Canucks News N Notes 25-26

[dbr]

If ownership is so cash strapped they are low balling potential GM's, is the jettisoning of veteran payroll and avoiding salary increases for star players in favour of ELC's a financial decision or a rebuilding decision?

What does being hopeful and realistic look like as a Canucks fan these days? Maybe hoping you're onto something here and that the team toils in the league basement for a few years, cutting costs and accumulating high draft picks. Maybe these fucking clowns will sell the team if their family win that lawsuit and the real estate market goes into the tank.

[Topper]

If ownership is so cash strapped they are low balling potential GM's, is the jettisoning of veteran payroll and avoiding salary increases for star players in favour of ELC's a financial decision or a rebuilding decision?

What does being hopeful and realistic look like as a Canucks fan these days? Maybe hoping you're onto something here and that the team toils in the league basement for a few years, cutting costs and accumulating high draft picks. Maybe these fucking clowns will sell the team if their family win that lawsuit and the real estate market goes into the tank.

Coyote Ugly

Fans will chew off their arms to get away of the paupers.

Realtors and developers in a falling market.

[UWSaint]

If ownership is so cash strapped they are low balling potential GM's ...

The whole search and rejected offer for some reason reminds me of the Bruce Boudreau situation, where Rutherford and Allvin had made up their mind that they wanted to go in a new direction, but knowing that doing so after the post-Greene would be unpopular, their decisions and public statements fully undermined the coach and the unsurprisingly lackluster performance given the environment made firing him an inevitability. They engaged in a theater so hard choices would be easy.

Maybe its strained to see this as an analog, but I see the same kind of theater behind a GM search that wanted to send a message of excessive diligence. It was slow, they talked to a lot of people, they had a lot of people involved. And it results in a decision they could have announced on day 1. Hiring RJ out of the gate wouldn't have been quite as unpopular as firing a coach that put life back into the team (and hadn't yet failed), but it certainly would have fed into the narrative this is a Mickey Mouse organization.

Of course, the theater with BB didn't make the management look anything less than Mickey Mouse, and the result of this GM search is a lot worse than had they simply hired RJ out of the gate. And that's because just like they fumble management decisions, they fumble their own theater. If Gold wasn't offered the position, at least the line could be "we did an exhaustive search, and feel Ryan Johnson is in the best position to take this club forward because x and y." But in their heads, maybe they thought it was better to be turned down, so we had to remain in house....

But logically, why make the offer to Gold at all? With BB, the whole thing is quite public -- he's either your coach or he's not. No one ever has to know why you didn't make an offer beyond platitudes like "we felt RJ was the best fit." In the interview process you can get what the salary demand is before making an offer. But I suspect Gold's salary requirement wasn't the real hang up for ownership. Instead, it was all of the collateral costs of cleaning house and getting Gold's guys -- the contract buyouts -- and constructing analytics and/or scouting as Gold proposed. But again, you know that before making the offer, why make the offer if you are unwilling to do it. You couldn't possibly think "okay, we'll do what he wants, but only if he works for less money than an Abbotsford call up" and he'd see that as attractive. I can just imagine the pea brained management thinking "getting a new GM is going to cost x, with all the changes Gold is proposing, it's going to cost x + A before we even count his salary, so this will still be generous because its more than we expected to spend all in...."

The Canucks took far too long to fire Allvin, then took far too long to hire the in house, and by the time they fire Foote, they will have missed out on all the picks of the litter.

But maybe there's a positive spin. Maybe this theater was to lay bare just how out of sorts ownership is -- disagreements between the members of AIG. Irreconcilable such that the one who (wisely or unwisely) is invested in the Canucks as a hockey club can't do what he wishes, and maybe it is now not worth the salt. They are blessed with league wide skyrocketing franchise values -- if you can't marginally add to those values by increasing the certainty and/or amount of revenue, if you can't attract with Cup potential the marginal rich-guy-willing-to-operate-at-a-loss-to-scratch-that-competitive-itch, then the best thing you can do is minimize liabilities so the next owner is working with a much more open slate. If your house is a fixer upper, why half ass the fix up before you sell. You are either the one to add that value or you are not, and at this point, its patently clear you aren't the one to add the value.

Sell.

[Carl Yagro]

I think there is much truth to what you gentlemen have pointed out.

[JelloPuddingPop]

One might wonder, if they are under some sort of conservatorship (not a lawyer, so not at all sure that's the right word) - what with the lawsuits, family buy-outs etc. they are being told to keep things status quo, or not commit to large scale capital expenditure that could jeopardize a payout.

This could explain the perceived lack of available cash, and the long timing it takes to make key decisions? Needing to go through a 3rd party evaluation prior to spending money which could affect the overall value of the Org.?

Just speculating here.

[Topper]

Sedin's new role

[Lancer]

But I suspect Gold's salary requirement wasn't the real hang up for ownership. Instead, it was all of the collateral costs of cleaning house and getting Gold's guys -- the contract buyouts -- and constructing analytics and/or scouting as Gold proposed. But again, you know that before making the offer, why make the offer if you are unwilling to do it. You couldn't possibly think "okay, we'll do what he wants, but only if he works for less money than an Abbotsford call up" and he'd see that as attractive. I can just imagine the pea brained management thinking "getting a new GM is going to cost x, with all the changes Gold is proposing, it's going to cost x + A before we even count his salary, so this will still be generous because its more than we expected to spend all in...."

I agree; the salary thing is a bit of a red herring IMO. They likely knew Gold's demands before they allegedly made the offer so, if anything, if they low-balled him it might have been to give him an offer he wouldn't accept. Gold then says no so, at worst, AIG looks cheap but they can say at least they conducted due diligence before going back to RJ. They perhaps needed a fig-leaf to cover their motivation for balking at Gold's demands staff-wise. They may have flirted with Gold, and it may not have had much to do with the cost of the staff turnover but Gold may have wanted to turf or remove mechanisms that enabled ownership to effectively meddle even if they were telling everybody they were hands-off this time.

The Canucks took far too long to fire Allvin, then took far too long to hire the in house, and by the time they fire Foote, they will have missed out on all the picks of the litter.

Who knows? Maybe their plan was Malhotra all the way and they're just waiting for things to play out before they let Foote and crew. Would anyone bet against that?

Christ, they may have made up their minds to draft Manny Jr. with visions of the feel-good narrative it would engender. They probably wouldn't understand the term 'nepo-baby' either.

[Topper]

They would have asked Gold his price, then countered.

[Cornuck]

Christ, they may have made up their minds to draft Manny Jr. with visions of the feel-good narrative it would engender. They probably wouldn't understand the term 'nepo-baby' either.

If it's this and Ruck twins, we'll know that marketing was in charge of the draft.

[Meds]

Christ, they may have made up their minds to draft Manny Jr. with visions of the feel-good narrative it would engender. They probably wouldn't understand the term 'nepo-baby' either.

If it's this and Ruck twins, we'll know that marketing was in charge of the draft.

And then a rebrand of the team to the Vancouver Fundamental Mormons?

[Topper]

Malhotra and vision in the same sentence, which way are you going with this?

Kid just committed to another year of school, god forbid they turn the geriatric into a liar.

[Cousin Strawberry]

I can definitely see Stenberg or McKenna dropping into their lap. It's being widely speculated upon that the sharts are taking a defender

[Lancer]

Malhotra and vision in the same sentence, which way are you going with this?

Kid just committed to another year of school, god forbid they turn the geriatric into a liar.

Yeah, I didn't see that connection when I wrote that...

[Tciso]

What are we going to call the Twins now? combined they are the COPOHO (Co-POHO), and individually, they are DPOHO and HPOHO? We need more, yes more acronyms!!!

[Meds]

What are we going to call the Twins now? combined they are the COPOHO (Co-POHO), and individually, they are DPOHO and HPOHO? We need more, yes more acronyms!!!

It's too bad they aren't triplets..... Dawn, Day, Dusk (nerd alert).