Blob Mckenzie wrote:If Big Dave had still been running things we would likely still have Morrison, would have probably traded our 1st round pick( this was rumored by Nonis's media puppet..........bye bye Cody Hodgson) for Cammalerri, signed Brunnstrom and would likely not have dealt for Bernier and O'Brien. Cowan would likely be our tough guy and Davison and Hordichuk would likely have signed elsewhere. Krapjeck would likely still be coughing up the puck and getting worked over in front of his own net. Nonis didn't like having a big, tough team so the Canucks would still be getting bounced around the rink like they did in the three previous seasons. Obviously it is impossible to predict all of this but I think we can all agree that this team would definitley not have the toughness and size it currently posesses.
The firing of Dave Nonis is the biggest reason for this team's turnaround.
Couldn't agree with you any more, Blob. Much has been said about all the excuses for Donut Dave not addressing our secondary scoring (no cap space, no prospects to trade away, teams wanting to much in return for their players, blah, blah, blah) but there are absolutely NO EXCUSES for not addressing our lack of team toughness. MG did more in one summer than Donut Dave did the whole time he was here when it comes to team toughness. He has even upgraded our secondary scoring. Even without Signing Sundin we clearly have more depth up front than what we have had in years.
If we keep DN, I firmly believe that Luongo leaves town after next season.
[/quote] Nobody except Nonis and his cook know for sure whether he would have dealt the pick for Cammaleri but ed Willes and Ian McIntyre both said that he planed to make that deal at the draft and they were both the resident Nonis apologists/Gillis bashers. If anything they wouldn't make up shit that would make their buddy DN look bad.
Maybe Cowan wouldn't still be our tough guy, but there's no way in hell Nonis would have brought in all of the size and toughness Gillis has aquired. This team has been bootfucked for the last three years before this year, so Nonis is all of a sudden going ice a team that has some balls and plays physically ??? Highly unlikely. He may have signed hordichuk, but there's no way he would have brought in O'brien, Bernier and Davison.[/quote]
Trading a first round pick (Hodgson) away for Cammaleri would likely have been one of the worst trades in Canuck history. How would signing Brunnstrom, trading for Cammaleri and signing the Sedins to extensions (which no doubt would have had no trade clauses included, further restricting our ability to improve the team thru a trade) make us a tougher team, even if he did sign a heavyweight like Hordichuk? Tonight, we were able to match Anaheim's size and toughness. It was horrible to watch Anaheim bounce us around the rink in previous years. You have to be tough to go 4 rounds. Even Detroit had size and toughness in their line-up last year, even without a heavyweight.
MG is going to continue to be judged, but so far, he looks like a far better g.m. than what DN was by a country mile.
38 years without a Stanley Cup and counting.