The Armchair GM Thread - Soon We Can Hockey

[Luck 6]

Seems to me only one or two teams would even be interested. At this point, I'd rather have playing time for prospects and the top picks their absences would bring. What would the point of their valiantly fighting for a 10th place finish be?

We don't have prospects capable of this sort of role. Imagine you were a 19 year old prospect who just made an NHL team, wouldn't it be a calming influence that there were highly talented veterans on the team that were there to carry the load? So much less pressure, so much easier to go out there and play a confident game. People don't get that... The twins aren't the ones we should let go to make room for prospects.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Bennings admitted more mistakes in one season than his predecessor did during his entire tenure.

obvious explanation is obvious: he has already made more mistakes in one season...

 

[Jimson Hogarth*]

obvious explanation is obvious: he has already made more mistakes in one season...

Until two superstar players demand trades under his tenure I wouldn't be bragging about mistakes as compared to his predecessor.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

i don't think i was bragging

 

[Bourne Endeavor]

We don't have prospects capable of this sort of role. Imagine you were a 19 year old prospect who just made an NHL team, wouldn't it be a calming influence that there were highly talented veterans on the team that were there to carry the load? So much less pressure, so much easier to go out there and play a confident game. People don't get that... The twins aren't the ones we should let go to make room for prospects.

Unfortunately, Benning has made such a mess of things, I feel we have to. Not this year, as I would prefer they help ease Horvat into a much elevated role,but after this season. We simply do not have a good prospect pool, and the Sedins will garner enough value to make amends for that. If we delay too long, then we'll make the same mistake Calgary did with Iginla. They got virtually nothing for the face of their franchise because they continuously attempted to make futile playoff runs.

 

[Intangibos]

Because Gillis made 3-4 'mistakes' and honestly none of them are real mistakes. Booth was a 25 goal scorer until injury, so that trade wasn't a mistake. Schneider and Luongo both got value and we had Lack who was a capable starter which meant moving Luongo was acceptable. Ballard wasn't a good acquisition, but we had to get a defender in case we couldn't land Hamhuis. He was a top 4 D everywhere before he came here, **** happens. I would have taken 2011 Ballard over 2014 Sbisa any day, and it's not even close.

Maybe Benning just makes more mistakes than Gillis?

 

[banme*]

Because Gillis made 3-4 'mistakes' and honestly none of them are real mistakes. Booth was a 25 goal scorer until injury, so that trade wasn't a mistake. Schneider and Luongo both got value and we had Lack who was a capable starter which meant moving Luongo was acceptable. Ballard wasn't a good acquisition, but we had to get a defender in case we couldn't land Hamhuis. He was a top 4 D everywhere before he came here, **** happens. I would have taken 2011 Ballard over 2014 Sbisa any day, and it's not even close.

Maybe Benning just makes more mistakes than Gillis?

Luongo did not get value...

 

[NoShowWilly]

Gillis made lots of mistakes over 6 years. He had some really poor luck at times as well. Overall i still appreciated his time here.

 

[Intangibos]

Luongo did not get value...

Markstrom who right now looks like a good piece moving forward, and Matthias who should have been flipped for a pick or signed. Luongo's value tanked with the new CBA after the lockout. We got absolutely ****ed in the new CBA which made Luongo's contract a problem when it wasn't before (despite people routinely calling it one incorrectly).

If Luongo were traded today to the Oilers, do you honestly think he would get much more? Interesting...

 

[Balls Mahoney]

I find it amusing that the answer to why this team has fallen into the pooper is to create an alternate reality where it's all Gillis' fault.

 

[Balls Mahoney]

 

[NoShowWilly]

I find it amusing that the answer to why this team has fallen into the pooper is to create an alternate reality where it's all Gillis' fault.

team was on the decline under Gillis. Whether it is his fault or Aquillini's has been argued. The fact is the team was heading a certain direction and the new regime was given the cap space, the assets, and all their draftpicks to go and start a strong rebuild.

In my opinion, they doubled down on mediocrity and we are in for an even longer dark age.

 

[Intangibos]

team was on the decline under Gillis. Whether it is his fault or Aquillini's has been argued. The fact is the team was heading a certain direction and the new regime was given the cap space, the assets, and all their draftpicks to go and start a strong rebuild.

In my opinion, they doubled down on mediocrity and we are in for an even longer dark age.

Teams have ups and downs. Cores age, players get injured, players leave as free agents. He took a non playoff team to the finals, and afterwards we lost players. That's to be expected. What if Chicago ownership panicked after they got bounced in the first round by us in 2011?

A team declining isn't necessarily indicative of mistakes being made. Ownership ****ed up and their wallets are going to pay the price, along with the fans.

 

[ahmon]

Teams have ups and downs. Cores age, players get injured, players leave as free agents. He took a non playoff team to the finals, and afterwards we lost players. That's to be expected. What if Chicago ownership panicked after they got bounced in the first round by us in 2011?

A team declining isn't necessarily indicative of mistakes being made. Ownership ****ed up and their wallets are going to pay the price, along with the fans.

sure teams can't win the cup every year. but that Chicago example is way off.

1. They actually won the cup in 2010.
2. Their core in 2011 was still very young. How old were Toews/Kane/Keith back in 2011?

Look at the canucks after losing 1st round in 2012, we lost 1st round in 2013, then we missed playoffs in 2014. So its a clear downtrend not just 1 poor result.

And how old are the twins and hamhuis? way over 30.

If chicago missed the playoffs with 34-35 year old Toews and Kane, even as "great" as those 2 are, its probably time for a rebuild......

 

[banme*]

Markstrom who right now looks like a good piece moving forward, and Matthias who should have been flipped for a pick or signed. Luongo's value tanked with the new CBA after the lockout. We got absolutely ****ed in the new CBA which made Luongo's contract a problem when it wasn't before (despite people routinely calling it one incorrectly).

If Luongo were traded today to the Oilers, do you honestly think he would get much more? Interesting...

That we got value on the Luongo trade other than ridding ourselves of the negative value associated with the contract should be an unpopular opinion to say the least... I think Gillis made a lot of positive moves in his time with the Canucks; the goaltending situation post-2011 was certainly not one of them.

 

[Intangibos]

sure teams can't win the cup every year. but that Chicago example is way off.

1. They actually won the cup in 2010.
2. Their core in 2011 was still very young. How old were Toews/Kane/Keith back in 2011?

Look at the canucks after losing 1st round in 2012, we lost 1st round in 2013, then we missed playoffs in 2014. So its a clear downtrend not just 1 poor result.

And how old are the twins and hamhuis? way over 30.

If chicago missed the playoffs with 34-35 year old Toews and Kane, even as "great" as those 2 are, its probably time for a rebuild......

So you admit that the twins are getting older? So you would expect them to decline, yes? Was Gillis' biggest mistake not finding the literal holy grail to give the Sedins eternal youth?

 

[ahmon]

So you admit that the twins are getting older? So you would expect them to decline, yes? Was Gillis' biggest mistake not finding the literal holy grail to give the Sedins eternal youth?

no one has to admit that...

That's common sense..

eternal youth? wth....


1. Gillis biggest mistake was not making the right moves to the put the team on top when the core was ripe (ie our narrow window)

2. Secondly he was not able to draft well to replace the core down the line.


If you look at why teams are able to be contenders for many many years. Its because:

Once they built a contender, they were able to draft exceptionally well.

Why did Detroit win the cup in the 90s? Yzerman, Fedorov, Lidstrom etc.

Why didn't Detroit need to rebuild when those players retire? They drafted well and found "gems' in Zetterberg and Datsyuk.

 

[Intangibos]

What? The team he built when to game 7 of the finals. He didn't make the right moves to put them on top?

As for drafting, good scouts don't grow on trees. During his tenure here he overhauled the scouting staff and our 2013 draft was fantastic. Before that he made excellent free agent signings on guys like Tanev and Lack to keep building towards the future.

Where is the scout that Gillis put in charge towards the end? Oh right, Benning fired him along with the other 'voices in the room'. All those voices telling him he is wrong were really confusing him.

I guess Benning is the reason Boston has had a lot of success since 2011, though, so maybe he was the right guy to hire.

 

[ahmon]

What? The team he built when to game 7 of the finals. He didn't make the right moves to put them on top?

As for drafting, good scouts don't grow on trees. During his tenure here he overhauled the scouting staff and our 2013 draft was fantastic. Before that he made excellent free agent signings on guys like Tanev and Lack to keep building towards the future.

Where is the scout that Gillis put in charge towards the end? Oh right, Benning fired him along with the other 'voices in the room'. All those voices telling him he is wrong were really confusing him.

I guess Benning is the reason Boston has had a lot of success since 2011, though, so maybe he was the right guy to hire.

Gillis himself admitted that the team lack scoring (that was a huge problem in the playoffs). And he wanted to upgrade the wings, that's why he went out to get Booth.

His pre-cup run moves were generally very good. But no after that 2011 cup run his moves were mostly mistakes. 2011-2014 that's not a short period of time.

yes good scouts down grow on trees, and only 1 team wins the cup every year. So we should expect to have subpar scouts?

lol, 2013 was a fantastic draft, how long was Gillis here. And you tell me you are not biased? you cherry picked 1 of his draft? How was his entire draft record, was it good?

 

[Balls Mahoney]

Man, there's so much good young talent floating around out there. It would be sweet if Elmer could pluck one or two guys out of deep organizations. Specifically I'm looking Yakimov, Manson, Parayko, etc.

But Elmer gonna Elmer.

 

[Intangibos]

No **** the team lacked scoring, our lineup was absolutely decimated by injuries. Ehrhoff, Edler, Samuelsson, Malhotra, Higgins, Kesler, Bieksa, Hamhuis, maybe one of the Sedins. All injured, it's pretty hard to score goals.

Biased? He was here for an number of years, and while he should have fixed the scouting sooner, he did in fact fix the scouting. I don't expect us to have subpar scouts, but when a team has a scouting department full of ineptitude, you can't just turn that around in one year. Lmao cherry picking. Wasn't that the first draft with Crawford at the helm, the guy who Benning fired? I 'cherry picked' that one because Gillis had finally found a new competent head scout. Yeah, it took a little too long, but again it's not easy to find scouts, every team wants them.

Again, what mistakes post 2011 were there? The Booth trade certainly wasn't, his career was derailed by an injury. What absolutely unforgivable glaring mistakes post 2011 were there?

 

[Ryp37]

Gillis himself admitted that the team lack scoring (that was a huge problem in the playoffs). And he wanted to upgrade the wings, that's why he went out to get Booth.

His pre-cup run moves were generally very good. But no after that 2011 cup run his moves were mostly mistakes. 2011-2014 that's not a short period of time.

yes good scouts down grow on trees, and only 1 team wins the cup every year. So we should expect to have subpar scouts?

lol, 2013 was a fantastic draft, how long was Gillis here. And you tell me you are not biased? you cherry picked 1 of his draft? How was his entire draft record, was it good?

We'll find out soon about his draft record, its pretty bad but most of his picks were at least ranked where he took him, Mallet being the closest thing to a "White" pick. He's got a few players who still have chances to turn into useful players

Hodgson was a great pick and lauded by everyone at the time since he apparently overrode the scouts who wanted Beach
Everyone was hyped when Schroeder fell to 24

But he has Connauton whose turned into somewhat of a 6/7th PP player
McNally and Polasek both decent prospects who still have a outside shot, no idea why they didn't retain Polasek
Grenier and Corrado could turn into useful bottom of the lineup players, Corrado being on the team this year and hopefully away from Sbisa will be telling.
Gaunce and Hutton also look like NHL calibre players in the future
And of course his 2013 draft has Bo, Shink, Cassels, Subban which has 1 NHL'er already and a good chance for at least 1 more out of that group.

 

[ahmon]

No **** the team lacked scoring, our lineup was absolutely decimated by injuries. Ehrhoff, Edler, Samuelsson, Malhotra, Higgins, Kesler, Bieksa, Hamhuis, maybe one of the Sedins. All injured, it's pretty hard to score goals.

Biased? He was here for an number of years, and while he should have fixed the scouting sooner, he did in fact fix the scouting. I don't expect us to have subpar scouts, but when a team has a scouting department full of ineptitude, you can't just turn that around in one year. Lmao cherry picking. Wasn't that the first draft with Crawford at the helm, the guy who Benning fired? I 'cherry picked' that one because Gillis had finally found a new competent head scout. Yeah, it took a little too long, but again it's not easy to find scouts, every team wants them.

Again, what mistakes post 2011 were there? The Booth trade certainly wasn't, his career was derailed by an injury. What absolutely unforgivable glaring mistakes post 2011 were there?

You admit it took "little" too long. Gillis's first draft was in 2008...

It took him until 2013 to turn it around. And somehow you find that acceptable?

Thats 5 years..... 5 years is a "little" too long? 5 years is a long long time in sports.

Its not hard to not see any mistakes if 5 years of subpar drafting is only a "little".

Not hard to see why Gillis was great to you post cup-run...

 

[Balls Mahoney]

It wasn't too bad, we were winning Presidents' Trophies at the time.

 

[Intangibos]

5 Years to turn around one of the worst scouting departments in the league? That's actually pretty understandable to me. Do you not think 29 other teams in the league would love to upgrade their scouting? How many years do you think is reasonable to turn around one of the worst scouting departments in the league then? 1 year? 2? How many new competent scouts should Gillis have been able to find each year?