Gillis Interview(post game)

geebaan

7th round busted
Oct 27, 2012
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Doesn’t watch the Canucks, but thinks Petttersson is fabulous, would fit the mold of a player I’d like to have.
Spent some time in Russia, players aren’t as fast and as good.

Deal for Schneider at the deadline wasn’t there. Top flight goalie and we hadn’t decided what we where gonna do yet. Didn’t have the track record at that point to get the deal we would have wanted

With the long term contracts, we wanted to win the cup, and thought those contracts gave us best competitive chance to win. Talked to Gary about the changing the rules. Oddly enough a couple teams after tried complaining tried to trade for Roberto anyway. Unfortunate that they changed the way they did

If he was in charge of the roster, likes speed and skill, especially the backend. That would be his focus with a roster, (mentioned Erhoff as an example). Make the forwards as effective as possible with good defenceman.

When asked if he had carte blanche to run the Canucks again, he literally laughed, and said it would take “quite a lot for that to happen again”
 

timw33

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What he wants out of a defense core:

Speed
Skill
Transition ability

Sounds like a guy that would trade for Erik Gudbranson

He was pretty much specifically calling out the EG acq with the way he answered the question.
 

Pastor Of Muppetz

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Oct 1, 2017
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What he wants out of a defense core:

Speed
Skill
Transition ability

Sounds like a guy that would trade for Erik Gudbranson
Apparently,Gudbranson was a player Gillis targeted in the Hodgson deal.

Elliott Freidman,April 2012
"4. In the March 6 edition of this blog, I mentioned that Vancouver "targeted" a few players in a possible Cody Hodgson deal. Zack Kassian was one, obviously. I also noted Brandon Sutter, who the Carolina Hurricanes love, and made an educated guess at John Carlson (which appears to be true). Canucks GM Mike Gillis said Tuesday there were six players. According to a couple of sources, sounds like the fourth was Erik Gudbranson and the fifth Kyle Clifford. No. 6? Not sure"
 
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StreetHawk

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lol, straight up saying that the GM really only has influence on the 1st pick in the draft.
So his influence was Hodgson, Schroeder, Jensen, gaunce, Horvat and Shinkaruk.

A gm hires the people who are in charge of the scouting dept. he accepted failure in that aspect of it. No coincidence the team dropped off when the core entered their 30’s and his picks in their early 20’s were not there to help take some of the old off them.

As for the team dropping off, if we go back a lot of them got extensions from Gillis. Burrows and Higgins got 4 year deals for example. Garrisons deal just expired. So, the team dropping off unexpectedly means that management didn’t see it coming. They were extending guys in their early 30’s into their mid 30’s.

Would have been interesting to see what he would have done to maneuver around the ntc he handed out.
 
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timw33

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Sounds like Gillis will considered for a position with the Seattle expansion.

Seattle makes the playoffs before Vancouver does.
 

timw33

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Had deals at the deadline before he was fired that would have completely changed the landscape of the team. Organizational decision not to. Sounds like Kesler was one of them, but there were more deals than just that.
 
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geebaan

7th round busted
Oct 27, 2012
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Even more updates!

On Seattle, thinks its gonna be a terrific market, natural place to put a team, great sports market(now), lots of contact with the Seahawks, think they’d do well. I’d be interested in hearing from Seattle about a potential job. Lots of connections to different Seattle personal.

Dave Tippet was a couch we had under consideration. Respected his work, got the most out of his players. Good coach.
On no trade clauses, his mandate was to win. Constructing a team means you need to find every advantage, and further to that, middle of the pack as fas as no trade clauses. Didn’t feel skewed one way or another. Even if you gave a no trade contact to a player, threat of minors or not wanted makes him possible to trade. Invested in there careers, but if there is a younger player comes along, mortality stares you in the face, need to move anyway.

Doesn’t think no trade clauses hamstrung team, wasn’t there to do the trade, thinks with his background, could have been handled differently.

On trading picks, no regrets, had a plan, and had the assets to do it. Timing was just off. We had some trade on the table before the deadline I got fired that could have changed the whole complexion of the team, they just didn’t get done.
Given the choice, would have done it again. 2nd round pick wouldn’t help us win the cup in our competitive years. Team demonstrated the ability to win the cup, so had to go all in. Chris Higgins, Lapierre were huge for the team. Loss of Malhotra can’t be understated.
 

Peen

Rejoicing in a Benning-free world
Oct 6, 2013
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He would be better off media wise in a us market. Might not fit an expansion team since he would need to get out and promote like McPhee had to in Vegas.
He said he would want a media buffer. Doesn't want to have to be in front of media like he did in VAN.
 

Pip

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Feb 2, 2012
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Had deals at the deadline before he was fired that would have completely changed the landscape of the team. Organizational decision not to. Sounds like Kesler was one of them, but there were more deals than just that.

Bieksa/Hamhuis/Garrison all likely options.
 

StreetHawk

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Sep 30, 2017
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Had deals at the deadline before he was fired that would have completely changed the landscape of the team. Organizational decision not to. Sounds like Kesler was one of them, but there were more deals than just that.
Kesler not surprised since he asked for one. Full ntc, but still talking about a similar return that Anaheim gave. Main issue would be that “prospect” which benning never got instead taking pizza over someone like Theodore.

Again, if the aquilinis have final say over deals, then what can he do?

It will always remain a mystery what he could have done trade wise. His track record isn’t that long in terms of trades.

Erhroff, Ballard, Booth, Kassian are his main ones right? But he’s going in the opposite direction in terms of giving up proven guys for prospects if he’s trying to change the team Dynamic or maybe it’s guys of similar age to change up the team.
 

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