Aquilini's Ownership Feel Lucky To Have Them.

[Lazurus]

So we come full circle to blaming the Aquilini's somehow.

 

Sure they had a lot of input with THEIR team.

Gillis was an outside the box hiring and he turned out to be quite innovative.

The owners spent money they didn't need to spend to help make the team better, sleep studies, now used league wide, statics before it was trendy and other fruitful ideas. Owning their own farm team.

None of this was cheap and there was hardly anything mentioned in the media that didn't end up becoming a reality.

 

After the isolation of McCaw, the media was constantly complaining about absentee ownership so the locally owned Aquilini's were welcomed with bells on. It didn't hurt that they wanted the team so badly they ended up in court to get them, they fought to get the team. Could there be more motivated owners?

 

Hands on owners were the people who owned championship teams and dynasties, absentee owners such as Toronto's Teacher's union were quite happy to be just good enough to sell out.

 

McCaw ran the team like a business rarely even attending games and then did look into moving the team to Seattle because it wasn't making enough money here in part due to the low Canadian dollar.

 

The Aquilini's opened the vault for Gillis and Gillis structure of team management, Gillis was responsible everything he hired the best and brightest new thinkers and ideas like a capologist, except the on ice product, that with consultation of AV who made the decisions (this gave AV the power of careers, something stiil around then)  on who played. Only once did this fail, the Kassian trade occurred without Gillis' immediate approval, this strained the relationship between AV and Gillis as to who held how much control.

 

The Aquilini's sided with the genius who had built a team that had done nothing but win everything except game 7. At the end AV was let go and looking to the future, the best NHL coach for training young players was hired, Tortorella. But AV was a media darling, often leaking information and as result the media took to harassing the owners and Gillis with every negative fact they cold find.

 

Indeed if some of this media looked back into their stories they would be ashamed, nobody today can remember the intensity of the media induced fan rage, so much so the owners had to hire security for family members.

 

A result of this was firing Gillis and hiring hometown darling and hero Linden, even though Linden had 0 experience running a team and giving him 100% running of the team and becoming a rubber stamp and Lindena PR move. IMO the original idea was to have Quinn as the "mentor" role like Scotty Bowman.

 

The owners sat back and allowed the Linden/Benning combo to fire several internal and external personnel at great cost them 10's of millions for people to not work for them, they did not complain.

For 4 years the TL/JB spent money like water and did little to build the franchise value.

The owners watched as team values slipped from 5th in the league, higher that Chicago down to 9th, at one point under Gillis the Canucks were worth more than Montreal, still they did not interfere.

Then came the Linden, Benning internal feud and power struggle which forced the owners to discuss the break down but ended with Linden quitting. 

Still the owners stayed backed off and just let the remaining run the team without interference.

They gave Benning another contract because of promises of improvement.

 

In 2019 the kids graduate

 

2019 the owners start getting involved again, the books are a mess, overspending has approached or surpassed revenue income. Taking back may have started as early as July 2019, no new FA's and Tryamkin talks keep stalling. No new contracts except that innovative deal Boeser got which would have been rev neutral if not for covid but is now a poison pill, other than that not even internals deals unless just housekeeping.

They still give Benning 100% control of hockey ops but not finances, he trades the future for Miller. The fiances are somewhat supported by Tryamkin's agent's December's comments about having to wait until the finances are figured out and later Benning's Tofolli resigning comments and having to wait. Tanev stated no real conversations, Brackett ditto, Markstrom, Stecher all make it pretty clear in hindsight that the restrictions were very tight.

One thing many fans seem to miss is that the Aquinli's are very well educated in hockey, they know good from bad and obviously they know how to make money. Benning has his day now, Playoffs or bust.

Owners hire Chris Gear as Assistant GM in charge of finances and contracts January 2020

Benning makes his last big push, he trades away more of the future for Toffoli and places the team deeper into cap hell.

There is a chance that if the team had failed to make the playoff there would be a change. Hence no contracts signed, the new guy decides. Covid happens and suspends decisions until the next season.

 

The owners clamp down on spending, cap limit but no more.

But fans here are so spoiled with an open check book and spending like ti is a fantasy game they want to blame the owners for not spending even more. They don't understand that even if they bought out Eriksson the team is still capped out.

 

Today we are here, Benning's team it took him almost 7 years and 750 million dollars and is not doing well. There are no fans or money to lose by them not showing up. 

 

Hands on owners;

 

Jeremy Jacobs

Jerry Jones

Robert Kraft

Bartolo (deceased)

Davis family before Al's death, after hands off.

Pegula - Bills and Sabres

Wirtz

Molson

Tanenbaum

Aquilini before - 5 divisional champs, conference champs, two Presidents League Trophies, hands on under Gillis - 261wins - 197 losses - 0.570

after hands off - 275 losses - 218 wins - Benning  - 0.442

 

It definitely shows hands on owners get the most out of their teams.

 

At any-rate the fans of this hockey team should be proud to have the Aquilini's as owners

 

After all the media madness dumped on them, their commitment to this team can hardly be questioned

 

The thing is I trust them, they ARE HOCKEY people already.

 

 

Edited February 6, 2021 by Lazurus

[ImConfused]

Hey, nice post!

 

Gonna give it a more in-depth read over my morning scrambled eggs in a few minutes! Thanks bro.

[Squamfan]

[Squamfan]

but the got the team in a greasy way

[nux4lyfe]

[86Viking]

It is great that they are willing to spend to the cap but on the other hand spending to the cap while rebuilding/retooling or whatever you want to call it AND not capitalize on using some cap space to pick up players and or a pick for a cap dump was a mistake. It was also a mistake to spend to the cap on long term deals to a bunch of over the hill FA's. You can add veteran depth on 1 or 2 year deals quite easily, it gets done every year.

 

Hiring inexperienced coaches/President etc to take charge during a rebuild was a mistake, hiring a 2nd coach with no NHL experience was also a mistake. All players are Pro Athletes and should be held accountable for their poor play...need a coach with a back bone to call them out or sit them in favor of younger players.

 

There have always been rumours of the owners being too hands on involved since taking over...is there proof of this, I dunno? Before they signed LE they should have sat down with the twins and said "Hey, we are thinking of offering LE a boat load of $ on a long term deal...are you 2 going to stick around for at least a couple more years after your current contracts are up?''

 

Either way, it is nice to have local owners who will spend, just wish they wouldn't be afraid to make changes covid or not we can't really afford to just throw a season away...every player gets a year older, a year closer to FA or needing a new contract etc. You need to ice a competitive team every year and if the play is as one sided as it has been so far at the very least an assistant coach needs to be let go and someone new brought in.

 

Too bad we didn't let go of Bumgartner and keep Manny around, always thought he could develop into a good coach as he had such a knack for the game as he adapted his style to have a lengthy NHL career.

[Fred65]

Good summation some of the detail I might question, is  Aquilini a good hockey man, I don't know about that, both Gillis and Torts told him the teams needed a rebuild and he chose not to listen to them believing instead ????  Where did "this hockey guru seek advise about LE ?? Why was Gilman allowed to be fired. The NHL recognized his genius when they selected Gilman from a whole host of candidates to write the expansion rules, why did TO hire Gilman to extradite them from their own Cap Hell? That move alone is still prevalent today with our own Cap Hell. Some point to the selection of Benning being left to Linden, himself a rookie, and frankly Willy as well. That was 3 years wasted right there. We'll never know the truth because we'll never find out all the details but IMHO the firing of Gillis cost this franchise big time ( Gillis was just too smart for his own boots ) Aquaman didn't like to be contradicted. He couldn't handle the employee being smarter than him . But I have to say I do appreciate your analysis of the state of the franchise. 

[Silky mitts]

Poor guy , he been capped out for a failure of a GM. 

[Miss Korea Bob.Loblaw]

I think the Aquilinis have done okay as hands-on owners, but don't automatically consider that a good thing.  Look at Harold Ballard and the Maple Leafs.  Completely different situation, but I there's a point to be made.

[Westcoasting]

2 hours ago, Lazurus said:

So we come full circle to blaming the Aquilini's somehow.

 

Sure they had a lot of input with THEIR team.

Gillis was an outside the box hiring and he turned out to be quite innovative.

The owners spent money they didn't need to spend to help make the team better, sleep studies, now used league wide, statics before it was trendy and other fruitful ideas. Owning their own farm team.

None of this was cheap and there was hardly anything mentioned in the media that didn't end up becoming a reality.

 

After the isolation of McCaw, the media was constantly complaining about absentee ownership so the locally owned Aquilini's were welcomed with bells on. It didn't hurt that they wanted the team so badly they ended up in court to get them, they fought to get the team. Could there be more motivated owners?

 

Hands on owners were the people who owned championship teams and dynasties, absentee owners such as Toronto's Teacher's union were quite happy to be just good enough to sell out.

 

McCaw ran the team like a business rarely even attending games and then did look into moving the team to Seattle because it wasn't making enough money here in part due to the low Canadian dollar.

 

The Aquilini's opened the vault for Gillis and Gillis structure of team management, Gillis was responsible everything he hired the best and brightest new thinkers and ideas like a capologist, except the on ice product, that with consultation of AV who made the decisions (this gave AV the power of careers, something stiil around then)  on who played. Only once did this fail, the Kassian trade occurred without Gillis' immediate approval, this strained the relationship between AV and Gillis as to who held how much control.

 

The Aquilini's sided with the genius who had built a team that had done nothing but win everything except game 7. At the end AV was let go and looking to the future, the best NHL coach for training young players was hired, Tortorella. But AV was a media darling, often leaking information and as result the media took to harassing the owners and Gillis with every negative fact they cold find.

 

Indeed if some of this media looked back into their stories they would be ashamed, nobody today can remember the intensity of the media induced fan rage, so much so the owners had to hire security for family members.

 

A result of this was firing Gillis and hiring hometown darling and hero Linden, even though Linden had 0 experience running a team and giving him 100% running of the team and becoming a rubber stamp and Lindena PR move. IMO the original idea was to have Quinn as the "mentor" role like Scotty Bowman.

 

The owners sat back and allowed the Linden/Benning combo to fire several internal and external personnel at great cost them 10's of millions for people to not work for them, they did not complain.

For 4 years the TL/JB spent money like water and did little to build the franchise value.

The owners watched as team values slipped from 5th in the league, higher that Chicago down to 9th, at one point under Gillis the Canucks were worth more than Montreal, still they did not interfere.

Then came the Linden, Benning internal feud and power struggle which forced the owners to discuss the break down but ended with Linden quitting. 

Still the owners stayed backed off and just let the remaining run the team without interference.

They gave Benning another contract because of promises of improvement.

 

In 2019 the kids graduate

 

2019 the owners start getting involved again, the books are a mess, overspending has approached or surpassed revenue income. Taking back may have started as early as July 2019, no new FA's and Tryamkin talks keep stalling. No new contracts except that innovative deal Boeser got which would have been rev neutral if not for covid but is now a poison pill, other than that not even internals deals unless just housekeeping.

They still give Benning 100% control of hockey ops but not finances, he trades the future for Miller. The fiances are somewhat supported by Tryamkin's agent's December's comments about having to wait until the finances are figured out and later Benning's Tofolli resigning comments and having to wait. Tanev stated no real conversations, Brackett ditto, Markstrom, Stecher all make it pretty clear in hindsight that the restrictions were very tight.

One thing many fans seem to miss is that the Aquinli's are very well educated in hockey, they know good from bad and obviously they know how to make money. Benning has his day now, Playoffs or bust.

Owners hire Chris Gear as Assistant GM in charge of finances and contracts January 2020

Benning makes his last big push, he trades away more of the future for Toffoli and places the team deeper into cap hell.

There is a chance that if the team had failed to make the playoff there would be a change. Hence no contracts signed, the new guy decides. Covid happens and suspends decisions until the next season.

 

The owners clamp down on spending, cap limit but no more.

But fans here are so spoiled with an open check book and spending like ti is a fantasy game they want to blame the owners for not spending even more. They don't understand that even if they bought out Eriksson the team is still capped out.

 

Today we are here, Benning's team it took him almost 7 years and 750 million dollars and is not doing well. There are no fans or money to lose by them not showing up. 

 

Hands on owners;

 

Jeremy Jacobs

Jerry Jones

Robert Kraft

Bartolo (deceased)

Davis family before Al's death, after hands off.

Pegula - Bills and Sabres

Wirtz

Molson

Tanenbaum

Aquilini before - 5 divisional champs, conference champs, two Presidents League Trophies, hands on under Gillis - 261wins - 197 losses - 0.570

after hands off - 275 losses - 218 wins - Benning  - 0.442

 

It definitely shows hands on owners get the most out of their teams.

 

At any-rate the fans of this hockey team should be proud to have the Aquilini's as owners

 

After all the media madness dumped on them, their commitment to this team can hardly be questioned

 

The thing is I trust them, they ARE HOCKEY people already.

 

 

Yep and sometime this year I think we will see wholesale changes to management in the  road to build a winner.

[Ghostsof1915]

I'm trying to figure out where the owners are "meddling"? 

Benning has been building a team for 7 years. The team is always near the top of the cap. 

I've never heard ownership tell Benning who to draft.

Or that a contract is too expensive. 

(In fact maybe ownership should have intervened and overruled the Eriksson signing.)

I'd understand if we've been through like 4 GM's in 7 years.

I can understand not liking the owners for reasons not hockey related. But they have at least provided stable and LOCAL ownership. 

 

[Westcoasting]

3 minutes ago, Ghostsof1915 said:

I'm trying to figure out where the owners are "meddling"? 

Benning has been building a team for 7 years. The team is always near the top of the cap. 

I've never heard ownership tell Benning who to draft.

Or that a contract is too expensive. 

(In fact maybe ownership should have intervened and overruled the Eriksson signing.)

I'd understand if we've been through like 4 GM's in 7 years.

I can understand not liking the owners for reasons not hockey related. But they have at least provided stable and LOCAL ownership. 

 

I hear you there, I would call them hands off owners!

[Hamhuis Hip Check]

Ill ask the same question i ask whenever someone says to fire the coach/gm. Who is out there right now that is better for our team that would be willing to take the job. I dont want to fire a guy who got us this far just to bring someone in who will blow it up.

[Violator]

Would of rather had Tom Gaglardi

[Fred65]

1 hour ago, Westcoasting said:

Yep and sometime this year I think we will see wholesale changes to management in the  road to build a winner.

Well I'd think ownership will allow this period of condensed schedule to play out and judge if a rested team will do better, if not, I suspect JB will be heading back to Oregon, a fire, and armchair and a glass of wine, maybe scratch the dogs ear. The question to be answered is will the new GM commit to Green. It may bring a smile to Linden face

Edited February 7, 2021 by Fred65

[canuckster19]

I wonder if Gillis would be given a second chance. You got the core, now get the right complementary pieces.

[Pears]

30 minutes ago, canuckster19 said:

I wonder if Gillis would be given a second chance. You got the core, now get the right complementary pieces.

Sounds like a situation he’d be familiar with 

Edited February 7, 2021 by Pears
typo

[cuporbust]

Bang on . Great post.

[Lazurus]

6 hours ago, Canuckster86 said:

It is great that they are willing to spend to the cap but on the other hand spending to the cap while rebuilding/retooling or whatever you want to call it AND not capitalize on using some cap space to pick up players and or a pick for a cap dump was a mistake. It was also a mistake to spend to the cap on long term deals to a bunch of over the hill FA's. You can add veteran depth on 1 or 2 year deals quite easily, it gets done every year.

 

Hiring inexperienced coaches/President etc to take charge during a rebuild was a mistake, hiring a 2nd coach with no NHL experience was also a mistake. All players are Pro Athletes and should be held accountable for their poor play...need a coach with a back bone to call them out or sit them in favor of younger players.

 

There have always been rumours of the owners being too hands on involved since taking over...is there proof of this, I dunno? Before they signed LE they should have sat down with the twins and said "Hey, we are thinking of offering LE a boat load of $ on a long term deal...are you 2 going to stick around for at least a couple more years after your current contracts are up?''

 

Either way, it is nice to have local owners who will spend, just wish they wouldn't be afraid to make changes covid or not we can't really afford to just throw a season away...every player gets a year older, a year closer to FA or needing a new contract etc. You need to ice a competitive team every year and if the play is as one sided as it has been so far at the very least an assistant coach needs to be let go and someone new brought in.

 

Too bad we didn't let go of Bumgartner and keep Manny around, always thought he could develop into a good coach as he had such a knack for the game as he adapted his style to have a lengthy NHL career.

Part of spending to the cap was a consequence of stepping back and letting the Linden/Benning group run the team unfettered and without oversight.

If you remember the media pressure of years ago hiring Linden and stepping back was what the media build up was all about, the media getting even for losing their CI.

 

 

[DefCon1]

9 hours ago, Canuckster86 said:

It is great that they are willing to spend to the cap but on the other hand spending to the cap while rebuilding/retooling or whatever you want to call it AND not capitalize on using some cap space to pick up players and or a pick for a cap dump was a mistake. It was also a mistake to spend to the cap on long term deals to a bunch of over the hill FA's. You can add veteran depth on 1 or 2 year deals quite easily, it gets done every year.

 

Hiring inexperienced coaches/President etc to take charge during a rebuild was a mistake, hiring a 2nd coach with no NHL experience was also a mistake. All players are Pro Athletes and should be held accountable for their poor play...need a coach with a back bone to call them out or sit them in favor of younger players.

 

There have always been rumours of the owners being too hands on involved since taking over...is there proof of this, I dunno? Before they signed LE they should have sat down with the twins and said "Hey, we are thinking of offering LE a boat load of $ on a long term deal...are you 2 going to stick around for at least a couple more years after your current contracts are up?''

 

Either way, it is nice to have local owners who will spend, just wish they wouldn't be afraid to make changes covid or not we can't really afford to just throw a season away...every player gets a year older, a year closer to FA or needing a new contract etc. You need to ice a competitive team every year and if the play is as one sided as it has been so far at the very least an assistant coach needs to be let go and someone new brought in.

 

Too bad we didn't let go of Bumgartner and keep Manny around, always thought he could develop into a good coach as he had such a knack for the game as he adapted his style to have a lengthy NHL career.

Problem is that these are Benning's decision and he hired the wrong people. I mean the fact that he hired Weisbrod who had made many boneheaded mistakes in Calgary was really a terrible decision. Why did they hire Baumgartner and why did they extended them? These terrible decisions have compounded to big problems we see now. Ever since Baumer has been hired, our team has been one of the worst defensive teams and Marky made that team a bit more respectable. Newell Brown should not have been extended. I think all of this goes back to Benning and that is not the fault of Aquaman has he didn't make those decisions.