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

[MS]

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

Rathbone needs to be getting games somewhere. His situation right now is ridiculous.

In the case of Edler, it would be nice if we had the depth and/or the cap space to walk away and play younger better players, but we simply don't. And we're also incredibly short on defenders who can PK, especially assuming Hamonic and Benn are gone this summer.

 

[VNCVR]

Rathbone needs to be getting games somewhere. His situation right now is ridiculous.

In the case of Edler, it would be nice if we had the depth and/or the cap space to walk away and play younger better players, but we simply don't. And we're also incredibly short on defenders who can PK, especially assuming Hamonic and Benn are gone this summer.

I believe Tryamkin kills penalties, his long reach is an advantage, much like Myers. Juolevi is growing quite quickly in that department. I imagine the UFA/1st round trade D man would as well, as most real good top 4 are capable

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

Personally, I wouldnt go crazy on rash moves..This has been a strange season, and I don't think its necessary to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Worst case scenario, team gets a top 10 ten pick, and next year we go into a division with a couple of rebuilding teams, and an expansion team.

 

[HockeyNightInAsia]

I am another on the "don't need too many moves" camp. It's about actually setting the direction of the team and then making the necessary first move to signal those.

1. Have a plan to play the young boys. You need to play Rathbone or Michaelis sufficiently to know if they can be a top 4 D / third line skater by 2022.
2. Fire Green if he is a hurdle to playing the young boys.
3. Trade Virtanen for a young-to-medium 3C. (Been saying so since August..... but I guess easier said than done.) It signals that lazy boys with no buy-ins are goners. It signals that there is ongoing development/mentorshop where a Sutter / Beagle can still pass on knowledge even when they suck on-ice.
4. Identify a long-term partner for Quinn Hughes. UFA could be the route, but if unlikely then trade for someone who can be by 2022.
5. Don't touch the core (the Miller idea made me think hm..... but I say not).
6. AHL development has been godawful. Fix that. Not sure how to.
7. The other stuff that I ain't an expert on...... like strengthening capology and analytics.

 

[MS]

Personally, I wouldnt go crazy on rash moves..This has been a strange season, and I don't think its necessary to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Worst case scenario, team gets a top 10 ten pick, and next year we go into a division with a couple of rebuilding teams, and an expansion team.

I agree with you. You don't go out and trade Miller for picks or something like that before you see how he fits into a new direction with a new coach on a team going well.

Again, from a roster perspective, to me the most important thing is that the new GM is given freedom to trade assets to dump bad contracts and is willing to bite that bullet. Without doing that, next season will just be an in-limbo wasted season where we don't move forward and discontent is allowed to grow further. We need to clear some cap space to be able to make some additions and fix some problems, and give the team back a sense of direction and belief.

 

[DS7]

Can we backtrack this question to what I would have done had I been hired 5 months ago?

Buy out Sutter, Walk away from Jake

Goaltending would have been an adventure and the squeeze is still coming next season, but the team in front would be putting up a better fight at least (and yes figure there are other complications down the line but looking forward at the free agent classes coming up, keeping Tanev and Toffoli at a discount would have been preferable.) Or we simply don't do the Schmidt trade if we kept Tanev and go for a cheaper option.

 

[sting101]

I will start mine with the hire being for President not GM

Wouldn't fire anyone until i had interviews to see what has happened why and the rational for the decisions. Then Delorme and Weisbrod would be fired immediately to set the tone that i mean business. Benning i would keep around as my assistant to be the face to clean up his pile of crap and soak up what we can from the amateur scouting process.

My next agenda would be to try and get some of the younger fringe players more ice time from Green under the pretense that i'm not evaluating him through wins and losses and will not be firing him this year unless he does something completely out of character. Rathbone would be sent Utica to play games

In tough times i believe that stability is important and firing everyone and starting over with completely new directions and strategies mid season would create negative results. I would meet with the core players and feel them out on where their at and would assure them we are going to use their knowledge of players in the future before we bring anyone on board.

No knee jerk panic moves...simply state that it's extremely unfortunate we are not in a playoff position and that we like our roster and have underperformed as a team and would be open for business on older players and expiring contracts. Sutter Pearson Myers Schmidt Virtanen Roussel Benn Beagle all highly available. Jake Tanner and Nate would require something good back or i would just give them a vote of confidence and integrate them back in. The rest would be happy to take the cap space

Once the season concludes i would hold closed door meetings and get to the bottom of as many issues and problems as i could with the message we are going to compete but we are also not going to sign inflated deals to do so. Hughes Pettersson and Demko i sign in that order Hughes to a bridge 3 x 7. Pettersson to a 8 x 8 and Demko on a 3.5 x 2 to just before free agency. Podkolzin and Tryamkin i sign to come over for 21/22 not this year. Pod 3 x .925 Try 2 x 2.25

Eriksson i wait him out. We only gain 850k vs him being in Utica so i simply tell him he wont be with the Canucks but he's welcome to be a leader in Utica. Hopefully he retires if not we wait for the cap space one more season..........yuk

From there the direction is simple. We only look at acquiring players who are top 50 or we think they can be top50 at their positions on decent contracts. Everything else will be filled from within or via short term cheap contracts. Safe to say nothing will be coming next year unless Loui retires but the year after we should have some dough to hopefully get some help

Gotta find a shut down D and a 3C .....although maybe Horvat is the 3C if you can find a quality scoring C who is capable defensively or have enough wings to move Miller to the middle.

 

[y2kcanucks]

The first thing I do is surround myself with other competent executives. Some names I have in mind would be Mike Gillis, Laurence Gilman, Eric Tulsky, and Chris MacFarland, though the search would obviously be expanded. I would go with Mike Gillis's approach and have AGM's assigned to different areas: 1) Amateur Scouting 2) Pro Scouting 3) Capology 4) Analytics 5) Development to ensure that we are covering all areas and to try to identify opportunities where we can gain a competitive advantage over the other franchises.

I would move on from Travis Green as coach, though I don't have a preferred candidate yet.

With respect to roster management, the next two/three years I see as a write-off. We need to work on becoming a franchise that allocates cap space in a responsible way that makes sense. The best players get the money they deserve, and we would not overspend on bottom tier players. I would like a roster with a dynamic offense, building around Pettersson and Boeser, and another borderline 1C/elite 2C as our 2C behind Pettersson. A fast, puck-possession third line with players who can move up to the second line in case of injury, and a fourth line that is defensively responsible, has good puck possession metrics, and adds a little bit of grit.

On defense Quinn Hughes is the only one who I see having a longterm future here. The defense needs to be completely revamped.

JT Miller would be a prime trade candidate, and I would look for a first round pick and top prospect. I recognize that Miller's value is at its peak right now, and by the time the team will be ready for the next upswing he will be 30 and due a new contract (which will likely end up being a bad contract).

Bo Horvat would be shopped as well. He's at the borderline age where in 2-3 years he'll be in his late 20's, a pending UFA, and I question what kind of value he will bring in a trade relative to the impact he will have during the next upswing.

Nate Schmidt is another player I would look to trade due to his age; however, this trade would take place after the expansion draft. I would target teams that have just lost a top 4 defenseman.

Prior to the expansion draft I would target teams that have excess defensemen who they cannot protect and try to bring them over. Ideally younger defensemen. Vince Dunn is high on my target list, as would be Eric Cernak if Tampa decides to protect McDonagh over him. Matt Dumba is also someone who I would make a call on.

If we can find a buyer for Tyler Myers that would be ideal. I don't expect it would happen but that would potentially speed up the turnaround. Regarding the other bad contracts, as part of our shotgun rebuild effort I would simply let the contracts expire rather than waste assets on trying to clean up that mess. Trade away what I can at the deadline to stockpile as many picks as possible, and try to maximize the amount of draft lotto tickets we have.

 

[VanJack]

Unfortunately the first question a 'name GM' is going to ask before even taking the job is: "will I have complete autonomy over the hockey operations department?" And then when they got the answer, they'd just walk.

Brian Burke has just been hired as the President of Hockey Ops with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Can you imagine how long he'd last working for Francesco? Lol!

 

[Isi]

The no plan plan that has no goals and hopes Seattle takes a bad contract for nothing.


You’re proposing to waste two seasons imo.

If you don’t show the important young pieces (there’s only 2 of them) you can be a decent team in the near term trending to very good they’ll want out too.

It’s absolutely negligent to do nothing in the near term.

It seems to me from my quick research last night, it's not going to be that difficult to basically only have the bad contracts exposed, so 'hoping' is not a fair summation of it. You manage your way into only exposing the bad contracts. If Seattle choose to take one of our soon-to-be UFA's, so be it. But don't let them escape with picking, say, Motte.

This season is already wasted, so I'm proposing one more wasted season, that is intended to be wasted (unlike the past 7 years when Benning was trying to make the playoffs each and every season). It's also negligent to spend draft capital (when we've been basically running a draft capital deficit for years) to remove contracts that expire in a year's time, and when it's pretty likely that this team will struggle to make the playoffs even if Roussel, Beagle & Sutter are removed, let along be a contender which is the ultimate goal, and unfortunately to get there we need to take an intentional step back to cleanse our cap. Like I said, trade offs are happening no matter which direction people (fantasy) choose to go. That's the result of 7 years of shambolic management.

I basically proposed the extremely easy baby steps. The harder steps are whether to trade Hovart...

 

[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.

Sorry I go back to my original statement, No to Edler. I accidentally left off Schmidt. lol that's why things weren't adding up for me after suggesting we move on from Edler. I knew I left him off for a reason

---

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

Hughes / McCabe (he plays left but just hypothetically speaking - though hughes can play right)
Schmidt / UFA (hamilton?) or d man returned in trade of 1st rounder
Juolevi / Tryamkin
depth signing d man

Demko
Cheap backup

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

---

And run the numbers but I am pretty sure I can fit my squad under the cap. If the free agent or acquisition in the forward lineup is affordable. My plan shed A LOT of dead weight and only cost us some picks and prospects. To have Seattle take Myers, if they don't want him already, to shed Roussel and Beagle. For a brand new team, I think Myers actually makes a little sense, he's still a decent d man but overpaid and playing too high in our lineup due to our thin blueline.

An example. Virtanen/Gaudette + 2nd rounder for sound defensive d man. Maybe even both. If we sign the UFA d man instead of trading the 2021 1st, you can use it in addition to virtanen or gaudette for a very good d man

Myers to Seattle. I don't think it would cost very much to get them to pick him. If they don't do it at no cost

Beagle: 2nd+3rd?
Roussel: Dipietro/Lind + 2nd or 3rd. Maybe we retain half his salary and cheapen the cost, I am not sure what my team comes out at, if I could afford to retain any salary but most likely could. If i was successful in most of these moves

Honestly I am not sure what the cost is to shed these couple players. Things have changed dramatically. But if we have to pay a 2022 1st for the lesser of the two. Do it. It will be a later 1st once we fix this roster.

Both are only signed through 2021-2022 and only 3 million. What do you think the cost in picks would be for each of these players, for a single year?

But as I said, im willing to give up an entire years of draft picks to fix the cap situation, and go a bit into the next draft after that. and include any prospect not named podkolzin/hoglander.

These problems can be fixed and we have great wingers, 2 great centers, and 1 great d man and one very good d man, we just need one more top d man to truly compete. and obviously shed the fat.

Just need UFA dman. Trade for D man. UFA 3c. We have the pieces to make it happen. And for the GM to ignore the attachment to guys like Sutter and Beagle due to them being likable. and sign Tryamkin who has been offering himself to the team since he's been out of his contract. and take advantage of cheap help and ice your top 3 lines more often and only use your 4th for a spark. If your top players want to be top players, they need/should to be able to play more than 18-19 min a game

Mccabe actually happens to be a free agent at the end of this year? very interesting. He probably resigns but hey, if his agent thinks he could get a ton on the market. Would be an a huge pickup if available.

 

[Javaman]

1. Start a burner account on HF Forums
2. Send PM's to prominent members of HFCanucks Team Tank and offer them positions as AGM/Directors of various departments
3. ......
4. Profit

 

[zcaptain]

I would rather be the owner than the GM...I agree with alot of others on here.

1. I hire a president of Hockey Operations
2. A new GM
3. Several Assistant GM's (pro-scouting, Amateur Scouting, and Capoligist)
4. A new Coach
5. 3 new assistant coaches
6. Invest in more scouts

7. Send Rathbone and DiPietro back to the minors -with orders to play top minutes
8. Send Eriksson to Utica.....playing coach this year

9. Trade Miller at TDL..................1st and a blue chip Prospect
10. Trade Schmidt after the Expansion draft....................1st Rounder
11. Trade Myers at 50% after the Expansion draft............2nd Rounder
12. Trading Virtanen, 2023 2nd and Eriksson after $1 million cash retained in summer of 2021

13. Keeping Gaudette until new coach in place

14. Signing Tryamkin................................................................3 yrs @ 2,250,000
15. Signing Pearson...................................................................3 yrs @ 3,000,000
16. Signing Alex Wennberg..........3rd line center....................3 yrs @ 3,000,000
17. Signing Antony Duclair............rw/lw..................................3 yrs @ 2,250,000
18. Signing Kevan Miller................rd to replace Myers............2 yrs @ 1,750,000
19. Signing Mike Hoffman.............rw/lw..................................2 yrs @ 5,000,000
20. Signing Dougie Hamilton.........rd.......................................6 yrs @ 7,500,000

That is $21,000,000 out
That is $ 24,750,000 in

Hoglander (1) Pettersson (7.0) Hoffman (5.0) Players can be placed on different lines
Duclair (2.25) Horvat (5.5) Boeser (6.0)
Pearson (3.0) Wennberg (3.0) Gaudette (1.0) 42.7 million
Motte (1.225) Beagle (3.0) MacEwen (1.0)
Roussel (3.0) Podkolzin (1.0)

Hughes (6.5) Tryamkin (2.25)
Juolevi (1.0) Hamilton (7.5)
Edler (5.0) Miller (1.750) 26.0 million
Rathbone (1.0) Chatfield (1.0)

Demko (2.0)
Holtby (4.3) 6.3 million

Total : 75.0 Million
Luongo Penalty : 3.0 Million
Grand Total : 78.0 Million
Ferland on LTIR for remainder of contact

Ok, so this is a 77 million dollar budget in a Covid era. You will notice some players I did not post their signings, but the signings are in the line-up. Everyone got raises except Pearson and Edler. I believe Edler will sign for that (Tanev signed for 4.5 in Calgary) , but Pearson may want to test the UFA market, but we have Roussel who can step in, as it is his position this year.

I think Pettersson and Hughes sign Covid bridges, which fall right in place with when we should be coming out of it.

I am also of the view that all the veterans signed, excluding Hamilton are expendable in future years for trade. No one other than Hamilton of the new guys will get NMC contracts. I think Covid allows us to sign him for that, but we could pay more. He is a must.

Pettersson will get a 3 year $7.0 per bridge and Hughes will get slightly under that for the same length, due to his defensive numbers.

I would like Gillis to be the president, not sure about the GM's, and Gallant and the Crow as Coach and assistant Coach.

I would like the janitor to sweep the floor, after all these moves, because it is rather messy!

We go into the 2021 draft with.........
3 x 1st
2 x 2nd
1 x 3rd

If all turned out as I want at the draft, I want 3 forwards , 2 Dmen, and a goalie taken with our 1st 6 picks

Then I wake up!

I think we are better all around except Goal

 

[Knight53]

Hire Gillis as President, bring in Mcfarland as Co-GM and hire Boudreau as Coach. I just chill and scout prospects around the world with my buddies.

 

[lawrence]

lots of good and stupid responses. At this point, if you're the gm the autonomy part is already discussed. Let's say I do have all of it.

I will have a chat with Weisbrod first to see if we are a fit. do our visions align? does he even have a vision? was he hired because he doesn't know how to speak up and just a yes man? the longest I will keep him around is until the end of the season. Tops. Right now might not be easy to find an assistant unless I already know one.

I will re evaluate the coaching situation. Like an interview to Travis and see if he's a fit with the team anymore. If not I will relieve him, bring in an intern and look for other coaches and find the right man.

Candidate list includes

-Gerard Galant
-Randy Carlyle
-John Stevens

also I might wait til after the season ends to see if heads role, and I will try to look at some coaches that recently lost their jobs.

I will have a chat individually with each player, let him know my plan for the team which is team comes first and I am going to do what's best for the team. (I don't have to disclose my long term plan too them)

I will ask the players to give it their 110% while they are in a Canuck uniform. If anyone had personal issues with Jim in the past, I will ask the player to move on and play for their comrades.

Players like Bo Horvat, Eliass Pettersson, Boeser, Hughes, I will have a "longer conversation with" I will let them know they are the core of this team and I will do my best to make them better. I will personally let Pettersson know that the fans and the organization will expect more from him as he will be the face of the franchise moving forward. The very same with Quinn.


I will try to trade for Luke Schenn.

Not interested in moving draft picks for the time being.

I will try to trade away the bad contracts. I believe Benning already tried that with no avail, I doubt that will change, but I will still try.

I will ask my assistance to make a depth chart of all teams.
I will also ask them to make a depth chart of all their prospects and their likely hoods of making the NHL, and their overall skll set.

have zoom meetings with the amateur scouts on one one. get to know them first, then ask them what are there takes of the prospects in 2021. I know the information is lacking I will ask them if there is a gap between the 1st pick an the 5th pick, is it worth tanking? is it not worth tanking? I will ask them what did Jim Benning instruct them to do in regards to scouting.

I will also work with the coaching staff to see what we can do to make our younger guys better.

 

[Josepho]

I really can't imagine wanting Randy Carlyle in 2021. I don't really believe in going for coaches in their mid 60s unless the team is a bonafide contender.

Forgot to mention him earlier and I don't know if his past-issues have blacklisted him or anything, but Jim Montgomery was doing very well as a coach before he got let go. Based purely from a hockey perspective, he definitely deserves to be a head coach again.

Gallant and Montgomery are the easy top 2 on my list and if Pittsburgh moves on from Sullivan (which I believe they will) he'll fly into the discussion. I think experience is crucial for this next hire.

 

[MS]

I really can't imagine wanting Randy Carlyle in 2021. I don't really believe in going for coaches in their mid 60s unless the team is a bonafide contender.

Forgot to mention him earlier and I don't know if his past-issues have blacklisted him or anything, but Jim Montgomery was doing very well as a coach before he got let go. Based purely from a hockey perspective, he definitely deserves to be a head coach again.

Gallant and Montgomery are the easy top 2 on my list and if Pittsburgh moves on from Sullivan (which I believe they will) he'll fly into the discussion. I think experience is crucial for this next hire.

Montgomery is an interesting case.

Apparently he's cleaned himself up but would someone with his past alcohol issues want the stress of being an NHL head coach again, or is it healthier for him to stay an assistant in St. Louis?

Are his issues something the organization would want to navigate?

Would Aquilini be OK with picking up sloppy seconds from Gaglardi?

Agree that he's an excellent coach, but there's a lot of baggage there.

 

[Vector]

Montgomery is an interesting case.

Apparently he's cleaned himself up but would someone with his past alcohol issues want the stress of being an NHL head coach again, or is it healthier for him to stay an assistant in St. Louis?

Are his issues something the organization would want to navigate?

Would Aquilini be OK with picking up sloppy seconds from Gaglardi?

Agree that he's an excellent coach, but there's a lot of baggage there.

Desjardins was an assistant in Dallas and their AHL head coach so I don’t think that factors in.

 

[MS]

Desjardins was an assistant in Dallas and their AHL head coach so I don’t think that factors in.

Bit of a different scenario though - in that case were were taking an up-and-coming coach they wanted to keep away from them. It was actually kind of screwing over Gaglardi. This would be hiring a coach that they punted.

We know ownership has pretty significant (and stupid) issues with Dallas and that they didn't like the optics of being a 'bad team' selling Dan Hamhuis to Gaglardi's 'better team' at the 2016 deadline.

 

[CanuckleBerry]

First thing I would probably do is offer Gallant a blank cheque.

Second would be to sit down with him and pick his brain regarding his vision for how this team should be shaped based on its core and what would best supplement it. Hire assistant coaching staff tailored to this.

Player personnel moved/acquired/developed to fit the vision.

Fix the jersey once and for all.

 

[WTG]

First thing I would probably do is offer Gallant a blank cheque.

Second would be to sit down with him and pick his brain regarding his vision for how this team should be shaped based on its core and what would best supplement it. Hire assistant coaching staff tailored to this.

Player personnel moved/acquired/developed to fit the vision.

Fix the jersey once and for all.

Exactly what I would do. I wish we had the balls to fire Green earlier and hire Q. f*** the Panthers looking good.

 

[Hammer79]

Not much this season. Trades with American teams take too long and really we need to wait for contracts to expire. I'm not paying significant assets to have other teams take our trash. JB can take the blame for their current play while I ride the honeymoon period.

Almost every Stanley Cup winner is at least 2 Centers deep; we have that, and top line C is the hardest position to fill via trade or free agency. We have Demko, who should be top half starter soon. We have a prolific point scorer on D. We have the pieces in place to build around, we just can't do it because we committed long term to marginal players. I'd be aiming to be a contender for 2022-2023 and making the playoffs would be the goal for 2021-2022. I wouldn't do anything short term to right this ship though aside from firing the coaching staff aside from Ian Clarke. They are not getting the best out of the players right now and the lackadaisical play has become a habit.

 

[GreatSaveLuongo]

Trade/move/call up/send down:
- Beagle for 7th, Mackuwen takes his spot as 4th center
- Myers for 2nd (sign Byfuglien 1yr 4.5mil)
- Send Eriksson down forever, buy him out next year
- Call up some kids to see what we have
- Pearson for 2nd
- Put Roussel on 4th line LW instead of 3rd
- 3rd each for Foligno/Jenner
- Sign Troy Brower as 13th forward

JTM-BO-Boeser
Podz/Gadjovich/Foligno-Petterson-Hog
Baertschi/Lind/Jenner-Gaudette-Virtanen
Roussel-Mackuwen-Motte/Brower

Hughes-Schmidt
Edler-Byfuglien
Juolevi-Schenn/Koekkeok

Holtby
Demko

 

[Bubbles]

I've been reading Soccernomics and Moneyball lately, so my ideas are very much based in that model of team management. However, I'm not going to use it 100% because there are pitfalls in being completely based in that type of style.

1. Have complete alignment in the organization. The NHL, AHL and ECHL teams should all play the same way, and players should all fit into that model. The coaches should all coach the same way as well.

2. Never dip into free agency, other than to fill small gaps. Free agency has never worked well for the Canucks, and that's going back years. 1 year, or 2 year deal max for the right players. Never on a star player ever.

3. Pour tons of money into drafting. The Canucks should have a monopoly on BCHL and WHL players, and yet they are amongst the worst in the NHL drafting from those leagues. Every European country should have 5 scouts, with a director of European scouting in charge.

4. Bold move here, but only have 3 or 4 players over 30. Everyone on the team should be 28 or under. The minute players reach free agency, their actual dollar for dollar worth is less. What I mean is, at that age you are likely paying way more for what that player brings. If you draft right, you will always have an ELC player ready to replace that player.

5. Steal the Blackhawks European pro scouting, or just copy their model. They have been signing free agents on the cheap for years, and they've hit on more gems than they have missed. All it costs is money. As far as I know, they are the only team in the NHL doing this successfully. (Panarin, Kubalik, Gustafsson)

6. Never get sentimental about any player. No one should be "untouchable". Listen to every offer and get opinions from smart people that I've hired. If the right offer came for Petey, you do it.

 

[MS]

I've been reading Soccernomics and Moneyball lately, so my ideas are very much based in that model of team management. However, I'm not going to use it 100% because there are pitfalls in being completely based in that type of style.

1. Have complete alignment in the organization. The NHL, AHL and ECHL teams should all play the same way, and players should all fit into that model. The coaches should all coach the same way as well.

Agreed.

2. Never dip into free agency, other than to fill small gaps. Free agency has never worked well for the Canucks, and that's going back years. 1 year, or 2 year deal max for the right players. Never on a star player ever.

I'd say it's more 'never sign average players into their mid-30s'.

If you have a well managed team and you have the cap space, 3-4 year deals for guys who are 27-28 are totally reasonable. Dan Hamhuis, as an example, was a home run.

But yes, generally UFA is a fool's game.

3. Pour tons of money into drafting. The Canucks should have a monopoly on BCHL and WHL players, and yet they are amongst the worst in the NHL drafting from those leagues. Every European country should have 5 scouts, with a director of European scouting in charge.

We need fewer scouts, not more. There are no secrets and having too many chefs in the kitchen dilutes the work of your best guys who actually know what they're doing.

Personally I'd have a huge video staff compressing a shit ton of games for our best guys to watch.

4. Bold move here, but only have 3 or 4 players over 30. Everyone on the team should be 28 or under. The minute players reach free agency, their actual dollar for dollar worth is less. What I mean is, at that age you are likely paying way more for what that player brings. If you draft right, you will always have an ELC player ready to replace that player.

No argument here.

5. Steal the Blackhawks European pro scouting, or just copy their model. They have been signing free agents on the cheap for years, and they've hit on more gems than they have missed. All it costs is money. As far as I know, they are the only team in the NHL doing this successfully. (Panarin, Kubalik, Gustafsson)

100%

Veteran Europeans are the most stunningly untapped market in the sport right now.

Toronto is doing a good job here as well.

6. Never get sentimental about any player. No one should be "untouchable". Listen to every offer and get opinions from smart people that I've hired. If the right offer came for Petey, you do it.

No argument here.