Honestly, have any of the Gillis tree management people ascended higher than there were here?
Outside of Brackett who was what a lower level scout at the time, I can’t name one person who got a higher level nhl job elsewhere.
For whatever reason some on these boards tend to dramatically overrate past Canuck executives.
Cue the endless debate on whether Gillis was a good or mediocre GM. And even to the bitter end, there were still stout Benning defenders, when it was obvious for years how bad some of the trades and free agent signing turned out to be. Heck, even the owner was a Benning acolyte, before he wasn't.
But the rate at which coaches and GM's get recycled in this league, it's significant that neither Gillis nor Benning has worked in an NHL front office since. And even Gilman was on the sidelines for a long time, until he landed in TO.
That's what makes this past year so refreshing. Allvin was the runner-up to the GM of the year and would be in demand just about anywhere if he were to part company with the Canucks. And it seems up and down the organization, they've now got top people in almost every position who could eventually be in demand as well.
It's about time--too bad it took more than a decade or it to happen.