Gillis, at the year end presser, talked out his butt so much he should have been wearing skinny jeans and a fedora. Somehow, this guy survived. This is a stunning indictment of local media and sports media in general. He should have been torn to shreds.
Gillis did not understand, demonstrably, that a team needs a balance of attributes to succeed. Believe it or not, a single note team, like the Canucks have been, does not succeed. It doesn't matter if you are more skilled if your group has no grit. It doesn't matter how gutsy a tiny team is, they need a few huge guys.
Gillis is apparently seeking some size. He says he is. In the same sentence he let drop that Roy was all that was availible to the Canucks! This went almost unremarked upon. Perhaps he should have said, one guy accepted Vancouver, out of all the guys that moved. Just like he should say, we'll sign FAs if any want to come here. They didn't come last year.
What Gillis is facing is a league full of GMs that hate him (former agent is like saying former murderer.) in a league full of players that hate this team. The league is run by a guy that seems to have a personal vendetta against Vancouver, as well. Get it, now?
Canucks aren't going to be able to do a grand reinvention of the team. They are going to struggle along with the guys they have and remain a laughing stock until Gillis is gone. It's totally moot what Gillis claims to be doing. Look at the results, in eight months, gillis landed one guy, who wanted to come here, anyway. He lost a key defenseman (Salo), claiming monetary issues, as well. The Aquilinis just couldn't afford Salo, I guess. LOL!
Gillis is accomplishing zero as a GM. His fails are epic in scope. All he is really good at is grim stares and non answers, which is okay because nobody is asking any useful questions.
He did some good, but recently it looks mostly bad.
First move he makes was getting Sundin, which no question helped Kes become the player he is today.
Next signed Burr to the incredible 4 year 8 mil contract. Probably more to do with Burr's character than his negotiating skills though.
He re-signs Sedins, good move, and Luongo, now looked as a bad move.
Steals Ehrhoff from SJ and brings in Samuelsson, both turned out to be fantastic trades.
Now to the ugly, trades Grabner + for Ballard, who has been garbage. Grabner gets 30g that year.
Signs Hamhuis, good, and Bieksa, (overpriced IMO) but if he didn't Bieksa likely would've gotten 5mil + on open market.
Also slightly overpayed to get Malhotra, to help our 3rd line, which was a fair move.
Fails to re-sign Ehrhoff, very bad move.
So looking at the big picture, he has probably not done as much as we would've liked.
This summer will be his final test. If he can pull off some moves like he did with Ehrhoff again, and signing Samuelsson, then we will be in good shape, and people will be praising him again.
If not, his neck is on the chopping block, and the axeman doesn't look happy
EDIT: Oh, and that's with me forgetting to mention the marvelous Kassian trade