Abbotsford Canucks | Season Starting

[RobertKron]

Lekkerimaki does too much Lekkerimaking out

 

[shottasasa]

I always wonder about this. I know some Comets fans hate him and see him as an absentee GM. Somehow he's been getting promotion after promotion from management past and present. I suspect that he's a good talker.

Generally being a good talker can get you by for a couple of years, but eventually results on KPIs need to be there. Hockey is no different. The trouble is we do t know what their KPIs are. How is team success measured? Cup or bust, make the playoffs regularly, or something else. Then there will be business/financial KPIs we really have no idea about as these are private orgs we have very little insight into. Then there are questions about order of priority.

So my only solid takeaway from Johnson not only staying employed, but also consistently getting promotions is that he is at least meeting or exceeding his KPIs, whatever they may be.

It’s also hard to know from the outside what successes and failures are really down to him other than tidbits that the hockey media occasionally bring up. Ie. Signing Joshua.

For the record, I also don’t really have a problem with the job he’s done.

 

[F A N]

Juulsen arrived as a 24 year old NHL depth option and is now a 27 year old NHL depth option. I'm sure his time in Abbotsford was useful, but I'm not sure I'd be citing as some kind of big developmental success story a guy who I'm not sure his career has necessarily even got back to where he was when he was a 18-20min guy asa 20-22yo in Montreal before he ran into injury problems.

I definitely wouldn't call Juulen a big developmental success story. But if Tocchet and the coaching staff can get credit for making Myers better then I think our player development (general umbrella) staff deserves some credit here.

Generally being a good talker can get you by for a couple of years, but eventually results on KPIs need to be there. Hockey is no different. The trouble is we do t know what their KPIs are. How is team success measured? Cup or bust, make the playoffs regularly, or something else. Then there will be business/financial KPIs we really have no idea about as these are private orgs we have very little insight into. Then there are questions about order of priority.

So my only solid takeaway from Johnson not only staying employed, but also consistently getting promotions is that he is at least meeting or exceeding his KPIs, whatever they may be.

It’s also hard to know from the outside what successes and failures are really down to him other than tidbits that the hockey media occasionally bring up. Ie. Signing Joshua.

For the record, I also don’t really have a problem with the job he’s done.

Johnson has added responsibilities over time but his primary role is leading player development staff. It sounds like the Canucks have done a good job of following up with the our prospects (only heard good things) but in terms of actually developing players we've seen very little success. Of course it could be due to our AHL coaching. His other job is that of an AHL GM which involves more of the day to day (singing ECHL guys etc.). I give him the benefit of the doubt there as I think Allvin plays a greater role in terms of team succes but certainly I would expect Johnson to be influential particularly when it comes to recommending players to call up.

We can talk about KPIs all we want but there are certainly hockey people who manage to keep their jobs for a long time. Take Chibisov. He was with the team since 1994 but we fired him (not sure if there is a greater story here). He was immediately picked up by Dallas (a competent organization). Was he suddenly not meeting KPIs? Our scouting of Russian prospects has been largely a failure but how much of that is his fault?