The Management Thread | Live, Play, Repeat Edition

[SeawaterOnIce]

I was listening to a Patrick Johnson interview today and he made some points in that fashion that reports do who don't want to made to look like a pariah to the franchise holder. Anyway, he intimated strongly that ownership approves ALL transactions and also implied they INITIATE transactions by providing lists to GMGB of who to sign etc. He went on to say that it's ownership's money so they can do as they please and they do, do as they please. Finally, he circled back and doubled down on the idea they had their hands in every pie, but said that strangely ownership had somehow tried to divest themselves from the bad decisions like hiring Torts. Johnson basically went on to say that it would be hard to distance themselves since they signed his contract and his cheques.

I found this kind of disturbing because it changes the narrative and suggests GMGB has very little control over any of the decisions. Furthermore, it means nothing can change since ownership isn't going to change in the near future.
Therefore, we are stuck with this circus regardless of whomever is the GM.

The hidden hand...

I've long been critical of ownership. The Aquilini's had their hand in hiring Torts and delaying a rebuild. The Aquilini's may have had a hand in directing management to pursue the local kid Virtanen in 2014. I also know this franchise will not attract any competent people until we see an ownership change.

That all said, it really changes nothing. Benning is still a horrible GM. The pro-scouting has his fingerprints on them. Signing those dreadful contracts and offering 6x6 contracts to Eriksson and Myers is all him.

 

[valkynax]

Regardless of one’s opinion on Benning - those comments in his attempts to re-sign Toffoli are frustrating as hell to read as a fan. Especially with Toffoli making the Canucks his bitch so far this year.

But he ran out of time!

 

[Izzy Goodenough]

I've long been critical of ownership. The Aquilini's had their hand in hiring Torts and delaying a rebuild. The Aquilini's may have had a hand in directing management to pursue the local kid Virtanen in 2014. I also know this franchise will not attract any competent people until we see an ownership change.

That all said, it really changes nothing. Benning is still a horrible GM. The pro-scouting has his fingerprints on them. Signing those dreadful contracts and offering 6x6 contracts to Eriksson and Myers is all him.

You are probably right but it is a disruptive idea that ownership did all that.
Yikes!

 

[m9]

While sometimes things here can drift into hyperbole, those comments from Benning are exactly why for the most part they are grounded in reality. The tunnel vision and lack of foresight from him would be astounding if it wasn't an unfortunate norm from him at this point. Utter incompetence.

As mentioned above by others, I just can't stand the excuses. If it's not injuries it's something else and it never ends. The luck of this guy to have his job saved by a pandemic last year only to fall into essentially a 6 team division this year is just unbelievable.

I just can't believe this is still a thing 7 years later.

 

[geebaan]

Those comments are indefensible

 

[Lonny Bohonos]

Brett Henning is the "Professional Scouting Director"....not sure if that just applies to Pro scouting or both pro and amateur scouting? Either way, other than being Lorne Henning's son I'm not sure what his qualifications are...i don't see anything on their site that shows a Director of Amateur Scouting...just Ron Delorme...ugh.

Brett Henning sounds like a Benning alias.

"Id like to inroduce our new scouting director Bim Jenning... er... i mean Brett Henning."

 

[rypper]

This team needs a GM who demands autonomy and has the experience and respect around the league to be able to talk bluntly to his owner and not fear reprisal.

I mean, Gillis did this and was fired shortly after, so I don't really know what the answer is. At least ownership was able to give up control to Gillis during most of his time running the team, maybe they'll do it again.

 

[Lonny Bohonos]

I've long been critical of ownership. The Aquilini's had their hand in hiring Torts and delaying a rebuild. The Aquilini's may have had a hand in directing management to pursue the local kid Virtanen in 2014. I also know this franchise will not attract any competent people until we see an ownership change.

That all said, it really changes nothing. Benning is still a horrible GM. The pro-scouting has his fingerprints on them. Signing those dreadful contracts and offering 6x6 contracts to Eriksson and Myers is all him.

Its partly why calling for Green to be fired is almost wholy irrelvant and calling for Benning to be fired will likely not result in the optimal situation being attained.

Ideally fans would be calling out Aqulini day and night.

 

[Bubbles]

I've been scrolling through Cap Friendly, and I can't find a single instance of where a team is paying almost $10 million for healthy players like Baertschi and Eriksson who apparently aren't good enough to even be in the lineup.

When you add in Ferland, who makes $3.5m and likely never plays another game; and the Luongo cap recapture penalty for a guy who's been retired for two years; and you come up with $17m of the owner's money for no net benefit on the ice...zilch...nada....bumpkiss.

And people are still wondering why this team is struggling...Seriously?

Yeah, I've been saying for years we are the only NHL team that spends that much on bottom 6, or absolutely useless guys that add no value. We were spending $20 million on our bottom 6 for years because of Benning's signings and when it came time to actually add a top 6 forward like Tofu or keep Tanev he has no money or "time" apparently.

Feasting on ELCs like Petterson/Boeser/Hughes when they are providing production WAY above their value will bite you in the end when they get contracts more commiserate with their production.

One or two bad contracts will not sink a team. But when you get to 4 or 5 (and add in Luongo cap recapture) it's just bad cap and asset management.

 

[Canucker]

I mean, Gillis did this and was fired shortly after, so I don't really know what the answer is. At least ownership was able to give up control to Gillis during most of his time running the team, maybe they'll do it again.

I dunno...after the SC run and things started to go south it seemed like there were more intrusions into Gillis’ reign by Aquilini, from pushing on style of play, to pushing for Torts as coach, preventing Gillis from making trades....it would be nice if they found someone they could feel comfortable enough with that they could stop meddling.

 

[Fatass]

Been away from the computer most of today. Benning replaced yet?

 

[Fatass]

I dunno...after the SC run and things started to go south it seemed like there were more intrusions into Gillis’ reign by Aquilini, from pushing on style of play, to pushing for Torts as coach, preventing Gillis from making trades....it would be nice if they found someone they could feel comfortable enough with that they could stop meddling.

Is Aquilini a guy who thinks he’s the smartest one in the room? Maybe that’s his problem, that he thinks he knows best? So he hires “yes” men. And when the yes man has a different idea from the owner, the guy gets fired. Like Aquilini did to Gillis, when Gillis wanted to rebuild?

 

[Lonny Bohonos]

I dunno...after the SC run and things started to go south it seemed like there were more intrusions into Gillis’ reign by Aquilini, from pushing on style of play, to pushing for Torts as coach, preventing Gillis from making trades....it would be nice if they found someone they could feel comfortable enough with that they could stop meddling.

I mean Gillis did a 180 about face from June 2011 to September 2011 in terms of team building from fast and skilled to heavy and hard.

That mirrored what fans were saying and since Aquilini is a fan it very much seems to have been pushed by him. As opposed to MG chucking our years of philosophy at the drop of a hat.

 

[M2Beezy]

Why is the media/pr team letting Benning comment about the Toffoli situation and effectively admitting incompetency?

How do you run out of time when he signed on day 3 of free agency and you had the exclusive negotiating rights for multiple weeks (edit: 7 months)?

This is like a troll tweet Tim or what??? Cmon this is that Jyrki guy screwing around right?

 

[Bojack Horvatman]

"I would of passed the BAR, but I needed more time."

"I wanted that report done, but I ran out of time."

That excuse wouldn't fly if a minimum wage employee used it on their boss, and this guy is in charge of a 700m dollar company.

 

[likash]

This is like a troll tweet Tim or what??? Cmon this is that Jyrki guy screwing around right?

He could have used picks/Jake as a sweetener to move a bad contract. He did not want to. Instead he torpedoed his own team.

Aqua is the real problem. His ego does not allow him to see that he is doing more harm than good. He should man up, call Mike G and patch things up. Bring him back as President and let him work.

 

[Bojack Horvatman]

Our next poll needs to be ranking the shit Benning has said. This is definitely above that bigger players don't get injured as often, but I don't know if it beats him not knowing what a sellers market is.

 

[M2Beezy]

Our next poll needs to be ranking the shit Benning has said. This is definitely above that bigger players don't get injured as often, but I don't know if it beats him not knowing what a sellers market is.

I like his tweets about playing the lottery simulator cause it sounds like he played it more than me but Im just a bozo and everyone knows that hes the GM of a multi million dollar sports franchise

 

[likash]

I like his tweets about playing the lottery simulator cause it sounds like he played it more than me but Im just a bozo and everyone knows that hes the GM of a multi million dollar sports franchise

Man that was funny. He sounded like a child.

 

[Dab]

Man imagine admitting the game plan was to do nothing for months and then scramble at the last minute once Toffoli’s agent was receiving offers in free agency. Sheer asset mismanagement... to our own division too... I don’t understand how Aquilini can even stand this tripe! Maybe not such a big-a fan!

 

[CpatainCanuck]

I was listening to a Patrick Johnson interview today and he made some points in that fashion that reports do who don't want to made to look like a pariah to the rights holder. Anyway, he intimated strongly that ownership approves ALL transactions and also implied they INITIATE transactions by providing lists to GMGB of who to sign etc. He went on to say that it's ownership's money so they can do as they please and they do, do as they please. Finally, he circled back and doubled down on the idea they had their hands in every pie, but said that strangely ownership had somehow tried to divest themselves from the bad decisions like hiring Torts. Johnson basically went on to say that it is hard to distance themselves since they signed Torts contract and his cheques, implying they make the decision on other contract including UFAs.

I found this kind of disturbing because it changes the narrative and instead of GMJB initiating transactions and seeking ownership approval, it suggests the converse and that GMJB has very little control over any of the decisions. Furthermore, it means nothing can change since ownership isn't going to change in the near future.
Therefore, we are stuck with this circus regardless of whomever is the GM. It also explains why they haven't fired GMJB and why GMJB says he plans to focus on the draft, since "that is my background": double speak for that is the only area he can impact.

The not so hidden hand...

I've said this for a while now: the only scenario where it makes any sense that Benning is still here is if he has mostly just done what the owners told him to do.

 

[CanuckleBerry]

Next GM of the Vancouver Canucks: Roberto Luongo? Bring him back!

I mean we're already paying him, so why not.

 

[Burke's Evil Spirit]

Next GM of the Vancouver Canucks: Roberto Luongo? Bring him back!

I guess Jim misses Benning on Empty too...

 

[Burke's Evil Spirit]

I was listening to a Patrick Johnson interview today and he made some points in that fashion that reports do who don't want to made to look like a pariah to the rights holder. Anyway, he intimated strongly that ownership approves ALL transactions and also implied they INITIATE transactions by providing lists to GMGB of who to sign etc. He went on to say that it's ownership's money so they can do as they please and they do, do as they please. Finally, he circled back and doubled down on the idea they had their hands in every pie, but said that strangely ownership had somehow tried to divest themselves from the bad decisions like hiring Torts. Johnson basically went on to say that it is hard to distance themselves since they signed Torts contract and his cheques, implying they make the decision on other contract including UFAs.

I found this kind of disturbing because it changes the narrative and instead of GMJB initiating transactions and seeking ownership approval, it suggests the converse and that GMJB has very little control over any of the decisions. Furthermore, it means nothing can change since ownership isn't going to change in the near future.
Therefore, we are stuck with this circus regardless of whomever is the GM. It also explains why they haven't fired GMJB and why GMJB says he plans to focus on the draft, since "that is my background": double speak for that is the only area he can impact.

The not so hidden hand...

I've heard this before, too. I don't believe it. Under Aquilini, three very different GMs have run the team in 3 very different ways. That wouldn't be the case if these guys were just rubber stamping ownerships faves.

I don't doubt that ownership interferes. The Tortorella signing, for example. I'm sure they need to be heavily upmanaged - which I doubt Benning is capable of doing, frankly.

I've also heard (though ~~~sources~~~) that Toffoli was a Francesco favorite. If that's the case though, him walking is an even bigger head scratcher.

 

[infinitemile]

Jim Benning has one talent, one enormous skill that noone can ever argue: keeping his job.

How many times have we sat here claiming "okay this has gotta be the last straw right?" JB has had 7 years and has made countless mistakes, but somehow this man cuddles up to Aqua so hard he's kept his job! And that snake oil salesman Weisbrod does the same under Benning's wing.

I hope the rumors about the rest of the Aquilini family being upset with Francesco are true. Not only is the actual team itself a joke, but the value of the franchise has plummeted under Benning's tenure. Francesco was getting excited about the Canucks breaching the $1b value benchmark but a combination of, yes, COVID, and more importantly incredibly poor team performance, and extremely poor salary cap management have caused the team to lose 10% of its original value. This is very bad, folks.