If anything is wrong and contrived it's this?
Ryan Johnson you don't like and have been looking for a chance to strike out. Same shit with Boeser.
Your post game wraps which are mostly excellent became head scratchers last year as you stubbornly scrambled for some shitty reason to dump on Boeser in spite of his 40 goal season. And after pining for a trade because you were convinced he would suck in the playoffs he was an absolute clutch stud.
Same with Johnson.
He doesn't draft.
Playoff success??? - Does it matter that Miroshnichenko and Lapierre 2nd and 3rd in goals for Hershey while Podkolzin Silovs Lekkerimaki Woo unavailable when you make this convenient BS about player availability and playoffs. You're own example provided evidence contrary to your point
All we should be asking...Are the prospects getting what they need to succeed?
Is Abbotsford successful....yes TOP5 since arrived = winning environment
Vets to insulate....yep top5 team pretty much says it all.
Trainers and Coaches = excellent. Sedins Colliton Manny Yogi
Facilities + In game experience = excellent
Access to NHL team + communications......excellent.
WE DON'T NEED GOONS but absolutely team toughness matters. Which also means the players have to protect themselves. Who protects Hughes and Pettersson?
TOP5 team. GM has given him a ringing endorsement for his work. Everything i've seen going to games looks and sounds professional. I'll take our managements side. The evidence say's you're wrong.
Using Boeser as example of me having personal bais is not shown IMO in the on-going comments I made last year. At the beginning of the season, I, like others, saw Boeser being much the same as he was in the troubled years proceeding last year. His skating looked poor and his defensive game still wasn't there. When he did begin to score on a consistnet basis I still worried if he could sustain this and wondered if it might be better to trade him while he was hot since, if we did retain him, we would be committed to major increase in salary down the line.
But as the season progressed (and you can go back and look this through) I made more and more favorable comments about Boeser especially in his efforts to improve his defensive game. When he was good I said so, and when he wasn't I said so. At the end of the season, in fact, I admittted I was wrong in the
"Post What have Learned" in doubting Boeser and that he had proven he was worth his contract. Go back and check if you want. This season I have again praised Boeser. My attempt throughout, was to provide honest assessments of Boeser and what was best for the team. If I had, as you suggest, this underlying to desire to "shit on Boeser" why would I openly change my opinion.
Same with Johnson. I've followed Johnson teams for years and base my opinion of him not on some personal hatred of the guy, but on job he is doing. I followed Utica closely and saw decent teams fall apart under Johnson. This was also the opinion of the posters in Utica, who provided game analysis and who followed Johnson moves. There was almost uniamious opinion that he was doing a poor job.
I believe that this has continued in Vancouver. The acquistion of players has been poor. Off season signings by Johnson have done next to nothing. Unlike a GM like Heisinger, Johnson has not unearthed any lower league players that have value. Abbotsford has depended upon the parent club signing players such Blais to contracts to fill out the roster. And when one of those players gets hurt or called up, the replacement Johnson has signed have been useless.
I also believe that player development has been poor. That is partly explained by draft situation but as of now I don't think there is one player developed exclusively in Abbotsford that is helping the team. And remember this was supposed to be his main job.
And then last year, he did not provide adequate protection for our younger players. I viewed most Abby games last year and watched as players were repeatly run since other teams had no fear of retribution. Every other team had someone like Gallant in the lineup to inimate our team and protect his own younger players (just go through the rosters and you will see this). In the end, the possible development of so many younger prospects was badly effected by injury caused often by deliberate attempts to injure. Podkolzin, McWard, Hirose, Mcdonough, Sasson, Klimovich, Woo were among players badly hurt. In most cases, this was the result of teams taking blantant shots at these younger players with no fear of push back. Good example. was Gallant deliberately butt ending Woo directly and hard in the face, after which Gallant skated around with no Abby player going near him. Or Podkolzin driven from behind into the boards and ending up in hospital. This happened all last year and Johnson did nothing meaningful about it.
I don't understand how you can ignore this. How can players develop when they are badly hurt. How can the younger players play to their maximum and without fear when they can be run with inpunity by bigger and more seasoned players. Do you want our propects to develop??? Don't you see it's important that they are in a safe environment. They certainly were not last year and I can't see how that doesn't upset any true fan of the team. Saying they just got to "keep their heads up" and take of care of themselves - that they don't need protection - is senseless in IMO. And that is proven, I believe, by the fact that no other team in the AHL would adopt such a policy.
It was Johnson job to provide that safe environment and he clearly didn't. I don't know how you can excuse that and say everything is fantastic, that players are "being insulated", and "getting all they need". Last year was surely example of the players not getting "insulated" and simply being thrown to th wolves. The beating the players took last year and the overwhelming amount of serious injuries is testimony to the lack of being provided every thing they need.
And this why I criticize Johnson. I look at the job he is doing and see obvious faults. And I try to provide evidence to back this up.
In response, you provide an ad hominen argument that is based on me having some irrational hatred. That's the lazy man's way out and not being able to provide evidence to support their claims.
Secondly, I say your aergement are contrived b/c you did the following;
You use examples of player development in Abbotsford that stretch any reasonable description of player development
Players llike Juulsen, DiGuiseppe are clearly not example of Abby developing prospects. You're grasping here to include anyone who might have passed through Abbotsford to support your point that there has been good player development in Abbotsford. That's contrived. These players are not examples
Also you include players like Bains, Raty, etc. as examples of players developed in Abbotsford. That again is a reach since there remains real doubt that they are NHL level.
If you have some good evidence of player development then use it. But, up till now, the examples used of development ignore that most are not even in the NHL or, if they are, it is likely on a temporary basis.
Finally, whether senior management is happy with Johnson is to not material to me. In the end. I think you have to judge things for yourself and not just listen to what is being said by someone else.