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The Greatest General Managers in Canucks History (#6)

Who is the sixth greatest General Manager in Canucks’ history?

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Mr. Canucklehead

Mr. Canucklehead

Kitimat Canuck
Dec 14, 2002
40,272
30,499
Kitimat, BC
The Rankings so far:

#1 - Mike Gillis - 45.5% of Vote
Link to Thread:
The Greatest General Managers in Canucks History (#1)

#2 - Pat Quinn - 73.8% of Vote
Link to Thread:
The Greatest General Managers in Canucks History (#2)

#3 - Brian Burke - 89.0% of Vote
Link to Thread:
The Greatest General Managers in Canucks History (#3)

#4 - Jake Milford - 45.1% of Vote
Link to Thread: The Greatest General Managers in Canucks History (#4)

#5 - Dave Nonis - 59.5% of Vote
Link to Thread: The Greatest General Managers in Canucks History (#5)


We've had lots of polls with respect to the best players in Canucks' history, so I thought it would be a fun exercise (famous last words) to see who HF Van thinks the best off-ice Canucks' Masterminds in history are - I figure we can run through this with GMs, and then do one for Coaches as well.

The list of Canucks' general managers that we've had is below, clipped from Wikipedia. Like Wikipedia, I'm including Mike Keenan as an option as he was the de facto/acting GM for an extended period of time.

Disagreement and debate are healthy and encouraged. Just keep it clean, civil and respectful.

The List:


1Bud Poile
Dagger-14-plain.png
February 25, 1970 – April 1973
  • No playoff appearances
[3][4][5]
2Hal LaycoeApril 1973 – January 31, 1974[5][6]
3Phil MaloneyJanuary 31, 1974 – May 31, 1977
  • 1 division title and 2 playoff appearances
[6][7]
4Jake Milford
Dagger-14-plain.png
May 31, 1977 – June 1982
  • 1 Stanley Cup Finals appearance (1982)
  • 1 conference title and 4 playoff appearances
[7][8]
5Harry NealeJune 1982 – May 23, 1985
  • 2 playoff appearances
[8]
6Jack GordonJune 4, 1985 – June 1, 1987
  • 1 playoff appearance
[9][10]
7Pat Quinn
Dagger-14-plain.png
June 1, 1987 – November 4, 1997
  • 1 Stanley Cup Finals appearance (1994)
  • 1 conference title, 2 division titles, and 7 playoff appearances
[10][11]
–Mike Keenan (acting)November 14, 1997 – April 19, 1998[citation needed]
8Brian BurkeJune 22, 1998 – May 3, 2004
  • 1 division title and 4 playoff appearances
[12][13]
9Dave NonisMay 6, 2004 – April 14, 2008
  • 1 division title and 1 playoff appearance
[14][15]
10Mike GillisApril 23, 2008 – April 8, 2014[16][17]
11Jim BenningMay 21, 2014 – present
  • 2 playoff appearances
[2]
[TBODY] [/TBODY]
Click to read more...
 
Mr. Canucklehead

Mr. Canucklehead

Kitimat Canuck
Dec 14, 2002
40,272
30,499
Kitimat, BC
Phil Maloney takes this one for me. I would classify him as the first “good” GM in franchise history, who oversaw our first era of actual success. His teams certainly worked well as teams together, overcoming their lack of individual star power.
 
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MS

1%er
Mar 18, 2002
53,535
83,870
Vancouver, BC
Again, with Keenan you have to separate the coach from the GM.

As coach - yeah. If we were doing this same vote with coaches (and maybe we will? @Mr. Canucklehead) I'd have Keenan next-to-last ahead of only Bill Laforge. Pretty much all of the horrible stuff he did was Keenan-the-coach.

As GM? He made one terrific deal and several mostly inconsequential smaller deals. Was he destructive as GM? No. Did he set the team back or put us further from winning a Cup due to his actions as GM? No. So to me, he has to be ahead of guys who clearly did set us back.

Same thing is true in reverse for Harry Neale. As coach from 78-82 ... he was ok. Probably somewhere near the middle of the pack in franchise history. But as GM 1982-85, he was a total, absolute disaster. His 1984 rebuild was arguably the most botched rebuild in NHL history.
 
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Mr. Canucklehead

Mr. Canucklehead

Kitimat Canuck
Dec 14, 2002
40,272
30,499
Kitimat, BC
MS said:
Again, with Keenan you have to separate the coach from the GM.

As coach - yeah. If we were doing this same vote with coaches (and maybe we will? @Mr. Canucklehead) I'd have Keenan next-to-last ahead of only Bill Laforge. Pretty much all of the horrible stuff he did was Keenan-the-coach.

As GM? He made one terrific deal and several mostly inconsequential smaller deals. Was he destructive as GM? No. Did he set the team back or put us further from winning a Cup due to his actions as GM? No. So to me, he has to be ahead of guys who clearly did set us back.

Same thing is true in reverse for Harry Neale. As coach from 78-82 ... he was ok. Probably somewhere near the middle of the pack in franchise history. But as GM 1982-85, he was a total, absolute disaster. His 1984 rebuild was arguably the most botched rebuild in NHL history.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was planning to follow up this GM list with a Coach list.
 
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vadim sharifijanov

vadim sharifijanov

Registered User
Oct 10, 2007
28,708
16,088
MS said:
Again, with Keenan you have to separate the coach from the GM.

As coach - yeah. If we were doing this same vote with coaches (and maybe we will? @Mr. Canucklehead) I'd have Keenan next-to-last ahead of only Bill Laforge. Pretty much all of the horrible stuff he did was Keenan-the-coach.

As GM? He made one terrific deal and several mostly inconsequential smaller deals. Was he destructive as GM? No. Did he set the team back or put us further from winning a Cup due to his actions as GM? No. So to me, he has to be ahead of guys who clearly did set us back.

Same thing is true in reverse for Harry Neale. As coach from 78-82 ... he was ok. Probably somewhere near the middle of the pack in franchise history. But as GM 1982-85, he was a total, absolute disaster. His 1984 rebuild was arguably the most botched rebuild in NHL history.
Click to expand...

with neale, i think it's easy to separate coach from GM because they were sequential instead of simultaneous.

with someone like quinn, i think it's a little muddier if you (as i do) value the culture aspect of quinn as the thing that puts him over the top as arguably the most important person in the history of this franchise. if quinn had anybody else as his coach, i don't know that the early 90s would have worked out the same way.

with keenan, i don't think you can separate the two roles at all because everything keenan the GM did was an extension of keenan the coach. in the short time they let him have the keys, the stupid petty stuff, like trading ciccone for jamie huscroft, was directly motivated by the chaos he created/was creating.

he maybe didn't set the team back like the disastrous longterm effects of others' moves did/have/will, but he set the franchise back. goodwill in the community, likability of the brand, to all of that stuff that quinn was the king of (and for which burke also deserves tremendous credit), keenan was a corrosive agent.
 
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vadim sharifijanov

vadim sharifijanov

Registered User
Oct 10, 2007
28,708
16,088
Mr. Canucklehead said:
Phil Maloney takes this one for me. I would classify him as the first “good” GM in franchise history, who oversaw our first era of actual success. His teams certainly worked well as teams together, overcoming their lack of individual star power.
Click to expand...

would love to hear more. don't know much beyond looking up his trades and the players he drafted.
 
Captain Bowie

Captain Bowie

Registered User
Jan 18, 2012
27,139
4,414
Luckylarry said:
Keenan was a creep, but he was better than Benning. His Linden deal got us Bert and McCabe. I think it was extra assets from that one trade that Burke used to get both Twins or something like that.
Click to expand...
Why would Keenan get credit for that? That's like giving Nonis credit for getting us Luongo... AND Markstrom.
 
Mr. Canucklehead

Mr. Canucklehead

Kitimat Canuck
Dec 14, 2002
40,272
30,499
Kitimat, BC
vadim sharifijanov said:
would love to hear more. don't know much beyond looking up his trades and the players he drafted.
Click to expand...

Honestly don’t know much more than that. It was before I was born, LOL. My Dad told me some, MS has filled in a lot of good bits, and from what I’ve read over time. Admittedly, putting a lot of stock in the opinions of my Dad and his siblings on this one.
 
PM

PM

Glass not 1/2 full
Apr 8, 2014
9,869
1,664
vadim sharifijanov said:
why stop there? keenan got us bert, mccabe, one of the sedins, luongo, markstrom, holtby, the other sedin, and linden again
Click to expand...

I guess some credit for leaving tradeable assets for future regimes? You do gotta laugh though that the best canuck trade tree of all time of course ends with Benning :laugh:
 
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