Do we have a Meddling Owner?

[Chef Boi RD]

In my rare defence if Gillis, I believe we have an owner who isn't a true nuts and bolts hockey fan and one who can comprehend a rebuild but is more focused on the Canuck hype and keeping it alive with the same tired out core group. Aquamarine is out of touch with the Canuck fan, and it's worrisome

James Duthie made an interesting point regarding the growing apathy of the current Canuck fan base. In the hey day of this core group, 2-3 seasons ago when TSN had a double header and the Canucks were on in the 2nd game, if the first game went in to OT and cut into the start of the Canucks game, they at TSN would get 1,000's of hate emails. Today if that happens, they are lucky to get one hate email. That to me is a serious indicator of how this market feels about their team - the Canucks, but Aquamarine thinks we should keep powering ahead with this core group thinking this is what the fans want, leaving us with an out of touch meddling owner who is truly not a real hockey fan but a rich kid jerking off on his popularity in high society.

Gillis made an interesting point in a recent interview, he said that even back in December when this team went on that good run of hockey he still felt that this team, this group will not get it done and that a rebuild is a must

What I believe is that with the combination of not getting desirable offers for Kesler, Gillis gave into aquamarines demands to keep on trucking and stay in pursuit of the playoffs when clearly Gillis and this market do not have faith in this group therefore satisfying an out touch meddling owner with one last playoff run wish

I do believe that Aquamarine has given Gillis the green light to blow it up in the off season, just not now even though the writing is on the wall and this market has lost it's passion for this group. What more evidence do you need to understand that this market demands a rebuild? This group is done. Aquamarine wants to try and recoup some money through playoff revenues. At the end if the day our out of touch owners are not true hockey fans, they are bottom line

There you have it

I'm drunk like Blobby 40 lb'er MacKegger is in every weekend up in heritage Mtn in the great tri-cities

[mathonwy]

Yep. I think we do.

Which is why I've kind of put down my Gillis pitchfork for the time being.

(I still am in favour of firing Torts though)

The problem is its really hard to tell where GIllis starts and where Aquaman ends.

And as this is Gillis's first GM job, nobody has any idea how this guy actually works.

The crazy amount of NTC's given out by this organization doesn't seem too lawyerish to me.

[Soapy]

Did you forget that they just gave Torts a 5 year deal.....
That's why they were waiting to see how the team reacted.

Now it's fallen apart and your looking back with 20/20

There have been a ton of mistakes.... But the Canucks were doing well....
Hand puppets and magic tricks... Sure... They had a lot of us fooled

[Soapy]

Also Pittsburg has apologized for the comments... Totally unfounded....
They were trying to bully gillis... Typical salesman bully....

You can't give me the deal I want on this used car.... I need to talk to your boss.... Pathetic really ...
But with the local media... They love chasing this ambulance....

Gillis totally led Pittsburg on.... Just like he did to Toronto with Lou .... Gillis can't make a trade... No balls...
But a meddling owner???
An owner that is involved is what fans want.

Don't confuse a former agent lawyer asshole -gillis- with a hockey loving, spend to the cap local owner

[sagebrush]

Dealing with the owner is part of Gillis' job.
This summer will be the crucible that can mould the team for years, & show what Gillis is made of.

This is like deja vu all over again.

[Todd Bersnoozi]

I agree, I think to a large extent, Aquaman has a lot of say in the direction of the team. At the trade deadline, I heard some reports say that the Canucks took Kes off the market because ownership wanted to try to make the playoffs. It really doesn't make sense though, if they really wanted to make the playoffs, why would they trade Lou now? As much as I like Lack, u can't give the ball to a guy who barely started 20 NHL games and bring in a backup with like zero NHL experience and expect them to carry the load for a playoff push. It's like ownership paniced with the heritage game controversy and told MG just to get rid of Lou and cut their losses. Surely with the Lou trade, we could have gotten a similar type return in the offseason. With Lou gone, we're giving up on the season and going for a rebuild right? Kes should be next, but they decide no, they want to try to make playoffs. WTF? They can't decide what they want to do and there's no direction with the club. It's like the team is being run by a spoiled rich little brat. No wonder our guys are playing like they're clueless. Our players are probably thinking, OK, we're playing like shit and we could really use some help, u guys trade Lou (an Olympian netminder) and u bring nothing in to help us out. Uhhmm, ok, where are white towels?

I'm starting to think back to the summer as well with the Torts hiring, it may have ownership fingerprints all over it. It's clear now that Tort's style of play doesn't really fit the personel of the canucks (ie - the shot blocking, big minutes to certain players, etc), so management is thinking about getting players that can play Tort's game; however, some analysist think this is all wrong. Usually you're supposed to get a coach who can utilize the strengths of the players u have, not the other way around. It's like everything is backwards and all fucked up.

I will say this though, although everyone is crying for MG's head, I dunno. I think his job is safe as long as he's willing to do the bidding of Aquaman and be the lil bitch. MG takes all the heat when things go bad and Aquaman hides in the background counting his cash and planning what to do next with his little toy/hockey franchise. The future of our team does NOT look good.

[ukcanuck]

I can't really say if Aquaman is pulling strings behind the scene or not. luggage eyes denies it so...

Looking at the facts... Trading kesler for anything less than a home run is suicidal. Once it became known that Kesler was willing to move, every other GM is going to try to low ball Gillis in hopes that he will blink.

No home run offer no trade.... seems kinda like Gillis could make that call all by himself..

Now if Aqua told him to make the move and they traded Kesler for a bandaid popular solution, a front line player with diminishing skills in order to boost ticket sales... then maybe Rubber Ducky might have a point...

maybe

[Chef Boi RD]

It's all speculation but its probably a combination - not the most desirable offers for Kesler (why cant the Seguins ever be available for us when shit like this happens) and an owners desire to stay the course with a core that the fan base here has lost it's passion for let alone a core group that has lost their passion as well, whether it be the coach or a GM who has dropped the ball too many times to bring in 'significant' help. Gillis us no way excused here, this team should still be running along side their usual peer group - Chicago, San Jose, Anaheim, Boston, Pittsburgh at the top of the league, this all falls in Gillis but something does tell me that he is all in on a full rebuild, at least I hope so. I have zero desire for this group of players and to do the Iginla/Flames era of constantly fighting for the cup run by decimating the future. A good GM is a GM who knows when a change is needed for the good of the future, realizing a team has run it's course. It still remains to be seen whether Gillis is capable of handling a rebuild. I have my doubts, especially if he is afraid to tell the owner "no, we are doing it this way"

Biggest concern for me is the coach. 5 year contract and he's fucking awful. Would really like to know if Aquamarine meddled on this hiring

[The Brown Knight]

Also Pittsburg has apologized for the comments... Totally unfounded....
They were trying to bully gillis... Typical salesman bully....

You can't give me the deal I want on this used car.... I need to talk to your boss.... Pathetic really ...
But with the local media... They love chasing this ambulance....

Gillis totally led Pittsburg on.... Just like he did to Toronto with Lou .... Gillis can't make a trade... No balls...
But a meddling owner???
An owner that is involved is what fans want.

Don't confuse a former agent lawyer asshole -gillis- with a hockey loving, spend to the cap local owner

C'mon Soapy. That's ridiculous dude.

Gillis isn't just going to make a trade for the sake of making a trade. Both Toronto and Pittsburgh completely low-balled Gillis with their offers for Luongo and Kesler respectively. Period.

Gillis could have and would have received better offers for Luongo at some point, had it not been for the lockout and subsequent new CBA and the new "Luongo rule" (which made Lou's contract an absolute nightmare at that point).

Now having said - I so concede the fact that Luongo should have been shopped much earlier than at the end of the 2012 season. Gillis should have started shopping Lou after the January 2012 game against Boston when this team emotionally became Schneider's (to this day, I suspect that the real reason the Canucks declined after the Boston game, was the players subconsciously wanted Schneider to be their new #1.......it should be of no coincidence that our best wins of the season that year against Boston, Chicago, Detroit, etc. was with Schneider in net).

Gillis however, wanted to enter the playoffs with two very strong goalies (in hindsight, this was a mistake).

Anyways - long story short - the new CBA completely fucked over Gillis as far as effectively dealing with the Luongo/Schneider situation.

Gillis' biggest priority was to land a top prospect from a Luongo deal but when it became evident that it was not going to happen, he was forced to move Schneider at the last minute.

And the Schneider thing WAS last minute. At the end of 2012, Gillis (to his fault perhaps) publicly announced that they would be proceeding forward with Schneider as their new #1...........and so for all of the 2013 season, shopping Schneider was never really an option.

[Lancer]

Yeah, I'm hearing rumblings that the 'meddling owner' rumours regarding the failed Kesler deal were coming out of Pittsburgh (media or management, dunno) in order to cover up the failure to nab Kesler to the Pittsburgh fanbase. "Look, we tried really hard and made an unbelievable pitch but if it weren't for that meddling owner in Vancouver we would have Kesler... yada yada yada."

Given what's come out about Pittsburgh's bid, as others have stated Gillis was wise to turn it down.

No doubt Aqualini is heavily involved in everything, from significant trades to FA signings to Torts' hiring. Still unsure if he's clinging on to the current core, and we'll know this summer if he sees what everyone else (including Gillis, I would assume) is seeing in terms of a roster in need of rejuvenation and remodelling. Hopefully they also take a critical eye to the coaching staff as well. Torts may have 4 more years left on his contract, but I wonder if Sully and Gully get the hook and get replaced by people who can help develop better offensive and PP tactics.

[Hockey Widow]

I would say we have active ownership as opposed to passive for sure. But I think it really is only meddling if it is un-welcomed.

The relationship between MG and ownership has been from day one a team approach. I think MG took the job with a full understanding of exactly what type of role ownership did and did not want.

Do they have input, you bet. Do they or don't they get final say in deals, hard to say. I would imagine it is more like, look we still must make the playoffs so go ahead and trade anyone you want, but you had better get the pieces back that keep us competitive today and help us build for the future. Or something like that

So it's only meddling if MG feels it is, otherwise it is a working relationship that MG is ok with.

I think our ownership group is too close but under the McCaw era we had a near invisible owner, so perhaps we got spoiled with that. Yet again my perception is delusional as history shows he was very involved in a number of decisions.

I think a lot of owners and ownership groups are extremely active in the running of their respective teams. No more, no less than ours. It's just some MG are more willing to demand more autonomy that others.

MG has denied that ownership has ever quashed a deal he wanted to make. The more that comes out from other cities and GMs the more I start to believe MG again. NOTE that is not the same as saying believe in him, I haven't come all the way back there yet.