Gillis on the need for leadership and culture

[LadyStanley]

LeBrun: Q&A with Mike Gillis, who travelled the world to...

Paywall. Q&A with former Vancouver GM on what he's been doing in the past five years. He's been traveling around the world to talk to the best sports organizations and understand what they're doing well (or not doing well).

If you had one key takeaway from all those experiences, what would you say that you now know that you didn’t know before that has really left a deep impression on you?

I think the one thing that has made probably the biggest impression on me is the emphasis that really high-end, high-functioning organizations have on leadership and culture. Which is a daily part of their training environment. So it isn’t like you decide to focus on that for a short period of time and hope that it’s going to work out. They drive leadership, they drive culture every day that the players are there. It’s totally aligned from the top of the organization to the bottom of the organization that they’re always in a teaching mode, they’re always teaching about how to be proper leaders, and how to maintain the culture and what culture is defined as. It’s clearly one of the biggest differences that I saw. The top organizations are removing hope from the equation. They’re implementing plans and implementing a strategy that constantly drives leadership and culture. As a result, they take players that may not be successful somewhere else and they become successful there. There’s only so many top players to go around. But if you get the highest utility out of every one of them that’s on your team because you’re communicating properly, they’re training properly, but they’re also learning about how to be better. That was definitely the biggest takeaway I’ve had.

I do think that this is an important aspect of why/how some NHL organizations have succeeded (season after season after season) and some (I'm looking at you Edmonton, for one) where they haven't.

Vegas did a good job of implementing their "warrior" culture based on Foley's leadership. And although they do not have "a" captain, all 23 players have been called on to provide leadership.

Seattle definitely needs to think about how they want to culturally build their organization and set up the leadership.

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[Elias GOATtersson]

Depressing how many stupid canucks fans there are (especially on twitter) that still don't understand and respect how intelligent Gillis is. Wish him success with whatever team recognizes it.

 

[Szechwan]

Depressing how many stupid canucks fans there are (especially on twitter) that still don't understand and respect how intelligent Gillis is. Wish him success with whatever team recognizes it.

No kidding. Remember hearing the "fire Gillis" chants at Rogers after a few losses and just shaking my head, you could just feel the mob-mentality of it all.

Meanwhile Gillis saw the end of their window and advocated for a rebuild, but management balked and fired him instead.

He can come off as arrogant, but whoever hires him in the NHL is going to get a very intelligent hockey mind. Would love to have him back in Van after this Benning garbage is through.

 

[TryamkinPleaseReturn]

Depressing how many stupid canucks fans there are (especially on twitter) that still don't understand and respect how intelligent Gillis is. Wish him success with whatever team recognizes it.

Yeah it's amazing. He is so much better than pretty much any GM Vancouver ever had. Built a championship culture while he was there (even if they came a goal short of a cup).

Imagine him coming back to Vancouver and replacing the least progressive GM in the league with maybe the most progressive. That one single move would genuinely signal a new era for the Canucks. It would probably have more positive effect for them than winning the draft lottery.

 

[Elias GOATtersson]

Gillis coming back to the Canucks and bringing Gilman with him is a dream I have sometimes...

 

[StreetHawk]

No kidding. Remember hearing the "fire Gillis" chants at Rogers after a few losses and just shaking my head, you could just feel the mob-mentality of it all.

Meanwhile Gillis saw the end of their window and advocated for a rebuild, but management balked and fired him instead.

He can come off as arrogant, but whoever hires him in the NHL is going to get a very intelligent hockey mind. Would love to have him back in Van after this Benning garbage is through.

Gillis would have to sell that rebuild to ownership with a clear plan on how he would actually improve his drafting which netted the Canucks virtually nothing during his tenure now that we are 5 years removed from his termination. Schroeder, Jensen, shinkaruk etc.
It’s not like he sold the farm of his draft picks during his run as GM. Dealt either a 2nd or a 3rd but outside of 1 year in 2010 he would have at least a second or third to go with his first.
I’d have more willingness to let him rebuild the team (not like the owners even wanted that) if he had sold off his first rounders for tdl acquisitions to make more runs for the cup in 2012/2013. Maybe if he had done that then ownership can see that they had nonpicks and this have to rebuild. But when you are the one at the top making the final call and missing in your draft picks it makes it a harder sell to lead the rebuild.
He’s best suited to be a president. That part I am in complete agreement on that he’s always seemed forward thinking not afraid to try things that other non hockey organizations have done. Get ahead of the curve.
Still boggles my mind how an owner can give his gm a 5 year extension without being in sync with what they need to do given the current state of the franchise. They extended him in May 2012 a year before his deal was to expire in 2013. After coming off a second straight presidents trophy season but this time going down to LA in round 1 after going down 3-0 in the series.
What was the plan between Gillis and ownership at the date of the extension? I’d think that would be pretty important to come to agreement on before you extend his contract. What is the expectation of the team in the next 3 and then 5 years?

For Gillis, he was paid through 2018 by the Canucks, but the negative is that he was not able to apply for another gm or president job in the NHL. So many opportunities have passed him, like LA, Edm, Min, LV, AZ, NJ, Tor, etc.

 

[Tawnos]

For Gillis, he was paid through 2018 by the Canucks, but the negative is that he was not able to apply for another gm or president job in the NHL. So many opportunities have passed him, like LA, Edm, Min, LV, AZ, NJ, Tor, etc.

I highly doubt that. I'm sure the Canucks would be perfectly happy to stop paying him, and thus would let anyone interview him.

 

[StreetHawk]

I highly doubt that. I'm sure the Canucks would be perfectly happy to stop paying him, and thus would let anyone interview him.

I agree. Torts was in the same situation and he got another job. Canucks would be more than happy to see a reduction in payout.

What I meant was that maybe how it ended for him, it left a mark that for whatever reason, we are now 5 seasons removed from his termination and he has yet to get another NHL. I don't even think I've heard that he interviewed with another team since.

Plenty of GMs since he was terminated and found work within 2 years. Chuck Fletcher, Ray Shero, Jimmy Rutherford, Peter C. in Edm. Plus other openings over the past few years including AZ, Buf, LA. Yet, Gillis remains without an NHL job.

People have been trying to connect the dots with De Bonis a former Canuck executive being part of the Seattle group as a link that could mean that Gillis lands in Seattle. He's best suited to be Team President, so see if that's how they go. If he doesn't land in Seattle, I'm thinking that he won't be back in the NHL. Too many opportunities have come and gone in these 5 years.

 

[BKIslandersFan]

Gillis coming back to the Canucks and bringing Gilman with him is a dream I have sometimes...

Remember when Canucks fans labeled him the worst GM in the league? Pepperidge Farm remembers.

 

[SabresSharks]

No kidding. Remember hearing the "fire Gillis" chants at Rogers after a few losses and just shaking my head, you could just feel the mob-mentality of it all.

Meanwhile Gillis saw the end of their window and advocated for a rebuild, but management balked and fired him instead.

He can come off as arrogant, but whoever hires him in the NHL is going to get a very intelligent hockey mind. Would love to have him back in Van after this Benning garbage is through.

Was the bolded disagreement over keeping the twins and "retooling" for success with them versus a total rebuild? Hindsight certainly favors Gillis.

 

[StreetHawk]

Was the bolded disagreement over keeping the twins and "retooling" for success with them versus a total rebuild? Hindsight certainly favors Gillis.

Honestly, I think the breakdown between Gillis and ownership most likely occurred because Gillis' assessment of the team changed between 2012 to 2013. In 2012, he signs his extension for an extra 5 years. Pretty sure he and ownership talk about the direction of the team over the next couple of years. Here are the contracts for the Canucks at the end of the 2012 season.

Contract wise, Edler, Burrows, Higgins, Malhottra (eye) all UFA expire in 2013. Tanev RFA expired in 2013. Sedins, Hansen UFA expire in 2014. Ballard, Booth, Schneider UFA expire in 2015. Kesler, Hamhuis, Bieksa UFA expire in 2016. Loungo expires 2022. That's the core of the team.

Key group is the Sedins, since they were the offensive drivers of the team. Their deals were set to expire in 2014, 15 year post draft, so they would be 33, but with late birthdays, turning 34 at the start of the 14-15 season if they were extended. So, the Canucks realistically should eye 2 more competitive runs to the Cup until they have to determine whether to extend the twins, who would still cost a lot but be less productive. They would be on the back side of their careers at that point.

During his radio interview with TSN 1040 in the fall he mentioned talking to Webber about an Offer Sheet, so doesn't sound like he wanted to do a rebuild in 2012. Webber got a long term offer from Philly and took that deal. Vancouver ended up signing Garrison as a UFA that summer. That's not a rebuild move.

So, when the Canucks get swept by SJ in 2013, that's when Gillis rightfully wanted to change direction and go rebuild seeing that the end was coming sooner than he had envisioned a year ago. Or he needed to move 2 core players out to change it up to freshen the roster for the final season of the twins under contract. Owners, I can understand being ticked about his change of direction (did they think he said what was necessary a year ago to secure an extension? who knows). Probably why Torts was hired to give the core roster 1 final go. But, that created another layer of a mess, then they follow up with extending the twins, whom ownership wanted to win for.

Gillis did come off as arrogant in the past. Whether he accepted fault for not having an influx of talent (Hodgson/Kassian, Schroeder, Jensen, Mallet, Gaunce, etc.) close to making a difference to help the team, who knows.

So, I believe Gillis made the right assessment in 2013, however, it probably was complete 180 degree turnaround from the 2012 assessment, when he got his extension. Still the right call, as things can change on you. But, the owners likely weren't happy to hear it as I doubt they expected to get a rebuild request before the twins finished their current deals.