Hey Rikster - great to see you posting regularly - been a while since we've had some good hockey discussions and I'm quite enjoying it, even if I'm having a hard time finding the time to post myself.....rikster wrote: ↑Wed Oct 10, 2018 8:58 pmIf you are going to give out no movement contracts for big dollars like candy at Halloween, then you need to have a very good draft and development program to fund those contracts...Blob Mckenzie wrote: ↑Wed Oct 10, 2018 4:39 pmI just think he’d be a good prez type guy. Didn’t say he should be a gm again. His drafting was shoddy but he managed the best team in Canucks history. Notice you NEVER threw shade at him before. Or I guess when people insult Elmer you get your back up I guess.Strangelove wrote: ↑Wed Oct 10, 2018 4:34 pmBloberto still pleasuring himself whilst thinking of Mikey, some things never change!Blob Mckenzie wrote: ↑Wed Oct 10, 2018 4:14 pm 20 min in this is a great interview. This man is well spoken. He belongs in the game. A team could do well to hire him as a president.
The fact that he procrastinated in fixing the scouting department is inexcusable and a major reason the team got lost in the woods once those core players started to age and move into the twilight of their careers....
Trying to excuse himself by claiming a GM has an influence on the teams first pick only was laughable and the fact that Sekeres and Price didn't push back was weak...
For someone who was quick to s*it on Nonis and prior Canucks management in his first press conference, hearing him throw out excuse after excuse for his and the teams failures was tough to listen to....which explains why I couldn't listen to the entire interview...
Take care...
I don't have an issue with most of the contracts Gillis gave out, even with the NT and NM clauses. Almost all of them were signed at below market rates (at the time), and they were for really good players who were on the best team in the league. That's the way it's supposed to work. Yes, it can hamstring you a bit for the future but there aren't too many players who are performing up to their contracts where the NT craters their value - it's when those players are playing like crap (Eriksson) that it's an issue. He signed very good FAs as well.
With that said, his drafting sucked. I'm in agreement with you that the buck stops with the GM for drafts. The big issue with Gillis is he was more of an executive type rather than a hockey man like Benning, so he probably didn't want to overrule his scouts even if they had a long track record of sucking. If that's the case, he should have hired a guy like Judd Brackett to do the drafting much earlier. Definitely a mistake by Gillis and one that made a huge hole in the team towards the end of his tenure. The odd thing about this is he was very good at finding guys to excel in one aspect of management - Gilman with contracts is a great example - but he couldn't or didn't find a guy to excel in drafting. Gillis didn't have the high picks Benning has had to fix the system but you have to hit on a few picks even if you're picking towards the end of each round.
Gillis was an arrogant p%ick during his time here, even if you liked his results for the most part like I did. It's good to see that he may have learned a bit more humility over the last few years, hopefully it serves him well if he gets another chance.