Mike Gillis - your new Canucks GM

[Dial 9-1-1]

Pierre Lacroix.

When he took over the Avs GM post many years ago, he had some enemies too.

So did Mike Barnett. Burke burns bridges at breakfast time, just before his coffee.

In time "what he did" to piss GMs off will be irrelevant. What will be relevant are his skills, contacts, and connections. GMs like Lowe will be doing themselves a disservice if they choose not to deal w/ any one guy just because they were burned by him. You need to keep your options open, and keep your matches away from spans.

Anyhow, I'm optomistic for the change in direction, that they did get an established, proven, successful hockey man, and that they did it quickly. They didn't recycle someone who'd been a failure in past posts. So, I'm looking forward to seeing what happens.

Dude, I never thought you would turn your back on Dunkin' Dave Nonis so quickly.

 

[Dude]

Classic...forgot about that nickname!

 

[TheRob]

did your parents purchase the mcdonalds on lougheed and 224th?

There's no Mac D's there. BMO, Fuller Watson, Vacant building and the Zellers parking lot. The BMO backs on to South Central Haney and MR's finest Chinese food. Kings Kitchen. Man would I love some Kings right now. We have one up here called Dynasty Gardens that is pretty good, but it's no Kings. Maybe Dude, could you swing through Maple Ridge on your way here and pick Tara and I up a dinner for three? Thanks buddy. You're top drawer.

Call me on my mobile.

Cheerio!

 

[suburbanator]

Did I just hear that Nonis got hired as interim in Toronto?

Hold the fort for Burke I suppose lol.

 

[Kevin Hector]

Lion

cut franchise some slack... a maple leafs fan who has a gallery of WWF photo's. clearly he is not acting on the same level as alot of us. Not to mention he owns almost every record in the arcade.

ah ok i get it now..

he flips burgers and calls him self the franchise... did your parents purchase the mcdonalds on lougheed and 224th?

regards,
the general manager of a printing company

P.s. lion i checked out your link. the restaraunt looks good, and its only a few blocks away Polska like to dine the ladies. i will be trying it out very soon.

McDonalds is on 228th and Lougheed

 

[girth]

Hey Hector off topic but why were you standing in the doorway of our local sex toy shop the other day talking on your cell phone? I drove by and saw you... did you buy a dildo or french tickler?

 

[Kevin Hector]

A new Tim Hortons and Little Ceasers will be on the corner of 224th and lougheed. Anyway from what I understand. most owners who own sports teams do it for the ego of owning a team and most not all, sell them to make a profit down the road. Almost all owners make there mega-millions elsewhere and thats why they have a president and a GM and all the other staff. But I will guarantee you that the owner of a sports team will have a say in a trade. I remember when Vinny LeCaivier (spelling?) got drafted the owner of the Lightning said they would never trade the Michael Jordan of Hockey.

 

[Kevin Hector]

Hey Hector off topic but why were you standing in the doorway of our local sex toy shop the other day talking on your cell phone? I drove by and saw you... did you buy a dildo or french tickler?

Which one???? is that why you didn't return your video's on time. I own Guilty Pleasures. and you can't order that rubber goat from Brazil.

 

[girth]

I never knew you owned that ??? Do you have anything their that will increase my flexability? I pull hamstrings very easy now and stretching exercises before the game don't help?

on topic... Canucks suck!

 

[suburbanator]

Gillis In, Brunstrom Out

NHL.com - News

DALLAS - Swedish free agent Fabian Brunnstrom signed a two-year, entry-level contract with the Dallas Stars on Friday after being wooed by a handful of NHL teams.

"All of the other teams and clubs, like Montreal and Detroit, were good but I just felt that Dallas was a little bit better for me," Brunnstrom said. "I really enjoyed the town and the people around the Dallas organization. I got a chance to visit the practice facility and the American Airlines Center and I thought everything was great."

The 23-year-old Brunnstrom, who was an unrestricted free agent, will join the Stars next season.

Brunnstrom spent the just-completed season with Farjestads BK Karlstad in the Swedish Elite League, recording 37 points (nine goals, 28 assists) in 54 games. The six-foot-one, 203-pound forward skated for Boras HC in Sweden's second division during the 2006-07 season, when he had 73 points (37 goals, 36 assists) and a plus-51 rating in 41 games.

"We are very excited to get the calibre of player that Fabian is," Stars co-general manager Les Jackson said. "He is a very good prospect and will definitely be a nice addition to our group of younger players."

Brunnstrom said Dallas was the third club he visited.

"It was a really hard decision for me," Brunnstrom said. "The other clubs were really good, too."

 

[italian_stallion21]

Re: Gillis In, Brunstrom Out

NHL.com - News

This guys a tool, he's not even going to get a sniff at top 6 ice time there, I was hyped on him till I saw some game footage, looks average at best and now he's not going to get the ice time he'll need to develop. Congrat's Dallas

 

[johnnybluenose]

New GM not one of the boys (Link will break eventually since it is subscription)

New GM not one of the boys
Will NHL teams deal with Gillis?
Ed Willes, The Province
Published: Monday, June 23, 2008

OTTAWA - There might have been easier jobs out there -- Charlie Sheen's marriage counsellor pops to mind -- but Mike Gillis was aware he faced a massive undertaking when he assumed control of the Vancouver Canucks.

The team, you may be aware, missed the playoffs last season. Its core, which has been together for half a decade, needed a major overhaul. If that wasn't enough, Gillis identified the Canucks' system for drafting and developing players as woefully inadequate.

So this job, in Gillis's eyes at least, wasn't a matter of tinkering around the organization's periphery. But for all that, the biggest obstacle facing the rookie GM may have been revealed in Ottawa this weekend when he attempted to begin Phase 1 of his reconstruction project.


The rest of the NHL, it seems, isn't keen to have Gillis succeed. More to the point, they'd love to see him fail.

Moving forward, then, the question isn't so much who the Canucks will bring in as their first-line centre but who will do business with the Gillis administration. That question will also bear repeating in the next little while because the early indications are troubling for Canucks fans.

By now, the circumstances of Gillis's hiring are common knowledge around the NHL, and let's just say there are mixed feelings about him. Dave Nonis, for starters, was a popular figure in hockey circles. He's also a member in good standing of the Pat Quinn-Brian Burke confederacy, and the influence of those two men can be found in several organizations.

But this goes beyond Gillis making enemies among a faction of hockey men. The new GM didn't do himself any favours at his opening press conference when he denigrated Nonis's work in Vancouver and left the distinct impression that, if he didn't have all the answers, he certainly knew where to find them. He also has a track record as an agent who crossed several of the men -- Kevin Lowe in Edmonton pops to mind -- with whom he's now trying make deals.

So add it all up and you've got a rookie GM who supplanted a made man in the NHL old guard and who's perceived to be a know-it-all. If you've spent more than five nano-seconds in the hockey world, you know that combination doesn't go over real well, and the sense of resentment directed towards Gillis this week in Ottawa was palpable.

It started with the story involving the Sedin twins on Thursday. Normally, GMs and other front-office types would rather cough up their PIN numbers than divulge trade secrets, but everywhere you went, this one was being passed around like a party favour.

It's still unclear how much substance there is to this story. What's clear, however, is that a whole bunch of hockey types wanted the word out. J.P. Barry, the twins' agent, said he wouldn't be surprised if his clients were traded. Two GMs were saying the same thing. So were two other front-office guys.

At one point, we walked past a homeless person who said, 'Have you heard about the Sedins?' I mean, it was all over Ottawa and it had to make Gillis, a control freak at the best of times, uncomfortable.
The Canucks' GM didn't have any more luck when the draft began on Friday. He was rebuffed in his attempts to land the Kings' Mike Cammalleri. He sniffed around R.J. Umberger but found the price to be too high -- and how's that for irony? Olli Jokinen is another story for another time, but Gillis left Ottawa empty-handed, vowing to make noise in the free-agent market.

And therein lies another story. It's now accepted in hockey circles that Pavol Demitra, a former Gillis client, will sign with the Canucks when the UFA market opens on July 1. There are also stories making the rounds that another former client, Markus Naslund, will re-sign with the Canucks and that Gillis will make a play for yet another former client in Michael Nylander.

At the risk of stating the obvious, a rebuilding job built around Naslund, Demitra and Nylander will be harder to sell in Vancouver than a grow-op house. Somewhere along the line, Gillis is going to have to do business with someone who isn't a former client.

It just remains to be seen if the rest of the NHL will let him.

Now we all know Ed Willes is not a fan of this hiring, and has been screaming from the roof tops since Nonis was let go that it was a mistake, so with that grain of salt taken, what are we to make of the weekend and activity(Or lack thereof) by our GM?

Nylander, Demitra, and Naslund!!??

I guess the Nucks will be with TO in the Tavares sweepstakes next year, with our luck we would lose the lottery to TO anyways,

 

[Regs]

Didn't get much media attention here I don't think but Nonis is now with the Ducks under Burke.

As for the weekend, I read Gillis wanted an additional prospect in the Cammalleri "talks" for the 10th pick - resigning Cammalleri shouldn't have been a problem, I think he is a former Gillis client... everything I'm reading about the guy isn't shaping up very good (Gillis that is). I think there may be some truth to this know-it-all rumour

 

[Dude]

Nylander, Demitra, and Naslund

I heard that too, and have to say am disappointed w/ the prospect of Naslund returning.

That line would make our team that much softer...so would Olli Jokinen.

You need a hevty grain of salt w/ anything EW writes about Gillis. This is clear.

But, in terms of making deals, Noonis proved he was out of the loop. At least Gillis has a history of making deals. That is where he will make his mark.

God, I hope so...

 

[LION]

Demitra is much too injury prone in the past few years,..

and as Dude said. those 3 would make us softer.
Even Nylander was injured for the most part last year... and getting older.

I wouldn't be too happy landing any of em'.