My Report Card on Management

[*Buzzsaw*]

Ok, we are midway through the season, the team is going nowhere fast, and management has come clean and said there have been mistakes in how they assessed the team.  Now they are saying there needs to be major surgery.

 

From my perspective they are acknowleging what should have been clear from the moment they signed on... or maybe they weren't listening to close observers of the team?

 

What was was clear to me... and most fans who watch the team closely... and therefore should have been clear to professionals... was the team was lacking both in their defensive personnel and the overall defensive structure.  The goaltending situation was good, (this was prior to Demko being re-injured) with a #1 and #2 as well as backup in Abbotsford.  The offensive potential of the team was also good... with Pettersson, Horvat, Miller as a strong proven trio at center, and with enough decent supporting wingers to allow the trading of some of these for defensive improvements.

 

This new management team should have focused on acquiring defensive assets... preferably in the form of younger defensive prospects, and drafts, with trades of our surplus wingers a tool.  Last choice would be signing free agent older established players... although short term deals could be done for the right player if the option to go younger was not possible.

 

But what I saw over the last 9 months did not show that Rutherford and company understood what was needed to allow this team to take the next step.

 

In the off season, their focus seemed to be on signing or acquiring offense...

 

First they signed Miller to a long term contract.   I don't fault them for this, there were compelling reasons for wrapping him up longterm... he was the team's leading scorer, centermen who can score near to 100 points in a year are at a premium. Yes, he hasn't performed up that standard this year, (still a lot of games to go) but overall, the price they paid was not exorbitant. 

 

After signing Miller, you'd think they would then put their focus on the D.

 

Instead, they spent $5 million on signing Ilya Mikheyev... a good player, but when you consider the club was not short of wingers, and the glaring deficiencies on defense remained... questionable spending this much.  They also signed Andrei Kuzmenko... he was a bargain at the time, so this was worthwhile, even if they need to trade him at the deadline.  In addition, they re-tooled a lot of their bottom end forward group with Curtis Lazar being the big signing there... at $3 million over three years.

 

The only significant defensive addition in the off season was Riley Stillman, in a trade for Jason Dickenson and a 2nd rounder.  This trade has to be considered a failure... they gave up a 2nd rounder... a considerable loss.  Combine this with Stillman's poor play as a Canuck, and you have a disastrous trade decision.

 

Part way into the season, with the team going nowhere, management acquired Ethan Bear and Lane Pederson from Carolina for a 5th rounder.  I would call this trade a win for management... Bear is a decent young defenseman, not a top 4 in my opinion, but certainly a #5.  And Pederson at the very least is a solid AHLer, and still has a 35/65 chance of turning into a top six forward... at the very least he will be a regular in Abbotsford.

 

But the team still had not filled the glaring deficiencies at D... there was not the substantial move they needed in the off season, and the deluge of goals filling Vancouver's net continued.

 

Another failure of management is in not finding the right assistants to complement Boudreau.  With the departure of two key members of the coaching staff from last season, it was imperative management and Boudreau find replacements who could give the team the necessary structure in their own end of the ice.  Mike Yeo was one of the designated successors... but why management would pick a guy who has a litany of failures and firings in his back history is a question.  No doubt Boudreau had something to do with this... Yeo worked under him in Minnesota, but Yeo's track record should have been a warning to Rutherford... enough to override any loyalty BB might have.  The Assistant coach who was retained, Jason King, was no better... he had been part of the Green debacle since 2020 and it is difficult to see what there was to recommend him.  As it stands now, the team's Penalty Kill and overall defensive play are disasters... and the major reason for the team's poor record... and these failures are a responsibility of the assistants.  Management picked these guys.

 

---

 

To summarize, I think this management group deserves an 'F'.

 

It should have been apparent what the team needed to improve... and they failed to recognize the facts and act.

 

Edit:

 

What I forgot to mention was managements handling of CAP.

 

By spending the money to sign Mikheyev, and not unloading CAP by trading some of their higher priced forwards or D like Myers or Boeser they made it impossible to re-sign Bo Horvat when he turned in his best season.  Now you could argue Bo's performance this year is a surprise... but I would disagree.  Every player I have seen who is coming up to UFA status puts in their best effort to give themselves a chance to retire comfortably.  Bo is no different.  Management should have anticipated Horvat exceeding his previous best and allowed for a cushion. 

 

The CAP management record of Rutherford and company is perhaps their biggest failure.

 

Edit

 

Changed post to reflect correct CAP values.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 17 by *Buzzsaw*

[Dazzle]

12 minutes ago, *Buzzsaw* said:

Ok, we are midway through the season, the team is going nowhere fast, and management has come clean and said there have been mistakes in how they assessed the team.  Now they are saying there needs to be major surgery.

 

From my perspective they are acknowleging what should have been clear from the moment they signed on... or maybe they weren't listening to close observers of the team?

 

What was was clear to me... and most fans who watch the team closely... and therefore should have been clear to professionals... was the team was lacking both in their defensive personnel and the overall defensive structure.  The goaltending situation was good, (this was prior to Demko being re-injured) with a #1 and #2 as well as backup in Abbotsford.  The offensive potential of the team was also good... with Pettersson, Horvat, Miller as a strong proven trio at center, and with enough decent supporting wingers to allow the trading of some of these for defensive improvements.

 

This new management team should have focused on acquiring defensive assets... preferably in the form of younger defensive prospects, and drafts, with trades of our surplus wingers a tool.  Last choice would be signing free agent older established players... although short term deals could be done for the right player if the option to go younger was not possible.

 

But what I saw over the last 9 months did not show that Rutherford and company understood what was needed to allow this team to take the next step.

 

In the off season, their focus seemed to be on signing or acquiring offense...

 

First they signed Miller to a long term contract.   I don't fault them for this, there were compelling reasons for wrapping him up longterm... he was the team's leading scorer, centermen who can score near to 100 points in a year are at a premium. Yes, he hasn't performed up that standard this year, (still a lot of games to go) but overall, the price they paid was not exorbitant. 

 

After signing Miller, you'd think they would then put their focus on the D.

 

Instead, they spent $5 million on signing Ilya Mikheyev... a good player, but when you consider the club was not short of wingers, and the glaring deficiencies on defense remained... questionable spending this much.  They also signed Andrei Kuzmenko... he was a bargain at the time, so this was worthwhile, even if they need to trade him at the deadline.  In addition, they re-tooled a lot of their bottom end forward group with Curtis Lazar being the big signing there... at $9 million over three years.  Yes, Lazar is a good player, but was it worth adding him to the bottom six at that price?

 

The only significant defensive addition in the off season was Riley Stillman, in a trade for Jason Dickenson and a 2nd rounder.  This trade has to be considered a failure.  First of all, they added to the CAP instead of dumping... Stillman's salary is $4.05 million, compared to $2.65 million for Dickenson... and they gave up a 2nd rounder... a considerable loss.  Combine this with Stillman's poor play as a Canuck, and you have a disastrous trade decision.

 

Part way into the season, with the team going nowhere, management acquired Ethan Bear and Lane Pederson from Carolina for a 5th rounder.  I would call this trade a win for management... Bear is a decent young defenseman, not a top 4 in my opinion, but certainly a #5.  And Pederson at the very least is a solid AHLer, and still has a 35/65 chance of turning into a top six forward... at the very least he will be a regular in Abbotsford.

 

But the team still had not filled the glaring deficiencies at D... there was not the substantial move they needed in the off season, and the deluge of goals filling Vancouver's net continued.

 

Another failure of management is in not finding the right assistants to complement Boudreau.  With the departure of two key members of the coaching staff from last season, it was imperative management and Boudreau find replacements who could give the team the necessary structure in their own end of the ice.  Mike Yeo was one of the designated successors... but why management would pick a guy who has a litany of failures and firings in his back history is a question.  No doubt Boudreau had something to do with this... Yeo worked under him in Minnesota, but Yeo's track record should have been a warning to Rutherford... enough to override any loyalty BB might have.  The Assistant coach who was retained, Jason King, was no better... he had been part of the Green debacle since 2020 and it is difficult to see what there was to recommend him.  As it stands now, the team's Penalty Kill and overall defensive play are disasters... and the major reason for the team's poor record... and these failures are a responsibility of the assistants.  Management picked these guys.

 

---

 

To summarize, I think this management group deserves an 'F'.

 

It should have been apparent what the team needed to improve... and they failed to recognize the facts and act.

Fully agreed.

 

Current management did some good things, but their task of recognizing what needed to be changed was much easier this time around. They really did fail to do so.

 

Now they say we are re-tooling. My god. Well deserved "F".

[iinatcc]

Management this season

 

[Coconuts]

Let's just pretend this is Horvat, looks enough like him

 

[Gurn]

First- They re-signed Brock.

 

[*Buzzsaw*]

Edited my post to talk about CAP management.

[Coconuts]

Yeah, but really, it's amazing how many around here saw the direction they needed to take this roster as early as Nov/Dec 2021 and yet management couldn't figure it out

 

Despite Rutherford recognizing that Demko was carrying this team on his back even

 

I still can't believe they did absolutely nothing to address our most blatant and obvious weakness last summer, defense 

 

Big ol' management group that's done some good things but that has largely whiffed 

[Bob.Loblaw]

@*Buzzsaw* Curtis Lazar's contract is $3 million over 3 years, not per year.  $1 million per season.  Very good signing for a player who knows his role and does it well.

 

Edit: I just noticed you made the exact same mistake with Riley Stillman ($1.35M x 3 yrs).  Why aren't you using CapFriendly before posting?  You don't think Miller is earning $56 million a year, do you?  https://www.capfriendly.com/teams/canucks

Edited January 17 by Bob.Loblaw

[Alflives]

Maybe only Gillis can build a winner following this owner’s insisted upon direction? 

[HKSR]

[King Heffy]

F, and suspended for their piss-poor attitude.

[Zerofaith]

0/10

[King Heffy]

51 minutes ago, Alflives said:

Maybe only Gillis can build a winner following this owner’s insisted upon direction? 

Gillis can't build a Lego set with adult supervision.

[Phil_314]

The good: Kuzmenko and Mikheyev signings, trading for Bear, signing Joshua/ Aman/ Lazar/ Delia, (possibly also trading for Dermott, TBD)
The bad: re-signing JT Miller when he was going to decline, his bad attitude, not prioritizing signing Horvat first such that he wants to leave now, Pearson injury mismanagement, *picking Lekkerimaki [strictly reactionary to how he did in the WJC, including getting benched], adding a 2nd to dump Dickinson, just to get another unplayable scrub in Stillman

If all they can do is sign on expensive guys in already loaded positions while ignoring defense and only bringing in depth contributors, that's a fail.  Secondary blame goes to whoever works with the kids as Hoglander/ Podkolzin look questionable as prospects.

(other existent problems that I won't blame current management for: underperformance by Myers/ OEL/ Boeser/ Garland/ Demko; wins that this management won't get: re-signing Schenn/ Hughes/ Petey)

Edited January 17 by Phil_314

[canucklehead44]

I think this management group is leaps and bounds better than Benning. I don't love the Miller signing but to be fair it was a good value at the time. Miller had shown consistent performance and was over a point per game as a Canuck. 

Kuzmenko is an interesting case and incredible find, but outside of "1 year guys" Mikheyev is our best free agent signing since Hamhuis & Malhotra back in 2010. He is by far our top penalty killer (although that is not saying much) and is on pace for 20+ goals and 50+ points. His 5 on 5 productivity is 63rd in the league which is fantastic. 

Dermott was a great pick up, also amazing they got a 3rd for Hamonic. 

On its own the Dickinson trade was horrible, but when you loop it in with the Ethan Bear trade it was fantastic (getting a player like Bear, who is earning 1.6M, for just a 2nd round pick essentially is a great deal). 

Management was put into a bad position. Benning was given a team in clear need of a rebuild and had some vets with some value. JR/Allvin have the core young pieces but have been straddle with terrible decisions made by the previous regime. 

I would have preferred they moved out Miller or waited, as well as waited on Brock and just paid the extra money to qualify him if needed. 

Aman was a good find. Joshua is one of our best 4th line signings. Lazar was a solid low risk add-on and is better than the guys Benning paid $3M for the same role. He also picked up Filip Johnasson who is one of our top 5 prospects. 

But this team's failure is largely thanks to Benning and his horrible contracts and they went a bit too gung ho in the compete window. 

I give the management a B-. 

 

Edited January 17 by canucklehead44

[Maniwaki Canuck]

2 hours ago, *Buzzsaw* said:

In addition, they re-tooled a lot of their bottom end forward group with Curtis Lazar being the big signing there... at $9 million over three years.  Yes, Lazar is a good player, but was it worth adding him to the bottom six at that price?

Agree with most of your post but Lazar is making 1 million x 3 years, not 3 x 3. 

[J.I.A.H.N]

I gauge Management on foresight............

 

That is what they are paid to do

 

They need to be able to know what the market is on players, they need to be able to forecast cap. They need to be able to project who will help the team, the next year........

They need to have a plan..............

 

Have Rutherford and Allvin been able to do that?

 

They get an F from me .

[Alflives]

Just now, J.I.A.H.N said:

I gauge Management on foresight............

 

That is what they are paid to do

 

They need to be able to know what the market is on players, they need to be able to forecast cap. They need to be able to project who will help the team, the next year........

They need to have a plan..............

 

Have Rutherford and Allvin been able to do that?

 

They get an F from me .

Gillis was clearly an A.  Benning was a D.  New guys are currently an F.  Maybe our owner should have kept Gillis?  

[J.I.A.H.N]

1 minute ago, Alflives said:

Gillis was clearly an A.  Benning was a D.  New guys are currently an F.  Maybe our owner should have kept Gillis?  

Linden / Gillis combo

[jyu]

I agree they sucked thus far and have been very unimpressive.

 

Actually, I haven't read your post but most fans are angry and people making angry posts usually give bad grade. 

 

I give them C- for making incorrect initial assessment.

 

I give them A for realizing they were wrong in assessing the initial state of the team and getting on board with tanking.