Just continuing my thoughts on this here because the Judd Brackett thread is closing:
Vancast Brackett Full Summary:
1 - Benning + Weisbrod were "short focused" On Juolevi. (Linden and other people in the org were "concerned with the process")
2 - EP40 Pick - Two factions - Jim's group vs Linden/Scouts
Linden ultimately decided to go with the scouts with the draft pick.
Jim "liked glass a lot" "Glass was to low on the list"
One person said "Jim came down and cleared the board, and wrote Cody Glass on the board"
Benning did not push as hard as Juolevi.
"Without Linden, the pick is glass"
Jim was also high on EP40, as was weisbrod, so he basically caved.
3 - "Did not want total autonomy"
(2019 day 2 draft day now)
"Brackett was stripped of his authority: Not exactly".
jim was "mythed"
"The way it was framed, Jim Really liked/vouched for Hoglander, the scouts wanted size and a D man with the 2nd round pick"
Jim took control and made the pick.
Drance: "I don't think it called a rift, due process"
4 - "Staff departures"
Chris McDonald joins arizona as director.
Club lets go of 3 scouts, + doug who left on his accord
Dan polango was a mike gillis hire, was agent for gillis firm, over the years he emerged as bracketts #1 guys.
"If the communication was buttoned up" AKA brackett in the decision making.
Instead Brackett was not involved, org hired 3 other scouts.
Brackett wanted troy ward.
Personally decisions made by org without brackett's input basically.
5 - Brackett's Offer
"Brackett's offer was rejected aggressively"
"They wanted a request for clarification on how they would function together"
"but how it went down, it was off-putting for both sides."
Both sides are basically pissed off.
After it went off the rails "It all started to blow up during interview, Pat asked a question, Jim said Judd is with us "for now"
"were talking still was lie, mis-characterization"
I think that's about it, phew that took awhile!
First off, thanks again to LB for transcribing this. I also listened to this, and want to go over some things about Drance's comments in the Vancast from June 1:
Brackett, who was up-jumped in terms of the responsibility he was granted back in 2015, he was a relatively low man on the totem pole and when Benning said that Weisbrod supported that promotion at the time, like, that's true. That is absolutely 100% the truth.
Since Linden and now Weisbrod are confirmed as being in favour of Brackett's promotion, it makes you wonder who the people being sour and going all "Who is this guy?" were. Perhaps Delorme? Ryan Kennedy
said before that "there has always been tension between Benning and Brackett, with the scouting department separated into old-guard and new-school factions". Maybe our Dear Leader too?
It's said - and I've had a variety of corroboration internally on this - but it's said that Benning and Weisbrod got fixated on Juolevi. And they make that pick.
This supports
what iMac already said: that Benning picked Juolevi in 2016. Nothing new here, but more confirmation nonetheless.
I do think Linden and some other senior members in the organization became concerned with the process, and became concerned that the organization had laser-focused - with too narrow a focus - on Juolevi and maybe hadn't dug deeper in terms of the process leading up to that.
This part seems like his own speculation, even if it makes total sense and fits with Linden's stepping in later at the 2017 draft.
What he says here is the real meat of this story:
Look, I can't really tell because again I think there's competing agendas here and I don't know exactly who I'm being spun by, you know - it's tough for me to know for sure 'cos I wasn't in the room, but based on what I think is the most credible sort of middle route as I can figure it, I mean I do think that Jim liked Glass a lot and thought that Glass was too low on their lists. And I've heard stories from people involved in the process who say Jim came in and wiped the board down and wrote 'Cody Glass' on the board. And look, I'm hearing from other people that that's not quite the case.
Ultimately, what I know is that Glass never surpassed Pettersson on the Canucks' list. And whether Jim was pushing to have Glass higher or whether it was a debate over one vs. the other, you know, I can't say with certainty how far it went. But certainly there are people who were with the organization at the time who say, "Without Linden, the pick is Glass. Like, if Linden doesn't step in, the pick is Glass". And on the other side there are people who insist that Jim was really high on Pettersson too, as was Weisbrod and on and on. So take that as you will, I don't know if we'll ever get the unvarnished story there, but it's clearly a part of it.
So after parsing this, how does Drance's hit corroborate other sources as part of the overall picture?
According to Botchford, there was a big debate in 2017 between two guys: Cody Glass and Elias Pettersson. Cam Robinson says this divided the front office into two camps; Ed Willes
also reports there was a faction that wanted to take Glass. Kennedy's sources confirm that EP wasn't Benning's preference. This doesn't mean that Benning hated EP or anything - per Drance, he liked him as a prospect too (emphasis on "too"); it just means his preference was to take Glass as he liked him
even more. Robinson says the camp pushing for EP demanded that they settle this debate before draft day.
In my view, this is possibly because Benning tried to move Glass higher up the list, was met with resistance and suggested they leave it till the big day to decide.
Hence Linden getting involved. Here Drance confirms that had he not stepped in, we would've taken Glass instead. Despite the fact that the scouts had EP higher on their lists. Robinson confirms that Linden gave a voice to the scouts who wanted EP, leading to the player we have today.
Like pieces of a puzzle -
all taken from independent media members - everything fits together here. This shouldn't be particularly surprising to
anybody who's been following all along.
The biggest takeaway I got was that there seem to be two competing factions who are telling different sides of the story, hence Drance's concern about being spun. This partisanship isn't surprising; Robinson even says the side pushing for Glass has systematically been removing the people who sided against them. Gilman, Henning, Linden, now Brackett... this is nothing new if you've been paying attention.
Though from what Drance said about Day 2 of the 2019 draft, funnily I think it's actually a good thing they decided to go with the BPA instead of prioritizing position in the 2nd round. This means in taking Hoglander they were actually following the list.
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To summarize what he says next about scouting hires:
VAN let go of three scouts in 2019. One of them was Dan Palango (a Gillis hire) who'd emerged as one of the staff who was closer to Brackett over the years. From what Drance heard, if Brackett had been more involved in the decision-making he might've pushed to retain Chris MacDonald to fill Palango's shoes, but instead ended up going to ARI. Drance thinks Brackett wasn't as involved in this decision as he would've liked to be. Willes
confirms that Palango was let go without his input.
Three new scouts are hired, one of which is Troy Ward (who has ties to Weisbrod from their time in CGY) - in Drance's opinion the idea that Brackett would've hired him can be viewed with some skepticism. Edit: in fact, Willes outright confirmed Ward was hired without his input
on Sunday.
Consider what Sekeras said a year ago:
Lastly, this would tie in with what Brackett said in his statement about "the level of the input going forward with regard to staff personnel".
Piecing it all together... what I gather from all the above is that Brackett never wanted complete, total freedom to do whatever he wanted, but wanted the autonomy to make his own personnel decisions. Which, as head of his own department, is completely normal. The idea that there's micromanagement going on continues...
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Again, the link to the Vancast is here for anyone who wants to listen:
The VANcast with JPat and Drancer - A show about the Vancouver Canucks: Brackett Busting on Apple Podcasts
Robinson's interview is here:
Canucks Conversation: Episode 82 "Juddbye" ft. Rachel Doerrie and Cam Robinson on Apple Podcasts
