Management Thread | Regular Season Edition

[AwesomeInTheory]

I really hope it isnt someone who is still with the organization or is prominent/making decisions right now.

Hughes was great last year I cant imagine ever for a second thinking he should play center when you got Petey, Miller, Horvat in addition to our D being absolute dogwater without him.

I can't see Benning pushing that because he was a former defenseman.

Weisbrod or ownership would be my speculative guess.

 

[logan5]

I think the talent was there to at least be a in a wild card spot a couple seasons ago. You don't go from being one of the worst teams in the league under Boudreau last year, to suddenly the 2nd best team in the league this year, because you added some support players. The last regime assembled some good talent, but where they failed badly for whatever reason was finding the right coach.

Another huge failure falls on Auquilini for not making a change at least 2 years earlier. Even Benning, in one his last press conferences indicated that a change should probly be made. Also Aqualini failed to hire a new team president. The old management team looked sparse compared to the large management team (that is so far been extremely successful) that we have now. We were clearly understaffed with the old management team, and maybe that's what led to the poor evaluation of players such as Myers.

 

[valkynax]

I can't see Benning pushing that because he was a former defenseman.

Weisbrod or ownership would be my speculative guess.

I love Boudreau, despite him not being the best coach for the team, the messy firing was definitely one of the blackmarks of this current management group, and I sympathized with him a lot. Good coach or not, he deserved better, and the "Bruce There It Is chant" was awesome

But this? Even if it's true, which I and inclined to believe it is, what possible reason is there to bring it up right now?

I think what Bruce did will now have the following effects:
- Hughes and probably a number of teammates like Miller will now have to deal with about a thousand reporters a day asking about this crap.
- Bruce will gain some brief media attention, and probably some more sympathy points from dipshits who already hated the Orcas.
- Stirring up our management and annoying everyone.
- Put unwanted negative attention on the Orca team as they are still in the process of purging the lunacy of the Reign of Error.

Now I think Hughes along with the whole team top to bottom are definitely solid enough to deal with it. But it's just an unnecessary distraction, fueled by Bruce's desire to...to do what exactly??? Seriously, Bruce, what do you have to gain from this? A brief moment of attention? Yeah that's not gonna last. Rally support from Orca haters? People already knew the firing was not handled well and they are on your side.

Maybe I'm making too big of a deal out of this?

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Benning appeared to run the Canucks in the way that a dumb small business owner who made their money doing something else (lets say they had equity in a startup that won the acquisition lottery, or they had rich as f*** parents or partner or whatever) and then decided to open a business in a field they enjoy but lack expertise in (they like hanging out at cafes so they open a coffee shop, or a restaurant, or they're an avid beer leaguer so they open a hockey shop) tends to run their business: They micromanage the areas in which they have knowledge, or that they think are neat and fun and make them feel like the big boss, and they utterly neglect the parts that aren't any fun. Worse yet, they're often incapable of separating the business from their own ego, which results in them constantly doubling down on bad ideas and marginalizing the talented voices they're supposed to be paying to be talented voices.

i think this maybe describes FAQ more than benning

i would add that it was three people who didn’t have the basic abilities to tread water at their jobs, but their biggest deficiencies also were almost a perfect storm of exponentially magnifying each other’s deficiencies

so you have FAQ, who meddles. but it’s not like he wants to be the GM, he just wants to feel like he’s contributing and maybe hit a few dingers occasionally. other than being stupid even for a nepo baby, probably not different from most nepo baby owners. he’s not the kind of owner who has his hands in everything and wants to be apprised of antoine roussel signings or if there’s anyone scouting the finnish league. he doesn’t have the discipline to do that. but like any fan he’s probably “called” a few picks or potential free agents signings, the way i once called giguere and niedermayer breaking out in the early 2000s before they met in the finals, but ignoring all the many times i got it horribly horribly wrong, like preferring nick ritchie to nylander with our 2014 pick or wanting desperately to cut bait on jtm last year.

so FAQ expects he can meddle here or there — hey remember loui eriksson? let’s get him, or hey draft the guy from the fraser valley — and assumes management will be good enough at the rest of the job to generate surplus value to cover any potential backfires from his occasional bright ideas.

tbh i think almost every owner expects this and it’s part of the PHO or GM’s job description to create the cushion to absorb owners’ bright ideas, although again FAQ is stupid for an owner. it was on him as the guy signing the cheques to know whether he had a structure below him to absorb his hockey pool-level expertise.

with linden, he was too passive, managing like he was in a fantasy world that didn’t really exist. he let the professionals do their job, which is a good idea in theory, only he never really oversaw them at first. so he assumed that benning was listening to his cap guy, and listening to the scouts who are out there watching the games, and giving them the resources and assignments to make informed recommendations. he realized years too late that none of that was happening and then tried to implement a process and chain of command. but that should have been his first order of business after taking the job.

benning? where do i start? just lacked all executive function. we talk about him being arrogant and power hungry and simultaneously lazy and only wanting to do what the work that’s easy, all of which is true to a degree. but when shit hit the fan, repeatedly, and he like anyone — even the laziest, most irresponsible jackwad — had to step up and do real managerial work, he had no idea what that was. like none. but i think if he knew what to do he would have, if only to save his own ass.

the scale of the organization, and probably even just the scale of the scouting dept, was beyond his ability to oversee. he just was not a systematic thinker on any level or an organized person in general. and so it became hide under a pile of coats and hope everything works itself out time.

 

[vancityluongo]

lol




this dude being the "brains" of the benning management group is so wild hahah

second point is maybe not a terrible thought though - let's not forget that boudreau was clowned around by this current group

 

[HairyKneel]

I like Rutherford and Allvin and Granato and Castonguay for that matter. Running like a well oiled machine.

 

[Petey O]

I like Rutherford and Allvin and Granato and Castonguay for that matter. Running like a well oiled machine.

They've done a terrific job. The one objection I had among their moves was the Boeser extension, which is turning out, in hindsight, to be a good move, as he completes the lotto line which has seemingly revived Pettersson from a bout of "good, but not good enough" play.

Every move they've made that hasn't ended up working out that well was a good gamble from their perspective at the time, and most people agreed with them.

The front office is as competent as they come. We are very fortunate to have them.

 

[HairyKneel]

They've done a terrific job. The one objection I had among their moves was the Boeser extension, which is turning out, in hindsight, to be a good move, as he completes the lotto line which has seemingly revived Pettersson from a bout of "good, but not good enough" play.

Every move they've made that hasn't ended up working out that well was a good gamble from their perspective at the time, and most people agreed with them.

The front office is as competent as they come. We are very fortunate to have them.

I also wanted to redirect the chatter about the moron who was the previous GM.

 

[valkynax]

I also wanted to redirect the chatter about the moron who was the previous GM.

Your attempt to do so is VERY obvious.

Not in a bad way per se.

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

I think the talent was there to at least be a in a wild card spot a couple seasons ago. You don't go from being one of the worst teams in the league under Boudreau last year, to suddenly the 2nd best team in the league this year, because you added some support players. The last regime assembled some good talent, but where they failed badly for whatever reason was finding the right coach.

Another huge failure falls on Auquilini for not making a change at least 2 years earlier. Even Benning, in one his last press conferences indicated that a change should probly be made. Also Aqualini failed to hire a new team president. The old management team looked sparse compared to the large management team (that is so far been extremely successful) that we have now. We were clearly understaffed with the old management team, and maybe that's what led to the poor evaluation of players such as Myers.

Some good points here..

- We got a great glimpse of the future core of the Canucks in the 2020 playoffs..The rebuild was completed (this was also confirmed by Jim Rutherford who said that the heavy lifting was completed as far as the core group)..I credit the last regime for that.

-The last regime couldn't put together a cohesive team, and targeted the wrong players (some good) that just didnt fit..and realistically, it would have never worked out.

-Aqualini hires inexperienced first time POHO in Linden, who hires first time GM in Benning, who hires first time coaches in Desjardins and Green etc.....There was no 'real' experience in the organization to fall back on there..Notice the massive shift in the organization when real experience (JR) was at the wheel of the ship.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

second point is maybe not a terrible thought though - let's not forget that boudreau was clowned around by this current group

i have come around on this one

it was unfortunate that a good dude like bruce was collateral damage here but that was rutherford’s very necessary flex to establish his autonomy with FAQ.

in that moment he showed both that he was willing to not bend and walk away and leave a dumpster fire if necessary, and to show that in the end the fans will support winning and good process over sentimentality.

that said, this is easier for me to say now because i also didn’t love bruce’s behaviour in response. him basically burning training camp showed he was willing to make it ugly and destroy a whole season. no matter how angry i was, in his position i don’t think i would waste a whole season of my players’ finite careers.

 

[HairyKneel]

Your attempt to do so is VERY obvious.

Not in a bad way per se.

I didn’t like him any more than anyone. I hated his “work”…..He was a pinhead. I’m just happy to see competent folks running the show. That idiot couldn’t organize a two car parade.

 

[valkynax]

I didn’t like him any more than anyone. I hated his “work”…..He was a pinhead. I’m just happy to see competent folks running the show. That idiot couldn’t organize a two car parade.

Mr. Clean and Moleman have now rightfully earned great deal of trust and faith from the fans.

TDL will be interesting. Actual interesting, not "hey we have a garage sale of overpaid overaged shitastic playersfrom NHL bargain bin" interesting.

 

[TruGr1t]

I think the talent was there to at least be a in a wild card spot a couple seasons ago. You don't go from being one of the worst teams in the league under Boudreau last year, to suddenly the 2nd best team in the league this year, because you added some support players. The last regime assembled some good talent, but where they failed badly for whatever reason was finding the right coach.

Another huge failure falls on Auquilini for not making a change at least 2 years earlier. Even Benning, in one his last press conferences indicated that a change should probly be made. Also Aqualini failed to hire a new team president. The old management team looked sparse compared to the large management team (that is so far been extremely successful) that we have now. We were clearly understaffed with the old management team, and maybe that's what led to the poor evaluation of players such as Myers.

The OEL trade is completely on ownership, in my opinion. You paint a couple donkeys into a corner and force them to try to make the playoffs well after you should have fired them. That type of absolute tire fire of a trade is the result.

Boudreau obviously had some positive impact on the development of the core offensively and could certainly work with offense, but he literally doesn’t coach defense as far as I can tell.

 

[Jyrki21]

I can't see Benning pushing that because he was a former defenseman.

Weisbrod or ownership would be my speculative guess.

They were all gone when Boudreau was around, it won’t be any of the old guard.

With Rachel taking amusement in it, that suggests it’s either Allvin or Castonguay:

 

[AwesomeInTheory]

They were all gone when Boudreau was around, it won’t be any of the old guard.

With Rachel taking amusement in it, that suggests it’s either Allvin or Castonguay:

And yeah, I got my wires crossed. I forgot Benning/Green were dismissed at the same time.

If anything, Doerrie's tweet makes me think it's ownership moreso.

Whatever happened to her dispute?

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

And yeah, I got my wires crossed. I forgot Benning/Green were dismissed at the same time.

If anything, Doerrie's tweet makes me think it's ownership moreso.

Whatever happened to her dispute?

why would she lie?

my money’s on castonguay

although it is certainly hard for me to imagine anybody connected to the franchise post-benning but would be that stupid other than FAQ

 

[AwesomeInTheory]

why would she lie?

Why would she lie? I don't know why Rachel Doerrie does a great many of the things she's done, so I can't tell you.

But, it could be:

- to appear to be 'in the know' and get clout on Twitter (we've seen nobodies like Eklund pretend to be 'insiders' for far stupider reasons and Doerrie at least has the cachet of being part of an actual NHL front office)
- sour grapes. She's salty AF still over being fired and wants to take potshots at people she perceives who have wronged her.
- sucking up to ownership. Even though she's stated she's 'done' with professional sports, she sure seems to not want to shut up talking about it and the perception is that her issues were with members of the Canucks office, not ownership, so she'd want to try and portray them as being dummies.
- she's stupid and just likes attention. Given that she isn't a 13 year old I'm skeptical that this is it, but....

my money’s on castonguay

although it is certainly hard for me to imagine anybody connected to the franchise post-benning but would be that stupid other than FAQ

Someone on Twitter mentioned Mike Yeo.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Someone on Twitter mentioned Mike Yeo.

zero percent of me believes this. why would bruce throw his own assistant under the bus?

 

[AwesomeInTheory]

zero percent of me believes this. why would bruce throw his own assistant under the bus?

It might've been why he was kinda chuckling over it and was refraining from saying anything (and all of us are making a mountain out of a molehill.)

 

[arttk]

Why would she lie? I don't know why Rachel Doerrie does a great many of the things she's done, so I can't tell you.

But, it could be:

- to appear to be 'in the know' and get clout on Twitter (we've seen nobodies like Eklund pretend to be 'insiders' for far stupider reasons and Doerrie at least has the cachet of being part of an actual NHL front office)
- sour grapes. She's salty AF still over being fired and wants to take potshots at people she perceives who have wronged her.
- sucking up to ownership. Even though she's stated she's 'done' with professional sports, she sure seems to not want to shut up talking about it and the perception is that her issues were with members of the Canucks office, not ownership, so she'd want to try and portray them as being dummies.
- she's stupid and just likes attention. Given that she isn't a 13 year old I'm skeptical that this is it, but....



Someone on Twitter mentioned Mike Yeo.

These guys are f***ing dumb as shit. The time to talk shit about the Canucks is when they are struggling. Talking shit like this right now just primes them to become Canucks fans public enemy number 1.

 

[Grumbler]

Just laying this out there, Hughes originally was a forward and transitioned to defense when he was 13.

 

[JAK]

Watch this snowball into a thing as the season progresses, and eventually Bruce has to come out and say it's some custodians he hangs out with for a smoke outside on the regular.

 

[logan5]

All things considered, the Canucks rebuild has been fairly typical, and not that far off of what people around here consider a good rebuild - the Colorado Avalanche. (I am making the assumption we are out of the rebuild stage). Anyways, the Avs went 7 years where they made 1 play-off appearance. The Canucks have gone 8 years where they made 1 play-off appearance, so really not that huge a difference. And talent wise, imo we are not that far off of what the Avs have.

This long rebuild phase is something a lot of other teams have gone through, and what other teams will, or are going through. It is the reality of the cap era.

If you were to rank rebuilds, Vancouver is probly better than average, considering the talent this team has.

 

[Kryten]

Yes above average rebuilds spend on average over 100% of the cap every year trying to compete, run a draft pick deficit, lose 80% of trades, have rules explained to them, get punished for tampering, leave albatross contracts for the next group to deal with etc

Try harder