"You look at championship teams & how many of their own drafted players they have. I think you need ten to win. We've got seven heading into next season, and in the next few years could have as many as 14 of our own drafted players in our line-up. That's exciting."
As shareef said, its the fact that he has the number 14 in his head that makes me facepalm.
As the coach it's not a big deal but shows you that they are all drinking their own demented Kool aid.
His words surprised me as well. Otoh I saw it as a recognition that the team is where it is (not enough home-grown talent) and needs to (and hopefully is) changing direction.
He didn't say they'd ever get to 14 or that it would be right away. The words "in the next few years could have as many as 14" shows a maximum in the upcoming years so he's not saying he expects 14, merely that it could get as high as that.
If you think three years off then having 10-12 out of a group of
Horvat, Boeser, Gaudette, Gaunce, Virtanen, Pettersson, Lind, Gadjovich, Jasek, Edler, Hutton, Juolevi, Demko, DiPietro, 2018-1st; Palmu, Brisebois; 2018-2nd; 2019-1st
wouldn't be surprising and 14 seems like an optimistic upper limit-but then the words "as many as" should mean exactly that, an upper limit.
I think it would have been a lot less less brow-raising of a comment if he had just left out the "I think you need ten to win" part. There's nothing necessarily wrong with just saying that you need a lot of home-grown players to be successful, and that we're on the right track because look how many we have. But the fact that he pulled an arbitrary and specific number out of his ass and used it to mathematically conclude that we're probably in okay shape is definitely pretty silly.
...
Especially caught me off guard because Green doesn't usually use such dumb/overly simplistic logic....
His using specific numbers surprised me too but on reflection I think it possible to interpret his words so as to make sense, keeping in mind that he's oversimplifying and isn't about to go on an interview and openly trash the team management.
So if you interpret "you need ten to win. We've got seven heading into next season" as saying he thinks a team needs to develop a good portion of players developed in its own system to win (i.e. "you need 10" and the Canucks haven't achieved that ("we've got seven" he's saying the team hasn't been successful enough drafting and developing its own players to build a winning roster.
Virtually nobody would disagree if he'd chosen to say it that way. It's something that the Gillis critics and the Benning critics can agree on-they just don't agree on all of the factors that went into getting to that position. Without worrying about who is to blame and what era is most responsible for the current roster, it is pretty much impossible to avoid the conclusion that some combination of team drafting, development, trades and other decisions has left the Canucks so few home-grown players that it would be difficult to have a winning team.
So he makes his point without facing a media frenzy asking who is to blame and whether his GM is doing enough to improve the roster, as he would if he'd gone on the radio and said "this team hasn't done well enough drafting and developing it's own players to have a winning roster."
He thinks that number could increase in the next few years: "in the next few years could have as many as 14." Leave out the optimistic maximum number and again most would agree with the statement.
I chuckle a little bit about media management but Green's statements in that interview indicated to me he was aware of the problems that had the team in it's present position.
