Is this the worst era of all time for the Canucks?

[RandV]

I still hold Gillis in high regard, despite his failure to keep the cupboard full. He gave us one of the most successful runs the Canucks have had.

Burke was incredibly short sighted, and that seems to be his MO. Look at Anaheim, Toronto and even Calgary to an extent. A lot of noise, a lot of talk of "truculence" and no results with no picks or prospects brought in. Remember when Brandon Reid was our highest touted prospect? I do.

Nonis was brought in to clean up Burke's mess when we started to decline. We had more success (prospect wise) then we did under Burke, which is like saying we skated faster then a dead guy, Sedins not withstanding. He remade the team, and plugged a long standing hole in net, and who knows, without a cap we could have been a dangerous team. But these are the times we were living in, and we lost a lot of talent as cap casualties. He didn't do well though. We had major holes that weren't fixed and it cost us.

None of that fixes or excuses Bennings idiocy spree.

This would imply he had anything in the cupboard to begin with? The cupboards were pretty empty when Gillis took over and the whole drafting/farm system needed to be reworked. He was fired just as his investments would have started paying off.

That's the right call on Burke though, overall did a good job bringing us back to respectability but was incredibly short sighted. Nonis paid lip service to looking towards the future, and the organization a huge one by not trading for Brad Richards despite the push from ownership, but otherwise didn't actually do a whole lot to push the Canucks future forward (not that he had much time to). Had that one amazing once a decade draft in his first year which I'd call a fluke, as otherwise his drafting was quite bad and a lot of picks were tossed away in meaningless trade deadline deals.

 

[Hit the post]

I don't know who Dolemite is as he doesn't generally participate on the Canucks board but over the years in threads on the main boards seems to be one of a few posters that any time Gillis gets mentioned is there like a bloodhound to trash on him.

As for the topic any talk about how difficult the situation Benning stepped into is completely mitigated by the endless amount of rope he's been given. While the team wasn't in the best youth position when he took over - as you would expect of a veteran team that won their division 5 years straight, 6 drafts with 5 of them picking in the top 10 is more than anyone should need to turn that sort of a situation around.

Personally of this 'modern' time period we're talking about I think Nonis easily had the most difficult situation to work with. He was expected to keep the ball rolling on Burke's WCE era with a barren farm system at a point where our top players were hitting UFA and demanding top dollars to retain while also about to hit a decline in production, and it was year 1 of the brand new salary cap era with the cap ceiling set way to low (39M). Gillis was by far the superior GM and took us places Burke/Nonis would never have been able to go to, but he also had the advantage Nonis didn't have of being free from the expensive declined stars and having the cap space to be creative and go after a guy like Mats Sundin.

Of course if Nonis was left on his plan for that summer would have been to resign Morrison and Naslund and add prized Swedish free agent Fabian Brunstrom to the team, but still 2005-2008 was going to be rough on whoever took over the team.

Only one of the GM's post-Quinn had the benefit high 1st round picks. And that guy drafted two HHOFers (jeebus, I'd empty the cupboard if I could draft two of those guys but fake dynamite would think otherwise).

 

[Cogburn]

This would imply he had anything in the cupboard to begin with? The cupboards were pretty empty when Gillis took over and the whole drafting/farm system needed to be reworked. He was fired just as his investments would have started paying off.

That's the right call on Burke though, overall did a good job bringing us back to respectability but was incredibly short sighted. Nonis paid lip service to looking towards the future, and the organization a huge one by not trading for Brad Richards despite the push from ownership, but otherwise didn't actually do a whole lot to push the Canucks future forward (not that he had much time to). Had that one amazing once a decade draft in his first year which I'd call a fluke, as otherwise his drafting was quite bad and a lot of picks were tossed away in meaningless trade deadline deals.

The best guys have refilled and moved forward successfully. I don't fault Gillis, we were very successful under him, and still got a few core players out of the deal too.

 

[mathonwy]

...and this is what it looks like when a poster goes over to the dark side.

RIP in peace Dolemite

 

[Dolemite]

No offense but that's a pretty crappy assessment. Burke didn't empty the prospect cupboard with his trades. He just didn't draft all that well. Gillis didn't really rebuild. He also didn't draft all that well. Both GMs built teams that were legitimate Cup contenders though. Burke never could solve the problem of having playoff goaltending and another top 6 forward. Gillis legitimately built the best team in the league that should have won the Cup. Nonis sucked but did trade for Luongo and 2004 was a strong draft.
In terms of building the prospect cupboard, I would rank the above GMs in this order: Benning, Burke, Nonis, and Gillis. But a big part of that was simply spending more years drafting near the top of the draft. Curiously, both Burke and Nonis had excellent first drafts as GMs. Gillis and Benning not so much.

Burke did one of the more memorable rebuilds in Canuck history. Neither Nonis nor Gillis were in a position to. Weird comment.

Are you sure you don't want to include Bud Poile on this list too? Good grief, full of excuses.

You have no idea what you’re talking about. What do you think he gave up for the Sedins, Naslund, etc? Prospects.

I don't know who Dolemite is as he doesn't generally participate on the Canucks board but over the years in threads on the main boards seems to be one of a few posters that any time Gillis gets mentioned is there like a bloodhound to trash on him.

Let me put it to you like this. I’ve been around since Parabola was a new user here and on CDC.

...and this is what it looks like when a poster goes over to the dark side.

Dark side? Explain.

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

As the poll question seems to have run its course and this is becoming a topic about Benning (with splashes of But Gillis/Nonis/Burke/etc), this is being closed.

Further discussion of Benning can move to the management thread. Discussion of former Canucks/former Canuck executives can go to the ex Canucks thread.

Closed.