The Management Thread | Live, Play, Repeat Edition

[SeawaterOnIce]

I expect no changes. Everyone please just deal with this reality . The Family is not going to pay people to stay at home.

The Family was one of the owners that did not want to play the season in the first place.

Exactly. They deferred improvements for Rogers Arena back in 2019. Let go of the entire Titans due to costs. The Aquilinis are saving at all costs. The plan is to just ride it out and get through the next year.

Honestly wouldn't surprise me to see an internal cap get put in place preventing any UFA signings or RFA extensions.

 

[Intangibos]

Starting to really think Aquillini is just going to ride out this season to save money and doesn't care about the outcome of the season with no fans. Team is just an investment to him, nothing more. Benning might be here to stay

No, that's not the case. Aquilini isn't even a penny pincher. He's what happens if CDC/Reddit/Twitter/whatever casual fan base gets their own hockey team and decides to take an active role.

Everyone is looking for explanations with ownership like "oh he's stupid" or "oh he's cheap" when the reality is he's just a fan who doesn't spend tons of time analyzing and discussing hockey. That's usually fine, but it's very concerning when they have an active role in determining the future for this team.

The media has treated this management group with kid gloves for their entire tenure, now their knives are out and little casual fan Frankie will probably take notice.

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

Whether or not Benning stays in the executive booth for the rest of the season, the owners have to take away the keys to the car. The last thing this team needs is Benning making changes in the middle of the season.

They have to limp through to the end of the season and then review the organization from top to bottom.

This is what I think happens.

 

[Svencouver]

No, that's not the case. Aquilini isn't even a penny pincher. He's what happens if CDC/Reddit/Twitter/whatever casual fan base gets their own hockey team and decides to take an active role.

Everyone is looking for explanations with ownership like "oh he's stupid" or "oh he's cheap" when the reality is he's just a fan who doesn't spend tons of time analyzing and discussing hockey. That's usually fine, but it's very concerning when they have an active role in determining the future for this team.

The media has treated this management group with kid gloves for their entire tenure, now their knives are out and little casual fan Frankie will probably take notice.

I can't imagine how a fan of this team in any capacity could let this go on without any changes for much longer

 

[Intangibos]

I can't imagine how a fan of this team in any capacity could let this go on without any changes for much longer

I can understand that, but I think the truth is what neither of us can understand how the average Vancouver fan for the past 7 years has been overwhelmingly supportive of this regime. It's just, with typical Canuck luck, ownership falls into the "average Canuck fan" group.

 

[Peen]

Limping through the season is stupid because we need to make sure we make something of the season.

You need a smart GM to sell rentals, clear cancers, and acquire players that teams don’t want to expose and lose for nothing.

There is always time to be an opportunist. Why waste it by letting the muck sit around and the negativity fester? Just stupid.

 

[Dab]

No, that's not the case. Aquilini isn't even a penny pincher. He's what happens if CDC/Reddit/Twitter/whatever casual fan base gets their own hockey team and decides to take an active role.

Everyone is looking for explanations with ownership like "oh he's stupid" or "oh he's cheap" when the reality is he's just a fan who doesn't spend tons of time analyzing and discussing hockey. That's usually fine, but it's very concerning when they have an active role in determining the future for this team.

The media has treated this management group with kid gloves for their entire tenure, now their knives are out and little casual fan Frankie will probably take notice.

I know from personal experience that on a construction site the Aquilini’s stay completely out of the day to day operations but when shit hits the fan one of them is around all the time.

 

[hookshott]

Gotta move Pearson as well. And ask Edler if he'd waive to go to a CDN team.

Elder will be retiring at the end of the season and has spent his whole career here with his family , just like the Sedins. Why would he agree to this?

 

[hookshott]

Limping through the season is stupid because we need to make sure we make something of the season.

You need a smart GM to sell rentals, clear cancers, and acquire players that teams don’t want to expose and lose for nothing.

There is always time to be an opportunist. Why waste it by letting the muck sit around and the negativity fester? Just stupid.

You hire a President and let them deal with a new GM and coach in the off-season while guiding the ship safely and providing the players some hope for the future

 

[tantalum]

People understand that firing an executive or coach in the NHL = sending them home with full pay until their contract runs out (or they are given permission to take a new job) correct? They remain canuck employees but without responsibilities.

It’s not like a few more months of double salary GM and Assistant GM positions is a huge deal.

 

[Icebreakers]

Limping through the season is stupid because we need to make sure we make something of the season.

You need a smart GM to sell rentals, clear cancers, and acquire players that teams don’t want to expose and lose for nothing.

There is always time to be an opportunist. Why waste it by letting the muck sit around and the negativity fester? Just stupid.

This is mostly true but most of our pieces that we would want to move are immovable. Regardless of GM. Unless if the guy wants to do hockey trades IE trade Miller/Schmidt.

 

[Peen]

You hire a President and let them deal with a new GM and coach in the off-season while guiding the ship safely and providing the players some hope for the future

It’s so funny to me that the only president who’s realistically available in a pinch that wouldn’t be a downgrade on our current front office is Gillis.

It’ll never happen. But they basically need a Gillis-like individual with 25% less cockiness and less of a bad relationship with owners and half the fanbase who hates them.

 

[tantalum]

I thought there was a report a couple seasons ago that Gillis and ownership were back on speaking terms. Now I don’t think you go down that path, even though I think he’d make a great president.

There are other good guys out there I’m sure that would take the job...if they had autonomy.

 

[Caspian]

Such a goddamn shame the last year of Petterson/Hughes ELC is a write off. At least this spectacular failure gives me hope we can have a management change.

 

[JiffyPB]

Benning has been in Vancouver longer than Gillis was.

Jfc.

He's the 2nd longest tenured GM after Pat Quinn.

PAT QUINN.

And he's had ONLY TWO playoff appearances.

 

[canucksfan]

He's the 2nd longest tenured GM after Pat Quinn.

PAT QUINN.

And he's had ONLY TWO playoff appearances.

And the first one was based on a lot of the team Gillis assembled. The other time a pandemic helped him.

 

[bossram]

No, that's not the case. Aquilini isn't even a penny pincher. He's what happens if CDC/Reddit/Twitter/whatever casual fan base gets their own hockey team and decides to take an active role.

Everyone is looking for explanations with ownership like "oh he's stupid" or "oh he's cheap" when the reality is he's just a fan who doesn't spend tons of time analyzing and discussing hockey. That's usually fine, but it's very concerning when they have an active role in determining the future for this team.

The media has treated this management group with kid gloves for their entire tenure, now their knives are out and little casual fan Frankie will probably take notice.

This is the best explanation I've seen. Aqua is really just a "casual" who happened to have enough money to buy a team.

He's like if r/Canucks ran an NHL team. Good call there.

 

[canucksfan]

Next season, Nucks have just under 23 million in cap space. Between Demko, EP, and Hughes I would think at least 18 million goes there. That's five million left to get 6 players under contract. Ferland likely goes on LTIR so that's going to be about 8 million.

The defense will be Hughes, Myers, Schmidt, Juolevi, Chatfield and Rathbone. I expect them to acquire a defenseman but it won't be a high priced one. SOmeone around 2-3 million.

 

[Bubbles]

I thought there was a report a couple seasons ago that Gillis and ownership were back on speaking terms. Now I don’t think you go down that path, even though I think he’d make a great president.

There are other good guys out there I’m sure that would take the job...if they had autonomy.

They buried the hatchet so that Gillis was back for the Sedins retirement ceremony. I don't think they talk much to be honest.

What Gillis wants is too much power to give one person.

 

[Reverend Mayhem]

Limping through the season is stupid because we need to make sure we make something of the season.

You need a smart GM to sell rentals, clear cancers, and acquire players that teams don’t want to expose and lose for nothing.

There is always time to be an opportunist. Why waste it by letting the muck sit around and the negativity fester? Just stupid.

That is what I think as well. Doubt the market is going to be buzzing this year, but what could it hurt? It's crazy, you know how badly Nonis could've f***ed us over taking the Richards deal?

 

[Megaterio Llamas]

Not extending Greener after the playoffs despite all the criticism was real stroke of genius on the part of Mr Aquilini. Just imagine the pickle we'd be in with Greener on a new long term contract.

You just can't develop that kind of judgement by reading books; that's innate. Whoever Mr Aquilini's new managerial partner winds up being, one thing is certain. He'll be learning from a grandmaster...

 

[RandV]

No, that's not the case. Aquilini isn't even a penny pincher. He's what happens if CDC/Reddit/Twitter/whatever casual fan base gets their own hockey team and decides to take an active role.

Everyone is looking for explanations with ownership like "oh he's stupid" or "oh he's cheap" when the reality is he's just a fan who doesn't spend tons of time analyzing and discussing hockey. That's usually fine, but it's very concerning when they have an active role in determining the future for this team.

The media has treated this management group with kid gloves for their entire tenure, now their knives are out and little casual fan Frankie will probably take notice.

If he wasn't the owner I've always likened him to the type of fan who will call into after hours radio shows to bitch about the team.

What I'm adding here though is the Aquilini's willingness to spend our not has never really been demonstrated because he took over the team in the cap era with player cost controls and the Canucks have always been a high earning team. Like at the teams best he was letting Gillis spend on sleep doctors and the like to try and find that extra competitive edge, but the team was also probably raking in twice as much in revenue as player salaries. So it's easy to be seen as generous spenders in that situation, but how much they're willing to spend when the team is losing money we don't exactly know. Seems like Benning has brought us to a breaking point but that could also be the pandemic making everything in the NHL wonky.

 

[Dab]

If he wasn't the owner I've always likened him to the type of fan who will call into after hours radio shows to bitch about the team.

I wouldn’t be surprised to hear Francesco used to call in as “John Barron”

 

[RobertKron]

No, that's not the case. Aquilini isn't even a penny pincher. He's what happens if CDC/Reddit/Twitter/whatever casual fan base gets their own hockey team and decides to take an active role.

Everyone is looking for explanations with ownership like "oh he's stupid" or "oh he's cheap" when the reality is he's just a fan who doesn't spend tons of time analyzing and discussing hockey. That's usually fine, but it's very concerning when they have an active role in determining the future for this team.

The media has treated this management group with kid gloves for their entire tenure, now their knives are out and little casual fan Frankie will probably take notice.

Yeah, you're telling me that the guy who was asked what style of play he'd like the team to adopt and replied with "my favourite style of play is winning!" is out there telling them what specific shitty plug they should be acquiring and how much they should be paying them?

 

[eviohh26]

Are people still defending Benning ?