The Greatest General Managers in Canucks History (#7)

[Mr. Canucklehead]

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)

#6 - Phil Maloney - 70% of Vote
Link to Thread: The Greatest General Managers in Canucks History (#6)


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:

1	Bud Poile	February 25, 1970 – April 1973	No playoff appearances	[3][4][5]
2	Hal Laycoe	April 1973 – January 31, 1974		[5][6]
3	Phil Maloney	January 31, 1974 – May 31, 1977	1 division title and 2 playoff appearances	[6][7]
4	Jake Milford	May 31, 1977 – June 1982	1 Stanley Cup Finals appearance (1982) 1 conference title and 4 playoff appearances	[7][8]
5	Harry Neale	June 1982 – May 23, 1985	2 playoff appearances	[8]
6	Jack Gordon	June 4, 1985 – June 1, 1987	1 playoff appearance	[9][10]
7	Pat Quinn	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]
8	Brian Burke	June 22, 1998 – May 3, 2004	1 division title and 4 playoff appearances	[12][13]
9	Dave Nonis	May 6, 2004 – April 14, 2008	1 division title and 1 playoff appearance	[14][15]
10	Mike Gillis	April 23, 2008 – April 8, 2014	1 Stanley Cup Finals appearance (2011) Won Presidents' Trophy 2 times (2010–11, 2011–12) Won General Manager of the Year Award (2010–11) 1 conference title, 5 division titles, and 5 playoff appearances	[16][17]
11	Jim Benning	May 21, 2014 – present	2 playoff appearances	[2]

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

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[Mr. Canucklehead]

My vote for #7 is Jim Benning. But I feel I need to disclaimer that by saying we are really getting into the dregs of Canucks’ management here. From the culturally destructive (Keenan), to the candidates for the worst trades in NHL history (Gordon) to some decent hockey guys that just couldn’t seem to do anything to get the team trending in the right direction (Poile, Laycoe, Neale).

Benning brought in some good, if not great players. I think the drafting with Benning in charge has been a real strong suit, which is especially important for a franchise that’s typically been terrible at it.

Unfortunately, that’s really where the good ends with him, IMO. His cap management has been brutally awful. Loui Eriksson’s contract is so toxic, @I am toxic could change his username to I am Loui and it would still fit. Bloated contracts to other veterans like Sutter, Roussel and Beagle, bloated contracts to misjudged younger players like Sbisa, Dorsett, Baertschi, Ferland and Myers...it all cost us some terrific players who we couldn’t afford to bring back because of his cap management. Pretty much all of the bad here stems from his mismanagement of the cap, although he’s chucked some whopper bad trades into the pile, too. In fairness there’s been some good (Miller, Pearson) but there’s been some brutal ones, too (Gudbranson).

 

[I am toxic]

My vote for #7 is Jim Benning. But I feel I need to disclaimer that by saying we are really getting into the dregs of Canucks’ management here. From the culturally destructive (Keenan), to the candidates for the worst trades in NHL history (Gordon) to some decent hockey guys that just couldn’t seem to do anything to get the team trending in the right direction (Poile, Laycoe, Neale).

Benning brought in some good, if not great players. I think the drafting with Benning in charge has been a real strong suit, which is especially important for a franchise that’s typically been terrible at it.

Unfortunately, that’s really where the good ends with him, IMO. His cap management has been brutally awful. Loui Eriksson’s contract is so toxic, @I am toxic could change his username to I am Loui and it would still fit. Bloated contracts to other veterans like Sutter, Roussel and Beagle, bloated contracts to misjudged younger players like Sbisa, Dorsett, Baertschi, Ferland and Myers...it all cost us some terrific players who we couldn’t afford to bring back because of his cap management. Pretty much all of the bad here stems from his mismanagement of the cap, although he’s chucked some whopper bad trades into the pile, too. In fairness there’s been some good (Miller, Pearson) but there’s been some brutal ones, too (Gudbranson).

There are limits that even I would not cross.

 

[racerjoe]

Iron mikes terror was short and yielded some important building blocks.

Jim Benning has been here for seven years, and wasted all of any good he had a hand in.

 

[PM]

Jesus Christ what is wrong with this site on mobile sigh

 

[PM]

Keenan short reign. Good trade. Less words good on mobile. Less chance of loss of words. Benning bad.

 

[CanucksMJL]

This poll has gone off the rails. People voting are doing so on name recognition. Keenan forced Linden out in order to grace us with the Messier debacle. He literally turned our franchise's all-time favourite player into our franchise's all-time most hated player. This poll is a disgrace.

 

[Lonny Bohonos]

I agree its probably "too early" to really determine how bad Benning it.

But lets look at the "good" players he brought in. Toffoli was a "good" trade but actuallly its really shit because we dont have Toffoli plus we gave up a pick and a solid center prospect. And now we are talking about trying to fix our #3 center by trading Gaudette the guy Benning bet on.

Pearson is OK but getting him was jettisonning an absolute shit player whom we gave up a decentish center/winger (hey we need young centers) AND a 2nd rounder plus 4th rounder.


Shcmidt remains to be seen. Personally I have always thought some of our fans overrated him. And frankly his play so far has me thinking he could easily be another bloated contract.


Sorry I could go on but I cant. It would be an utter waste of my time

Benning is shit at trades, FA and contracts, and is not totally shitting the bed when it comes to drafting.

So yeah he *may* be better that the whiskey swilling, cigar chomping old boys of the 70s and 80s but we live in the modern NHL which makes this all the more damning.

At least those good old boys have an excuse. They legit didnt know better.

 

[Jyrki21]

An expansion team GM can’t do much either way and rarely – with the possible exception of Stu Jackson and the Grizzlies – makes the team worse. So I’ll go with Poile.

 

[MS]

Also voted Poile.

A guy who was barely around and generated little impact - positive or negative - should rate ahead of a guy who caused 7–8 years of negative carnage.

 

[Hit the post]

I agree its probably "too early" to really determine how bad Benning it.

But lets look at the "good" players he brought in. Toffoli was a "good" trade but actuallly its really shit because we dont have Toffoli plus we gave up a pick and a solid center prospect. And now we are talking about trying to fix our #3 center by trading Gaudette the guy Benning bet on.

Pearson is OK but getting him was jettisonning an absolute shit player whom we gave up a decentish center/winger (hey we need young centers) AND a 2nd rounder plus 4th rounder.


Shcmidt remains to be seen. Personally I have always thought some of our fans overrated him. And frankly his play so far has me thinking he could easily be another bloated contract.


Sorry I could go on but I cant. It would be an utter waste of my time

Benning is shit at trades, FA and contracts, and is not totally shitting the bed when it comes to drafting.

So yeah he *may* be better that the whiskey swilling, cigar chomping old boys of the 70s and 80s but we live in the modern NHL which makes this all the more damning.

At least those good old boys have an excuse. They legit didnt know better.

Giving Three full seasons for Willie D isn’t enough proof of competency of management?

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

i’m voting bud poile because of name recognition and because canuck luck was basically given birth to inside his forehead.

losing the gilbert perreault wheel spin? having the #3 pick in the lafleur and dionne draft? ouch

whereas benning made his own luck and f*** keenan

 

[MS]

i’m voting bud poile because of name recognition and because canuck luck was basically given birth to inside his forehead.

losing the gilbert perreault wheel spin? having the #3 pick in the lafleur and dionne draft? ouch

whereas benning made his own luck and f*** keenan

Yeah, when you look at Poile he was colossally unlucky but did little that was objectively bad.

His expansion draft selections and moves to create that inaugural team were solid. Boudrias. Kurtenbach. Schmautz. Quinn. Maki (more bad Poile luck there, although worse for Maki obviously). Paiement. Tons of pieces there that bled into the division-winning 1974-75 team.

Tallon was the consensus #2 overall. Guevremont outperformed almost everyone who went after him down to 10, but was the biggest dropoff from #2 - #3 until Cam Barker 33 years later. Lever was an excellent pick.

But as an expansion draft GM you're defined by the superstar players you get with your high picks from your first few drafts, and Poile *just missed* being able to draft the guys who would have sent the franchise on a completely different trajectory.

 

[kaiser matias]

I went with Poile as well, but it really is a tough call now. A lot of bad GMs to choose from, but I'll give Poile credit for trying to build from nothing, and dealing with the circumstances he was handed. And had Kurtenbach not got hurt in December that first year team would have looked a lot better than they did, which has to count for something.

 

[canucksfan]

The fact that I considered voting for Keenan shows how bad some of the Nucks GMs have been.

 

[y2kcanucks]

I gotta give it to Mike Keenan here considering he made one of the best trades in team history. His tenure as GM was short but certainly impactful.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

i think one question is, if there was no burke or nonis and the linden trade ends with mccabe being the same player he was in toronto but here, and bert still being bert (the good and the bad) and limping into free agency post-moore debacle, is keenan still the 7th best gm?

that’s still a pretty good trade, two all stars including 1.5 years of beastmode bertuzzi. but it’s not luongo and a sedin good.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

also, worth pointing out again that bud poile is in the hall of fame as a builder

 

[Javaman]

I'm at the point in this series where I'm relying on the knowledge/opinions of others to make my vote.

On that note, is there a consensus of which of the remaining candidates, if any, were genuinely worse than Benning?

 

[TraderJim]

I'm at the point in this series where I'm relying on the knowledge/opinions of others to make my vote.

On that note, is there a consensus of which of the remaining candidates, if any, were genuinely worse than Benning?

A player like Ericsson/Messier can come to a team and be brutal, be cancerous, be selfish, and have virtually no redeeming qualities while on the team. So it is an easy consensus that they are terrible.

A GM however is different because the league rewards failure. So a GM who is equally as bad as a player will still do good for the franchise just by being terrible and being handed more valuable assets in draft picks by the league.

Unless the GM is Mike Milbury and trading away young assets for magic beans, they will still generally be regarded highly by a portion of the fanbase for bringing in the young talent despite it not being earned.

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

I'm at the point in this series where I'm relying on the knowledge/opinions of others to make my vote.

On that note, is there a consensus of which of the remaining candidates, if any, were genuinely worse than Benning?

The two unequivocal worst GMs in history for me are Gordon and Keenan.

Laycoe and Poile managed an expansion team in an era where you were pretty much guaranteed to be screwed for your first decade of existence as a new franchise. So hard to truly judge them.

 

[MS]

My bottom 3 are Neale/Gordon/Benning. Easily the 3 most incompetent people ever to fill that role for this team.

 

[I am toxic]

Also voted Poile.

A guy who was barely around and generated little impact - positive or negative - should rate ahead of a guy who caused 7–8 years of negative carnage.

How is this even a deba . . .

Oh right, HFCanucks in its generosity opened its doors to HFBenning for the last 7 years.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Laycoe and Poile managed an expansion team in an era where you were pretty much guaranteed to be screwed for your first decade of existence as a new franchise. So hard to truly judge them.

tbf islanders and flyers did just fine with their expansion teams

st louis made the finals in each of their first three years iirc

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

tbf islanders and flyers did just fine with their expansion teams

st louis made the finals in each of their first three years iirc

Fair enough - and Buffalo certainly drafted better out of the gate than the Canucks. But I think a lot of expansion teams after Vancouver but before Vegas really struggled hard.