You’ve been hired as the Canucks’ new GM; what do you do?

[Vector]

I started writing up a long post about various things but it wasn't as detailed as I would like. The main contribution I have that isn't immediate common sense would be a bad contract swap of Myers. Maybe aim for Okposo or Henrique as they have very similar cap hits but a year remaining. If you're lucky, can do a one-for-one swap by selling that Myers is the better player. Hard part would be everyone has modified no-trade clauses.

Overall the biggest thing would be set a clear and concise direction for the club. At this point the President/GM needs to have a firm plan of action and make moves that build towards that to gain confidence of the team then the fans. Top priority is identifying a style and bringing in the right coach to enforce that style. I'd also focus on re-signing Hughes, Petersson, and Edler. The most challenging aspect will be rebuilding the defence quickly. Ideally you a defensive core of Schmidt, Hughes, and Edler (Myers has been moved out in my scenario). With lottery luck you grab a top-defenceman early on that is either ready immediately or only needs a year of seasoning. Hopefully can take advantage of the weird salary landscape and sign 1-2 decent defencemen to short or mid-term (1-3 years) contracts. Another need that is key to future success is to get an actual 3rd line centre, either through trade or signing. Hell, plumb the depths of the foreign leagues and see if there's a defensive wizard somewhere. On top of all that, the expansion draft needs to be addressed.

 

[Orr4Norris]

I would bring in a new veteran coach. One with a strong neutral zone system. But that would cost money and my boss probably would not allow that. So I guess I would look for a promising young rookie coach...

I would spend more money hiring people to support my efforts. Spend more on player development. Then again, my boss probably would not allow this. Hopefully I at least have a president...

I would continue to patient and allow our young core to develop together. Keep our 1st this year and draft. Sign Pods. Keep an eye on building to peak when Petey is 24-27. But my boss likely fired my predecessor because we missed the playoffs. So I’d better trade some youth to fill holes. Maybe attach our 1st with Eriksson to clear cap and use Pods to bring in a 28ish year old dman...

This is really my biggest fear. If a new GM is brought in, it likely signals our owner is impatient. And he will almost certainly bring in a GM with a mandate to compete now. Sound familiar?

 

[bossram]

I would honestly consider Boudreau or Gallant for coach.

Boudreau great regular season coach that can't finish in the playoffs. High tempo O with zero D... suits the team.

Gallant seems to actually care about D and running an actual system.

One of these 2 are going to Seattle anyways.

Boudreau's Wild teams were actually very effective defensively. They always finished top of the league in xGA. The issue there was their starting goaltender was Dubnyk (!!) and the Wild have basically never had much firepower up front. I really like Boudreau as a fit. Seems like a player's coach, and his stints in Washington and Minnesota show he can effectively implement very different systems, given the talent at his disposal. Reminds me of AV, going from a very suffocating defensive outfit early in his tenure to more of a quick-up run-and-gun team in the 2009-12 era.

 

[bossram]

This doesn’t make sense to me. Ride out the junk and trade the good so hopefully in another 4 seasons its good enough?

I think you get rid of junk and make smarter shrewd moves to build around the quality that’s here.

40 and 43 will be pulling a Dubois if you scorch this.

If they're going to "pull a Dubois", they don't exactly have the character of core players you'd win with anyway.

There isn't much quality here. My plan basically is rebuild around the quality that's here. The only somewhat shocking move I'd make is trading Miller, with an eye for contending in the future.

Like if you dumped our entire bottom-six + bottom-three defensemen and just replaced them with sub $1 million free agents/waiver guys, I don't think the roster would be any worse. And we'd have much more cap flexibility.

 

[Josepho]

Gallant is the only veteran coach currently on the market that I'd want.

I'd definitely be monitoring the situation with Sullivan in Pittsburgh though -- that's one to keep an eye on.

 

[BenningHurtsMySoul]

If every instinct Benning has is wrong, the opposite would have to be right.

 

[vanarchy]

Fire literally everyone. Hire Gallant. Hire a competent NHL GM as my assistant (Gillis?). Then I resign and let my experienced assistant gm take over.

Shortest GM signing of all-time.

v

 

[4Twenty]

If they're going to "pull a Dubois", they don't exactly have the character of core players you'd win with anyway.

There isn't much quality here. My plan basically is rebuild around the quality that's here. The only somewhat shocking move I'd make is trading Miller, with an eye for contending in the future.

Like if you dumped our entire bottom-six + bottom-three defensemen and just replaced them with sub $1 million free agents/waiver guys, I don't think the roster would be any worse. And we'd have much more cap flexibility.

Agree about the 2nd part but not sure why you don’t try and get rid of the crap rather then ride it out another year.

Players wanting to leave crappy run teams is the norm and to me it speaks to strong character.

 

[BenningHurtsMySoul]

Unfortunately, due to Dim Jim's poor cap management, they've pissed away any real chance of taking advantage of EP and Hughes contributing on sweetheart deals. It's time to part ways with a number of chips and try to refill the pipeline a bit, so that when those two are in their primes we have cheap supporting talent.

Hoglander and Podkolzkin will be a good start, but we need more and especially on the back end. Time to get someone like Luke Hughes or Owen Power.

 

[krutovsdonut]

i would find out the massive amount of non-public information i am missing right now and then try to make informed decisions. my biggest priority would be carving out autonomy from aquaman while i have the leverage to do it fresh in my tenure. god only knows how to do that. maybe get him addicted to that anaesthetic stuff michael jackson was on.

 

[Vector]

I don't think this an amazing roster and I certainly haven't done a lot of research. Made a bunch of guesses and estimates but this is a quick playoff team that buys some time and rebuilds the confidence. I set the cap to go up by 1m. There aren't any solid projections available yet.

Extensions:
Petersson - 7m
Hughes - 6.5m
Demko - 3.5m
Edler - 3.5m

UFA Signings:
Savard - 3m
McCabe - 2.5m

Trades:
Myers + 3rd(2021) - Henrique (Ana)
Roussel - Byron + Mete (Mtl)

I have no idea if Henrique can be an effective 3rd line centre. Byron is not a great fit in the top-6, has a longer contract, is older, and a high cap hit but is a better player than Roussel but can gives roster flexibility and, in my insane scenario, comes with Mete. Savard was once good? McCabe might be okay? I have no idea. Feel free to slot them out for any other UFA defencemen on mid-short term contracts around the same caphit.

This also doesn't account for any possible assets acquired this year when, hopefully, Pearson, Sutter, and Benn are traded. I was conservative with moving out young guys and actually just plain forgot about Gaudette. The key to this quick exercise was to create a playoff-calibre roster that would bide time until the 9m for Eriksson and Beagle are gone. I also didn't even bother with projecting the expansion draft.

 

[iFan]

I can’t see the owners allowing any big trades to happen, he wants to compete not to go through another rebuild. Trading Horvat is something I just can’t see the owners allowing, even a Miller trade will likely have the owners stepping in to axe it. If we could move Pods for a similar level prospect but on D that could be a more realistic option. What should happen and what will happen are two very different things.

 

[Peter Griffin]

Regarding the expansion draft and acquiring a potential 3rd line center from another team, these are some guys that could be available after a quick look:

Dallas - Radek Faska or Jason Dickinson
Nashville - Colton Sissons, Calle Jarnkrok or Luke Kunin
Ottawa - Nicholas Paul
St. Louis - Oskar Sundqvist or Ivan Barbashev

Not all these guys are true centers, but I think all of them would be improvements over what we have in the bottom 6. And if both Virtanen and Gaudette are moved out, the Canucks would have a protection spot at forward to utilize to their advantage.

 

[LordBacon]

Get jb to be my agm,
do the exact opposite of what he’s suggesting.
End up being the best gm in nhl history

 

[Luck 6]

The time to trade draft picks / assets for salary cap relief was last offseason. I personally would have happily traded a protected 1st round pick to rid ourselves of Eriksson, I would have used that money to re-sign Tanev and Toffoli. I probably would have bought out Roussel as well as that would have provided an extra 1.77 mil in cap relief. I wouldn't have bothered with Sutter / Baertschi as they're off the books in a year, that money will need to be allocated to Hughes / Pettersson anyways.

But now? That's a tough question.

I would definitely buy out Eriksson this offseason. The move would equate to a 2mil cap savings, we can easily get a better player than Eriksson for that in this flat cap market. I would consider doing the same with Roussel as well. Pearson would likely walk.

I'd aim to sign players as follows: Pettersson 7mil bridge, Hughes 7mil bridge, Demko 2mil prove it contract, and Edler 4mil 1 or 2 year deal.

After bringing over Podkolzin we'd have about 8.3mil to sign a 3C, top 4D, 3LW, and 4RW. It's tight, but possible.

I would get a new coach ASAP as well.

 

[Regress2TheMeme]

This sound like the plot of an Adam Sandler movie.

 

[Wo Yorfat]

Buy some felt pens and a white board. And hair dye.

 

[Johnny Canucker]

Hire a team to find a time machine. Go back to every trade / draft/ signing JB ever made and undo them.

except Beeeeeezebahhhhhhh

 

[DS7]

1. Retain Weisbrod for one day exactly
2. Give every season ticket holder and player on the roster and scouting staff a paddle
3. Line everyone up on Griffiths Way
4. Introduce him to the rituals of "Crossing the desert", "The Unblinking Eye", "The Wreck of the Hesperus", then finally the "Paddling of the swollen ass.....with paddles."

Donate any proceeds to Canucks Autism Network and the Canucks for Kids fund

 

[4Twenty]

First thing I’d do is talk real simple and gain the favour of the masses.

 

[supercanuck]

Aside from cleaning house in mgnt and coaching, the #1 key for me is trying to find out what happened in the dressing room and assess from there.

Currently, without any further knowledge, I would have the following:

Untouchables
QH
EP
2021 1st

Overpay me to get/Probably won't trade:
Bo
Brock
Demko
Hog
Podkolzin

Trade for importance piece (Top 2/4 D):
Miller

Trade for what you can get:
Jake
Gaudette
Pearson

Just survive until contract expiry:
Everyone else

Pay to get rid of:
Myers
Louie (retain salary)

 

[MS]

Without getting into specific trades and moves and specific targets :

1) Restructure management. Weisbrod/Delorme gone. Competent scouting director. Hire Lawrence Gilman as associate GM if at all possible. Beef up analytics staff. Make major changes to how we pro scout.

2) Fire Green and replace him with a quality veteran NHL coach who can run systems and develop a structure and identity.

3) Acknowledge the fact that we need to bite the bullet and trade picks/assets to get rid of bad contracts. The team needs to get momentum back, needs to keep Hughes/Pettersson/Horvat happy and buying into the program, needs to get back on an upward trajectory ASAP. Sitting around and wasting another season waiting for bad contracts to expire is just going to cause organizational rot. It isn't something you want to be doing, but the Eriksson/Holtby/Roussel contracts in particular need to go. If we're out of the playoffs, trading Pearson and Sutter could perhaps raise some draft capital to finance/offset these losses.

4) Recognize and identify that the biggest needs on the team are a hard-minutes #3 center and upgrades to the RS on defense. Two-way middle-6 wingers also handy.

5) Look at targets that upgrade the speed of the team and the compete level of the team. Right now this team is slow, soft, and lazy. Need to get younger, harder, and faster. Establish an identity. Establish which players fit that identity and which players do not and should be moved out.

6) Establish a meritocracy at all levels of the organization. This has been a country club for far too long, both in management and on the ice.

 

[VNCVR]

u wouldn't have a team. would love to see ur line up.

Edler... woefully underappreciated once again, too.

I just think it's time to move on come next year as far as Edler goes. I am looking ahead.

He was solid last year, he's still reasonably solid. I also don't trust certain players not to play more than they should. He could still provide a decent amount to the team in a depth role, however I do not see a coach not playing Edler more than they should. Much like Myers, Phaneuf, Olli Jokinen, etc- Certain players just get played more, despite if they should be overperforming in a lower role. I like to remove the opportunity for the coach, as crazy it sounds. I also think players at his age lose a step quite quickly

It's why I never wanted Gaudreau on my team. You have to pay him like a star forward, you have to play him alot. I don't think you win the cup with him there as he's going to be on the ice simply too much and he's not better than the players across the ice from him that play the same minutes

Boeser - Pettersson - Miller
Podkolzin - Horvat - Hoglander
Pearson - UFA - Gaudette
Bailey - Lind? - MacEwen
jayce hawryluk


Could also go with this sometimes, if the player you acquire is a c/w. And could look to upgrade on Gaudette if he doesn't take a step, possibly this off season

Boeser - Pettersson - Hoglander
Podkolzin - Horvat - UFA Signing
Pearson - Miller - Gaudette
Bailey - Lind? - MacEwen
jayce hawryluk

Hughes / McCabe (he plays left but just hypothetically speaking)
Schmidt / big UFA d man or trade of 1st rounde
Juolevi / Tryamkin
depth signing d man

Demko
Cheap backup

-Roussel
-Beagle
-Eriksson
-Edler
-Sutter
-Myers
-Virtanen
-Possibly Holtby

I haven't ran it through capfriendly but I imagine with the salary lost there. It would work, if somebody could run it for me

The Canucks have a huge advantage in this league being a desirable city with up and coming stars. Despite the current play of the team. If we put in a decent offer, we have a good chance at most UFAs. It's just being smart about who you acquire

Not sure why you think the roster would be empty. You fill in the 4th line with cheap guys and you ice them for less time. You circle guys in and out until you find something that works, find guys passing through waivers. Benning puts too much stock on the 4th line.

Obviously the lineup could use some tinkering and patience waiting on some deals to be had to round it out but that's usually available to GMs every year. I would continue to seek out deals where I could to find cheap depth. These aren't the players that make a team. Nor do they need to be getting more ice time than your 2nd line most games.

 

[MS]

I just think it's time to move on come next year as far as Edler goes. I am looking ahead.

He was solid last year, he's still reasonably solid. I also don't trust certain players not to play more than they should. He could still provide a decent amount to the team in a depth role, however I do not see a coach not playing Edler more than they should. Much like Myers, Phaneuf, Olli Jokinen, etc- Certain players just get played more, despite if they should be overperforming in a lower role. I like to remove the opportunity for the coach, as crazy it sounds. I also think players at his age lose a step quite quickly

It's why I never wanted Gaudreau on my team. You have to pay him like a star forward, you have to play him alot. I don't think you win the cup with him there as he's going to be on the ice simply too much and he's not better than the players across the ice from him that play the same minutes

Boeser - Pettersson - Miller
Podkolzin - Horvat - Hoglander
Pearson - UFA - Gaudette
Bailey - Lind? - MacEwen
jayce hawryluk


Could also go with this sometimes, if the player you acquire is a c/w. And could look to upgrade on Gaudette if he doesn't take a step, possibly this off season

Boeser - Pettersson - Hoglander
Podkolzin - Horvat - UFA Signing
Pearson - Miller - Gaudette
Bailey - Lind? - MacEwen
jayce hawryluk

Hughes / McCabe (he plays left but just hypothetically speaking)
big UFA d man or trade of 1st rounder/ Rathbone
Juolevi / Tryamkin
depth signing d man

Demko
Cheap backup

-Roussel
-Beagle
-Eriksson
-Edler
-Sutter
-Myers
-Virtanen
-Possibly Holtby

I haven't ran it through capfriendly but I imagine with the salary lost there. It would work, if somebody could run it for me

The Canucks have a huge advantage in this league being a desirable city with up and coming stars. Despite the current play of the team. If we put in a decent offer, we have a good chance at most UFAs. It's just being smart about who you acquire

Not sure why you think the roster would be empty. You fill in the 4th line with cheap guys and you ice them for less time. You circle guys in and out until you find something that works, find guys passing through waivers. Benning puts too much stock on the 4th line.

Obviously I would continue to seek out deals where I could to find cheap depth. These aren't the players that make a team. Nor do they need to be getting more ice time than your 2nd line most games.

We have no defensive depth and very limited funds to make defensive improvement.

Edler has fallen off a bit this year and is probably no longer a top-2 defender, but if you can sign him at, say, 1 year/$3 million you do that in a heartbeat. If you have him in a 4-5 slot at that cap hit, it's still terrific value. You're going to have to pay a lot more than that on the UFA market to get a comparable player.

 

[VNCVR]

We have no defensive depth and very limited funds to make defensive improvement.

Edler has fallen off a bit this year and is probably no longer a top-2 defender, but if you can sign him at, say, 1 year/$3 million you do that in a heartbeat. If you have him in a 4-5 slot at that cap hit, it's still terrific value. You're going to have to pay a lot more than that on the UFA market to get a comparable player.

Well I am open to it, depends how Edler finishes the season to be honest. That is something I would definitely consider, if I wasn't able to provide myself with a better option. I would agree, there's not enough depth. But I would assure he would be more of a bonus to our roster and not heavily relied on, much like Salo at stages. I also want to get a good look at Rathbone, people assume players will need all this time to be impactful but you simply don't know yet. I am pretty high on the kid myself. And this is a year from now.

Juolevi will be improved (one can hope). Tryamkin is a better depth d man than some people want to give him credit for, simply because he left the team. And I expect the ufa d man to be able to carry a D man to some extent (or d man we acquire with the high first rounder). I am not sure where Edler will fit to be honest, if a few of these things work out as I personally predict. But again, I am open to it. It also depends how Juolevi progresses over the year. Things can change quickly