gillis is a fantastic GM for a cup contender, horrible GM for a rebuild. His negotiating skills are exceptional but his drafting and trades after 2011 have been... Far from pretty.

[ChuckNORRIS4Cup]

Next report will be the Islanders sign retired Mats Sundin at 2x$20M 

[Dral]

On 12/12/2016 at 1:08 PM, Honky Cat said:

You think thats impressive?...Over the span of 6 drafts and 37 players selected..Rodin,Gaunce and Hutton (not counting Horvat because we gave up an elite goaltender to acquire him)..

 

 

JB shouldn't get credit for Juolevi then because we tanked to acquire him...

[Honky Cat]

1 hour ago, Dral said:

 

JB shouldn't get credit for Juolevi then because we tanked to acquire him...

We didn't tank.....and Joulevi wasn't the consensus pick.(Tkachuk was).. Way too early to give credit (or criticism) either way.

[erkayloomeh]

On 07/12/2016 at 6:38 PM, messier's_elbow said:

I said these same thing 2 years ago and got bashed. Yet you get 30 rep points. Probably cause my names Messier lol

Well , maybe change your name?  

The M word should be banned around these parts.    Nothin personal 

[erkayloomeh]

It would be hilarious if mg and lg ended up back here. 

I wonder if they would bring back av.