Scott Mellanby generating buzz as potential Canucks GM candidate

[JeremyCuddles]

2 hours ago, DeNiro said:

I disagree.

 

I think it’s widely known that ownership meddles with their GMs. Any good GM wants complete autonomy in their position and I don’t think they’ll get that here.

 

Either way I don’t see us hiring a GM until Montreal does. All the top GMs available would want a job there over Vancouver right now.

All the top GMs better be able to speak French cause it sounds like they want a Francophone GM. And we have better young talent, why would a GM pick Montreal over Vancouver? Cause of ownership meddling rumors? I don't think they are as hands on as fans make it seem. I highly doubt they hire GMs just to make trade/signing decisions for them. Do they put expectations on the team? Of course, they have money invested in the team. But I don't think they actively sit there looking over GMs shoulders and whispering ideas into their ears constantly.

[appleboy]

Gillis for president and Mellanby for GM.   

[Drive-By Body Pierce]

12 minutes ago, N7Nucks said:

All the top GMs better be able to speak French cause it sounds like they want a Francophone GM. And we have better young talent, why would a GM pick Montreal over Vancouver? Cause of ownership meddling rumors? I don't think they are as hands on as fans make it seem. I highly doubt they hire GMs just to make trade/signing decisions for them. Do they put expectations on the team? Of course, they have money invested in the team. But I don't think they actively sit there looking over GMs shoulders and whispering ideas into their ears constantly.

 

Agreed! I find it very interesting that so many fans seem to think they know the exact relationship and interactions between ownership and GM/President. I would love for said fans to share the recordings or transcripts of these meetings that they seem to know so much about.

[Me_]

5 hours ago, MaxVerstappen33 said:

Mellanby has been around a lot of management teams. I'm not against him.

 

Which GM hasn't been an X player though ? Same goes for coaches. They are all x players.

 

Ideally I'd like to go with a non x player for GM. Players making big paychecks their whole life at a young age , probably aren't ideal asset managers. 

 

Latest rumor is that Daniel Brieir is in the running for GM of the Habs. That's dumb. 

If there’s a move to be done at the GM level, I would think it would be a Ken Holland type of GM. When Holland became available, that’s where I would’ve pulled the trigger on the GM job.

 

Same for the coaching team; veteran coaching winners of the game.

[Fred65]

5 minutes ago, Me_ said:

If there’s a move to be done at the GM level, I would think it would be a Ken Holland type of GM. When Holland became available, that’s where I would’ve pulled the trigger on the GM job.

 

Same for the coaching team; veteran coaching winners of the game.

Yep inclined to agree, success should be one of the parameters for the selection of a new GM/Coach. Problems is they come  with alredy formatted ideas of how a club should be run and that's not what FA is looking for

[zimmy]

To sway ownership his way, what exact steps does Scott Mellanby (or anyone else for that matter) promise to take if he is given the GM reins? What maneuvers does any candidate have up his sleeve that might entice the Aqualini group to admit that they were wrong in entrusting the team to JB and company? It has to be a radical departure from the current philosophy, does it not?

Is committing to a more prudent manipulation of the salary cap enough? 

[Me_]

1 minute ago, zimmy said:

To sway ownership his way, what exact steps does Scott Mellanby (or anyone else for that matter) promise to take if he is given the GM reins? What maneuvers does any candidate have up his sleeve that might entice the Aqualini group to admit that they were wrong in entrusting the team to JB and company? It has to be a radical departure from the current philosophy, does it not?

Is committing to a more prudent manipulation of the salary cap enough? 

An Italian name should suffice… Mellanby has no chance.

[ShawnAntoski]

39 minutes ago, N4ZZY said:

Yep. I think when you have a line of past presidents, GM’s and even coaches fired for taking a different stance than the one Francesco likes to hear, they're all relieved. That's not good ownership when you fire people that disagree with you. A group of "yes" people in leadership isn't good. It might sound, but that's where good ideas go to die. Disagreements allow for voices to be heard, but also new ideas to come up. It also allows the freedom from other staff to offer their insights, where hiring only yes people don't do that. It's where we are with the Canucks. Jim's a yes man. And look where that's gotten us today. He has a reputation now around the league. A GM with no backbone. Doesn't stand up for himself, and is questionable whether he has a vision for this team, or has he just been riding the vision of the owner? 

 

Making the playoffs and then praying that we go far is not strategic, and lacks foresight, insight, and planning. All things you need to produce a championship calibre team. Benning is not all bad, but man, if he would just have a backbone, I'd have more respect for the man. He seems to just lay down, and have no pushback whatsoever. Really does feel like he's limping his way through his GM career. 

 

Yep. I agree that get any of the other Aquilini brothers, just don't let Francesco run the Canucks, because you know, he's doing a $&!#ty job of that as we've seen. Maybe we need a chant going tonight on national TV. 

 

 

 

A worthwhile candidate, would make autonomy priority #1 before engaging ownership; and nice people, don't make for good leaders cause it will eventually, end up in mediocrity.   

 

Imo, the blame is mostly/all on FA cause he is the one, who assembled this group of leaders; and resigning a coach with a (proven) mediocre record to an extension seems to had been a decision not based on merit rather than on something less.  Secondly, a leadership with no autonomy (despite there experience), will not make the best decision cause they will only be hired to follow, rather, than solve the problem: JB & Weisbrod might have an idea but they will need to sell it to a very involved owner, that more than likely, thinks he knows what is best.  

 

This is FAs' toy and if he decides to run it his way with these mediocre results - then he & his crew can have the sandbox all to themselves.

 

 

[DefCon1]

5 hours ago, Jester13 said:

Gillis inherited the core. He also had the worst drafting in Canucks (NHL?) history. He brought in a couple of good pieces, but he also made some atrocious trades and signings. He hasn't worked as a GM since. He is so romanticized in Nucks nation and given way too much credit for what he actually did for us. 

Gillis also made this team won 2 presidents trophy and take them to cup finals. Its about results and Gillis gets results. Unless you want a GM that only drafts good and puts a bunch of players together for a bottom 5 team 8 years running? We need to win a cup, we haven't even won one. I don't care what happens after we win the cup but we need to win one before I die. This team drafted great but doesn't have a GM that can put the finishing touches and keeps signing mediocre players as support players like Myers, Poolman, Roussel, Player Name etc. Gillis at least brought impact players with each trade and made the team stronger to the point that they were the best in the league. Benning takes one step forward and two steps backward. Fans can't wait for a GM to come in and rebuild again for the next 8 years, its enough. 

[DefCon1]

54 minutes ago, Me_ said:

If there’s a move to be done at the GM level, I would think it would be a Ken Holland type of GM. When Holland became available, that’s where I would’ve pulled the trigger on the GM job.

 

Same for the coaching team; veteran coaching winners of the game.

at least Oilers did it right with Tippet as the head coach and Holland as GM. Meanwhile we have a bunch of newbies on the coaching staff.

[Me_]

3 minutes ago, DefCon1 said:

at least Oilers did it right with Tippet as the head coach and Holland as GM. Meanwhile we have a bunch of newbies on the coaching staff.

The Oilers have taken off exactly for the reasons you’ve mentioned. 
 

Professionals at the helm. holland is going to be the Oilers GM for a couple of decades. Unless Lowe somehow comes back and Lindens the team again.

 

Edited December 4, 2021 by Me_

[Gurn]

When talking about how good the Oilers are doing, and how professional they are; it is best to remember just how many first over all picks they had in the last 10 years or so.

Iirc they had so many firsts over all the league had to change the draft rules.

[Elias Pettersson]

Interesting that people want to hire Gillis and Mellanby when the biggest complaint has been that Aquilini has cheaped out and hired rookie GM's, rookie President's and rookie coaches in the past.  Gillis obviously has experience now but the relationship with Francesco didn't end well and I doubt that Francesco has ever rehired a person that he's already fired in any of his businesses.  As for Mellanby, he is basically Benning 2.0, a guy who has never been in charge of any team but has been a wingman for a long time.  The only difference is Benning actually won a Cup being a wingman while Mellanby has not.

 

Mellanby is the new flavour of the day, but at the end of the day has proven nothing as of right now...

[Bure_of_94]

19 minutes ago, Elias Pettersson said:

Interesting that people want to hire Gillis and Mellanby when the biggest complaint has been that Aquilini has cheaped out and hired rookie GM's, rookie President's and rookie coaches in the past.  Gillis obviously has experience now but the relationship with Francesco didn't end well and I doubt that Francesco has ever rehired a person that he's already fired in any of his businesses.  As for Mellanby, he is basically Benning 2.0, a guy who has never been in charge of any team but has been a wingman for a long time.  The only difference is Benning actually won a Cup being a wingman while Mellanby has not.

 

Mellanby is the new flavour of the day, but at the end of the day has proven nothing as of right now...

Gillis was F***ng awful. Burke and Nonis built this team 95% and handed it to Gillis on a silver platter. His drafting was awful and trading was worse. 
 

  Mellanby is trendy... but Vancouver is a trendy place. Misewell go with him. 

[Mike Vanderhoek]

1 hour ago, DefCon1 said:

at least Oilers did it right with Tippet as the head coach and Holland as GM. Meanwhile we have a bunch of newbies on the coaching staff.

Shaw was a legit hire, problem is he was the guy responsible for St.Louis defensive system as well as top of the League penalty killing. So what does Vancouver do ? hire him, then do NOT directly have him oversee those areas that are clearly his strong suit, but babysit Baumgartner while he tries to figure it out. Obviously I don't know 110% how it is playing out but multiple reports over the past several weeks from reporters and the like that watch practice etc seem to indicate that is how things are working. Dumb founded.

[IBatch]

1 hour ago, Me_ said:

The Oilers have taken off exactly for the reasons you’ve mentioned. 
 

Professionals at the helm. holland is going to be the Oilers GM for a couple of decades. Unless Lowe somehow comes back and Lindens the team again.

 

Maybe.   I'm sure it's helped.  But so has McDavid, Drasaitl and co.   In their primes.   Holland couldn't make it work in almost an identical situation as JB had in Vancouver (when JB came in) in Detroit.   Bertuzzi, Martha and Larkin....    Maybe.   Just maybe it has a lot to do with that too.  

Edited December 4, 2021 by IBatch

[Crabcakes]

17 hours ago, stawns said:

It's not a question of being different so much as it is of transition.  It might look different, but the team on the ice right now is a direct consequence of that bubble team.  What the bubble playoff showed JB is that the core of Demko, Bo, Petey and Hughes were ready to take the reigns and transition to a new phase of their development.  Sometimes, as it is the case here, that can be a bit of a messy transition and it's up to management to make moves to get them over this spot.

 

 

JB has put a variety of pieces around that core and has amassed a decent asset pool around those guys. And, as you said, now he has to find the right pieces to get that core over the hump and back on the teach they were leading up to their playoff run. 

 

I'm not sure why people think he won't get that opportunity.

 

This is just it.  I don't think that the core really was ready to carry the torch on their own.   Horvat is the oldest at 26 and is a pretty strong willed guy.  He has been playing close enough to his normal level i think but he has more defensive duties than they wanted him to have due to Bennings over reliance on Sutter to be the PK face off guy.  Demko has been good too.  Hughes has been leaned on heavily as well and is playing better.  Pettersson just doesn't look like himself and neither does Boeser.  I would also expect more from Hoglander but I've heard that his metrics are really good despite his lacklustre production.  Others have been slumping as well:  Pearson, Dickinson etc and Hamonic's issues haven't helped a bit.

 

I don't know what ownership is going to do about this.  Maybe nothing.  I mean, when you have such turnover shouldn't you expect a long adjustment period?  

 

But no matter what gets done or not done it's going to take time to get it together as a team again.  Nobody's really talking about that.  It's mostly people trying to lay the blame at somebody's feet and wanting to punish that person.

[WestCoastDave]

I would favor making a gm change at the end of the season when there are more candidates around preferably from an successful organization.  For example, during the Pat Quinn era, the Nucks were one of the stronger teams in the league and had Burke and McPhee as their assistant gms.  Burke went on to win a Cup in Anaheim while Mcphee went on to build a strong Capital team that stay on top of their division for a long time.  More recent example, after McPhee is let go from Washington his assistant MacLellan became the gm and went on to win the cup.  Same thing with Tampa, after Yzerman left to go to Detriot, his successor Brisebois won the cup.  Yeah...and that is not just a cup of java.

[N4ZZY]

7 hours ago, Dazzle said:

That's very silly. Montreal's GM got fired right after making the finals. Job security is far from guaranteed in Montreal. Moreover, one could make the argument that the Canucks are much more stable. They've only had Gillis and Benning from the 2010 period to now. That's pretty significant.

But why would anyone want to come here and work for Francesco? 

 

[Dazzle]

14 minutes ago, N4ZZY said:

But why would anyone want to come here and work for Francesco? 

 

For a very high salary from whatever you're being paid now, you're seriously telling me you wouldn't? Lol.