Jump to content
The Official Site of the Vancouver Canucks
Enter Search Term. Use arrows to navigate between autocomplete results. If no results appear, use Enter to do a full site search.
Forum Closure ×
Canucks Community
Forum Closure

Report: Canucks fire assistant GM Chris Gear and analytics director Jonathan Wall

Rate this topic

Dazzle

By Dazzle
in Canucks Talk

 Share

Recommended Posts

Biff Tannen Abbotsford Star

Biff Tannen

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Western Red said:

Ya, I'm all for this. It just wasn't working and also speaks to a leaning of observation towards the players, rather than making quick moves before there's even a proper brass in place.  

 

Seems to be that the players are safe for now. I'd love to re-up BB6, just north of 6.

Good luck with that.

 

Hopefully I'm wrong but, given his contract structure, I can't see why he'd accept less than 7. It's one of the reasons I'd be up for trading Boeser but probably lowers his value to other teams too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Timråfan Canucks Second-Line

Timråfan

Posted
Posted (edited)
24 minutes ago, Alflives said:

What does Ron Delorme do exactly?  He’s been around for quite a while too, right?  Is he so far away from actual important decisions though, that he’s safe?  

Delorme should be going asap. When Benning is promoting someone as he did with Delorme regarding Petey you know there is something fischy about that guy.

Aqualinis backdoor into management?

Edited by Timråfan
  • Wat 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
DeltaSwede Canucks Regular

DeltaSwede

Posted
Posted

I swear someone posted something about how Gears position needs to be filled quickly ahead of the roster freeze or maybe I read it in the Imac "hit piece". 

 

Chris Beardsmore - Current Vice President and General Counsel for the Canucks. 

 

Got more than one lawyer in the organization

Link to comment
Share on other sites
canuckleheads fan Canucks Prospect

canuckleheads fan

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, davidgoliath said:

No way is that Aqua. That fell under Rutherford’s jurisdiction as soon as he was hired and from what we have heard he is very protective of his jurisdiction. But what is puzzling is how Rutherford made the determinations that these two should be fired without setting foot here, Were there some serious black marks against them that made it obvious they should be fired? It just seems harsh and without due diligence at this point.

My guess is that Rutherford has people he will bring in whose job descriptions match those that were fired.  FA probably told him how many staff he'd pay for, and these two were casualties of the numbers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
hammertime Canucks Star

hammertime

Posted
Posted (edited)
3 hours ago, Dazzle said:

https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/canucks-hockey/report-canucks-fire-assistant-gm-chris-gear-and-analytics-director-jonathan-wall-4852677

 

The two employees had been with the Canucks for 11+ and 20+ years, respectively.
Daniel Wagner
Daniel Wagner
Dec 10, 2021 11:56 AM
  •  

Chris-Gear-scaled Chris Gear in happier times as legal counsel for the Canucks.Jeff Vinnick / Canucks

The Vancouver Canucks are not done making changes to their front office.

Less than a week after letting GM Jim Benning and assistant GM John Weisbrod go — and just one day after hiring new president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford — the Canucks have made further changes. 

As first reported by The Athletic’s Thomas Drance, the Canucks have “dismissed” assistant GM Chris Gear and executive director of hockey operations Jonathan Wall.

 

Gear had only just recently been promoted to assistant GM in 2020 after nine years of working as legal counsel for Canucks Sports and Entertainment. He was well-regarded for both his work on the legal side of things but also in hockey operations, as he structured contracts and managed the salary cap. 

Wall had been with the team for over 20 years, starting with tasks like watching video — literal video on VHS tapes — and manually tracking scoring chances. Over the course of two decades, his role grew until he was managing the Canucks’ analytics team as the director of hockey operations.

Beyond just analytics, Wall was heavily involved in many other areas of hockey operations, including working with Gear to keep the Canucks under the salary cap given the contracts signed by Benning. 

Both Gear and Wall had done yeoman’s work in recent years with a skeleton crew in hockey operations, filling in gaps beyond their stated responsibilities.

The two dismissals are surprising, particularly the timing. Gear and Wall had both worked under multiple management groups and could have been expected to continue under Rutherford. The team's analytics team, for instance, likely needs to be expanded to match other top teams in the NHL rather than contracted.

More intriguingly, Rutherford isn’t even in Vancouver yet. He isn’t expected to arrive until Sunday, so it’s surprising to see two significant changes made before he arrives and speaks to the existing management team and staff.

Of course, a new president of hockey operations could be expected to bring in his own people for two significant roles — capologist and director of analytics. Still, the Canucks just lost two of their most respected employees in hockey operations.

 

 

Why? I don't get why these two are fired. Rutherford is pretty ruthless lol. But I guess these people weren't that good to begin with in the eyes of a VERY well established man.

Karamanos book it. "Karmanos had a relationship with general manager Jim Rutherford dating to their days with the Carolina Hurricanes. 

His previous roles have included being the assistant GM for 13 of the 15 seasons he was with the front office with the Carolina Hurricanes, and as the vice president of player operations position for three of his seven past seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins, spending the most recent four years as their assistant general manager.

His tenures in Pittsburgh and Carolina yielded several Stanley Cup Championships, one with the Hurricanes in 2006 and two more with the Penguins in 2016 and 2017. Five of his years spent with Carolina were with Sabres GM Kevyn Adams, which included building the Hurricanes championship club. The two go back a long time as teammates during their playing days on Team USA’s entry squad for the 1994 World Junior Championship. Karmanos also played college hockey for four seasons while attending Harvard.

No stranger to the game or front office operations, the 46-year-old Orchard Lake, MI native is the son of Peter Karmanos, the long-time majority-owner of the Hartford Whalers/Carolina Hurricanes franchise."

 

He's a banker and analytics guy seems likely he's our guy. 

Edited by hammertime
  • Cheers 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
King Heffy Canucks Hall-of-Famer

King Heffy

Posted
Posted
22 minutes ago, Drink Walrus Milk said:

Big swing and a miss by Ian Mac. What a stupid article. Right up there with that Yahoo Sports article whining that they didn't hire a female or person of color GM because "diversity".

Toronto already tried breaking away from the norm of hiring men for the GM position.  It's not working out well for them.

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
JM_ Canucks Hall-of-Famer

JM_

Posted
Posted
15 minutes ago, Timråfan said:

Delorme should be going asap. When Benning is promoting someone as he did with Delorme regarding Petey you know there is something fischy about that guy.

Aqualinis backdoor into management?

Easy on Delorme, he broke barriers as a first nations player, and he's been a well respected voice for a long time. He's the least of your worries.

 

Time to put your Benning hate away, take the win and move on.

  • Cheers 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Junkyard Dog Canucks All-Star

Junkyard Dog

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, Timråfan said:

Because he made the Canucks larger. 
Aquilini should like that.

He also hasn't had a job in any management capacity in the NHL since his Canucks days. Only recently hired as a "consultant" for the NHLPA.

 

Only other experience is as a director of the board of a NLA team.

 

 

  • Cheers 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...