Bleach Clean
Registered User
- Aug 9, 2006
- 27,058
- 6,635
our prospect pool would be filled with busts. I miss that sooooo much!@!!!
Gillis being a good GM is one of the biggest HF Canuck myths.
In your mind, which GMs in the NHL currently are average or good?
Some good points but I think the only way to rate GM's is on what they did not based on what we think the limitations they had from ownership. And to be fair I apply that same standard to Benning and don't excuse him because of any limitations he had placed on him by ownership.
On that basis;
Drafting is easily Benning as Gillis had very poor results. In fact our drafting statistically is near the bottom of the league in studies I have read prior to Benning. So this may be somewhat faint praise for Benning but I think this is clearly him. Getting Boeser and Demko where he got them in the draft is very impressive.
We don't know Benning's results yet... Everybody's draft looks great prior to Pro League samples.
I think you'll find that because Benning has bled picks at an alarming rate, that VAN will remain near the bottom in draft results, regardless of whether Boeser or Demko pan out.
Gillis was easily better at trading but since 2011 had a pretty poor record on trades. I think he botched the goalie trades and needs to take responsibility for this regardless of how the league impacted the Luongo contract. So Gillis here but again very faint praise considering Benning's record.
Signings and cap management was, IMO, where Gillis shone. He was one of the best in the NHL and was smart enough to delegate to Gillman as well. This allowed him to take advantage of other GM's like in the Ehrhoff deal.
IMO, Benning is one of the worst GM's. Gillis post 2011 was a below average GM. Taking his entire tenure into account I think Gillis was slightly above average.
By "poor trade record" post 2011, are you localizing this to the goalie trades? If so, that shouldn't be enough to indict Gillis. Consider that in each case, he got value. Markstrom is about to be re-signed, after Benning waived him, and Horvat is the best return based on value a goalie with Schneider's pedigree could have realistically warranted. And don't get me started on the league impacting Luongo's contract... We will never agree on that.
If I recall correctly, were you not in support of Benning? Someone that insisted on a "wait and see" approach? I could be wrong.
Not that I disagree with your overall assertion of Gillis, but what made Gillis a "below average" GM post 2011? I'm just curious because different posters have different answers to this.