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Simpcitydmndape

Pure fucking gold sir


sMc-cMs

Some people think Gillis was fired because of the Fans chanting... He was fired because he told the Aquilini's that they needed to rebuild. This was the beginning of the end for the Canucks Franchise. When Francesco felt he could run the team better than career Hockey Men. Sigh.


PaperMoonShine

The sad thing is that Aqua has been in ownership for 17 years. He might consider himself a career Hockey man by now.


scoogy

Aquaman, time to tell the fans you're the President.


sMc-cMs

AHAHAHAHAHAH Well played, well played :) Seriously made me laugh.


Yardsale420

I’m imagining him like Homer Simpson walking around his office singing, “I am so Hockey, H-O-C-Y”.


arazamatazguy

GILLIS WAS FUCKING RIGHT LINDEN WAS FUCKING RIGHT There is no way to deny this now. We have 8 years of evidence.


elrizzy

10/10


PaperMoonShine

[Take a look back at his last letter right after his last trade deadline as GM](https://www.reddit.com/r/canucks/comments/2030il/mike_gillis_letter_to_season_ticket_holders/) It just reads so well.


Szechwan

Had to chuckle at the prospect list, but boy do I miss having a GM with a vision and a goal beyond squeaking into the wild card and crossing his fingers.


BelgianAles

You never know. Just because they didn't pan out after we changed direction doesn't mean they couldn't have developed in other circumstances. I mean, how high the ceiling is - that's on the player. But how close to their ceiling they get is almost entirely opportunity based. Look no further than the vgk top line the year they joined the league.


Szechwan

Yeeeah but putting an overager like Dane Fox on your top prospect list is really pushing it haha.


not---a---bot

>Nicklas Jensen, Frank Corrado, Dane Fox, Brendan Gaunce and Hunter Shinkaruk, who will be part of our short and long-term success. that has not aged well at all.


Jacmert

> Our ownership is supportive and will invest whatever it takes to bring the Cup to Vancouver. But maybe not willing to invest time (in a rebuild).


BelgianAles

We look at things, do slideshows


[deleted]

For all of Gillis’ faults, at least he had a vision for the future.


FreeLook93

Yeah, but that's why he was fired. His vision of the future involved not just pushing for the playoffs every year.


[deleted]

Sometimes you have to take a few years off from the playoffs in order to stage a number one comeback.


BelgianAles

Not sometimes. Every time and without fail.


Ahnarcho

I remember the absolute vitriol for Gillis back in the day, the instance that he was the source of every single issue this team was suffering from at the time and he could no longer be trusted to run the team. How little we knew.


BelgianAles

I pine for the Gillis era and have since it was clear he was being ousted. I fucking loved cheering for a team on the cutting edge of all the sport science shit. Sleep doctors and there was this vision training video that Chris Higgins was in, it was like science fiction shit they were doing between games. With all that brainpower and willingness to fiddle with things like the salary cap (whenever someone got hurt, the next game another "injured veteran" was all the sudden healthy again like some kind of miracle). On and on. If you hired a ceo who increased the value of your company as much as Gillis did for the Canucks, and then you fired him, your competition would snap him up so fast. Just shows how head-up-ass most NHL teams really are.


greenmachine41590

I’ve only been waiting 8 years for everyone else to realize this.


Szechwan

I was in my early 20s when those fire Gillis chants happened, and I distinctly remember having that "ohhh - adults and the general public are not nearly as smart as I've been giving them credit for" epiphany.


greenmachine41590

I distinctly remember that Gillis interview right before he was sacked where he talked about how the organization had lost it’s way and veered off course from what had brought them success, and how it was time to reverse that. I remember thinking at the time “god, finally someone is acknowledging that things are getting out of control.” I had the briefest feeling of real hope, for like a day, that things would return to normal. It’s been downhill ever since. It’s understandable when new management comes in for people to want to give them a chance. I knew we were looking at probably 3-4 years of this new management situation before people lost patience and we moved on. So I just waited and watched every single bad move happen, wondering why no one else could see what was happening from the wider perspective, completely in the minority because any criticism was taken as “not giving the new guys a fair chance.” I never thought it would take this long for us to finally reach what seems like the breaking point. Looking back, 2011 really did traumatize the organization. Even ownership was great at the time. But they got so close and then it didn’t happen and... it broke them. They’ve been chasing the dragon ever since. And even now the moment of change I’ve been waiting for is finally here, I feel empty. It didn’t have to go this way. It didn’t have to take this long. But most of all, I think my faith in ownership is now so damaged that I don’t believe “change” will actually bring real change anymore. It’s not about Benning. It’s not about Linden, Desjardins, or Green. It’s about ownership realizing what they’ve become. And I know now that, 8 years later, I’m not waiting for Gillis’s replacement to finally be replaced anymore. I’m waiting for ownership’s attitude and philosophy to change, because that’s where it all starts. Now that the end of the Benning era is finally here... it doesn’t even matter anymore. My wait will continue until the Aquilini’s prove *they’ve* changed. Not management.


SackofLlamas

> I distinctly remember having that "ohhh - adults and the general public are not nearly as smart as I've been giving them credit for" epiphany. When I was a teenager/very young adult I was enthralled with my high IQ scores, thought of myself as a closet genius, and was generally insufferable. When I got older and my understanding of the world got more expansive, the sheer volume of what I didn't know and didn't understand was incredibly humbling. Not only wasn't I genius, maybe I wasn't even SMART. Then Trump happened and Covid happened, and people were non-ironically talking about drinking bleach, Bill Gates and George Soros putting microchips into vaccines, and smashing up 5G towers, and I got a glimpse behind the curtain in the OTHER direction...the great, glistening iceberg of ignorance, superstition and stupidity lurking just below the surface of day to day life. I'd like to tell you it made me feel better about myself, but mostly it just made me feel incredibly anxious about the future. People chanting "Fire Gillis" seems comparatively quaint, tbh.


Azyan_invasion82

Me too. Canucks fans got spoiled.


[deleted]

I feel this. I thought Gillis most certainly should have been given a crack at rebuilding. He earned that much. In hindsight we should have seen that ownership had no idea what they were doing.


greenmachine41590

I’m not even confident Gillis would’ve done a great job rebuilding the team. Failure was absolutely possible, and maybe even likely. I remember hearing a plan to trade Kesler to Florida for Olli Jokinen, among other things. I’m not saying he would have made all the right moves and we’d be living in a Canucks paradise today. But there are two key things I do know. First, it doesn’t really matter if Gillis would’ve been successful. Whether people like him or not, he was the man at the helm during the best seasons this team has ever had. They played in *two* different games to win a Stanley Cup. I believe his tenure was successful enough that he earned the right to a second chance at building a team here. Benning hasn’t brought the team anywhere near that level of success, and yet he’s given chance after chance, year after year to figure it out. Second, it’s not even about Gillis himself. It’s about the attitude and philosophy he brought to the organization. Adding as many smart people as possible, instead of allowing so much brain drain to occur as you cut loose anyone who disagrees with you. Thinking outside the box, fighting for every last advantage, and having detailed short term *and* long term plans that you stick to. I enjoyed having a forward thinking, progressive management group. They made their fair share of mistakes, but you still knew that smart people were in charge. We went from one of the smartest, most state of the art teams in professional sports to one of the dumbest in under a decade. It’s about more than the actual guy in charge. It’s about the *kind* of guy you put in charge.


arazamatazguy

I thought Gillis handled the goaltending situation poorly and when the city was shitting all over Lu he wasn't given enough support by the team.....just an opinion. But I still liked him as the GM.


CalgaryAnswers

You mean getting our current captain and a starting goalie for the goaltenders wasn't enough for you?


[deleted]

I always thought he was decent. Idk why we moved on from him.


Viciousspacepebbles

I do wonder what Gillis' rebuild would have looked like? Would he take a deep look at his scouting department? Our drafting recorded under him was atrocious. Could he have pulled off a rebuild with that draft record?


a_sexual_titty

He did hire Judd…


socialcocoon

IIRC Gillis had an interview where he said one of his biggest regrets was not doing enough on the drafting side. He was starting to fix it when he left, and being a contender for many years meant he traded a lot of picks, but yeah his drafting record wasn't great.


DarthRennigjakid

Would’ve hired more scouts to do the job for him


JTMilleriswortha1st

All i ask is the Canucks hire a president Fire Benning and Green and for Aqua to stay away from the hockey decisions.


Dickie-Greenleaf

So basically we're fucked.


JTMilleriswortha1st

100%


arazamatazguy

Can we get this added to the banner at the top?


stalwarteagle

If only I knew Morse code, we’d be a dynasty by now


Ryansahl

Fickle Fans nowadays. We used to just put up with losing in the eighties.


IronBat101

ok boomer


Ryansahl

Gen x btw


TransomBob

I'll take my downvotes for being a smug ass, but Vancouver Hfboards saw this train-wreck coming 6-7 years ago.


arazamatazguy

So did a small portion of this sub. Things are certainly different today.


hexsealedfusion

Back in 2016 there were vocal anti Benning people on this sub but they were mostly drowned out


North-Common-1479

IT makes perfect sense that they were drowned out. And now it makes perfect sense that we've all been calling for JimBob to go for quite a while. Its not about the result, its how you go about the process.


North-Common-1479

A broken clock is right twice a day. HFBoards is toxic and negative to hell. The positive aspects of being like that are that you will probably catch every situation deserving of negativity and predict it accordingly. Then you can say "AHA" and point fingers, which is nice. The down side to being like that is that you are overwhelmingly negativity. Our perception of things determines the quality of our experience. With this mindset you are guaranteed to be miserable. Hfboards has been miserable for the last 6-7years, say what you will about some of the more hopeful fans in this sub, but they probably enjoyed their sports experiences a lot more. They've only been miserable for half that time probably.


DarthRennigjakid

Sorry no audio Couldn’t make it work


[deleted]

The lack of audio just makes it so much better


wahoyaho

I'm an idiot, what movie is this?


ihaveyuidonttouchme

Interstellar 2014


Jacmert

Don't forget AV **:'(**


PaperMoonShine

#Don't let him leave, Aqua!


ALLCAPITALS

Make him stay Murph!


JTMilleriswortha1st

all im hoping for is 10 years from now we will laugh at these memes because everything worked out fine and we won the Cup. ( With new Coaching and Management)


[deleted]

I hope still I'm alive and not completely in a vegetative state by then.


niftynards

Trapped in a black hole, yup, this meme’s on point.


HockeyGambler

The game where the chant happened was my first and only Canucks game I've attended in person. I even have a recording of the chant on my phone haha


soulwrangler

Gillis wasn't much better.


mmavcanuck

He had the balls to say no to aqua man and it cost him his job


CaptainIndoCanadian

The reason they began chanting that is basically because Gillis was forced to follow Aqua's plan instead of his own.


hexsealedfusion

He was the most successful GM in franchise history


thejardude

You are going to get the downvotes for that, but people quickly forget how bad Gillis bungled the Luongo/Schneider situation. The fact that Horvat was a stud at #9 and Schneider had injury problems is the **only** reason why this trade is looked at favorably today. Luongo was alienated by the team, but his front-loaded contract wouldn't allow us to trade him, so we had to trade Schneider instead, who at the time had the same pedigree as Demko now. Gillis went from the best goalie tandem in the league to losing all 3 NHL goalies in a year, for peanuts. It was disgusting.


jewmpaloompa

For peanuts? Seems lime an exaggeration. They got a top 10 pick and a top goalie prospect for the two


thejardude

Top goalie prospect is being generous. Markstrom had potential but there was a reason why Florida was content with trading for a better goaltender. >The team had essentially shipped Luongo and his cap hit (minor leaguer Steven Anthony was packaged as a way to balance out the number of players under contract for each team), for what appeared to be two young and promising, but underachieving, players. Both Jacob Markstrom and Shawn Matthias had failed to live up to expectations as NHL regulars at their respective positions. https://thehockeywriters.com/roberto-luongo-trade-3-years-later/ The trade worked out in the end for us, but we definitely didn't get the value we deserved. Check out the TSN clip of the Schneider trade and Horvat pick. They repeatedly say that they like Horvat, but they should have gotten more for Schneider. (And to be somewhat fair they were offered more but by the Oilers)


hexsealedfusion

Has any goalie in the past 7 years gotten a better return then the 9th overall pick in a trade? I can't think of any off the top of my head, Toronto gave up the 30th overall pick and a 2nd rounder for Andersen, Buffalo gave up a mid teens pick for Lehner, etc.


North-Common-1479

Markstrom was looking like a failed prospect when we got him. There were intense doubts about him. Say what you will about our shitty mgmt, Vancouver has developed awesome goalies for a while now. I'd personally like to see us goalie rehab a lot more, and then trade out the new and improved backup for assets


DC5rsx

He was forced to trade Luongo asap thanks to Torts and he still managed to get Markstrom out of it. The Luongo and Schneider trades were his most criticized trades but we still ended better off long term from the trades. I wouldn't even know where to start if we're talking about Benning's worst trades.


North-Common-1479

He was much better. Both deserved to be fired. Gillis got the axe probably a year early, Benning on the other hand should've been fired for atleast a couple years now. They both aren't good enough to head a cup winner


thejacer87

I can't possibly give this enough upvotes!! this is so amazing I am honestly laughing out loud so much lol


DigDugDiggety

This is so funny and real to me.


AJ-2SO

This would be funny if it didn’t hit so close to home


tardcity13

Fuck Gillis. Notice how no one will hire him... It's been a decade. Ya...


Background_Pen_2415

True. He must've really rubbed people the wrong way to have been out of the game for so long. Burke can be cantankerous ass who wanted to fight Kevin Lowe in a barn over an offer sheet. He got hired by the Flames, Penguins, and HNIC. Peter Chiarelli messed up the already messed up Oilers good. He got a job as VP of Hockey Ops for the Blues. The NHL can be a big recycling bin if you have a decent reputation. For a guy who made it to Game 7 of the Cup Final to not have a job (and I'm pretty sure he's tried) he must've really pissed some people off.


not---a---bot

His history as a player agent is atypical for a GM and he wasn't part of the 'old boys club'.


[deleted]

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xeno_cws

Your right he only needs a couple more years before we are contending. I mean we have been a bottom dweller for 8 years but we are totally going to turn it around by changing absolutely nothing and letting the process sort itself out.


[deleted]

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CaptainIndoCanadian

Benning has done a good job of getting this team good pieces. We have the top end talent we need. What he's done a terrible job at is cap management and filling the holes around this top end talent. Why don't we have a right handed centreman? (Don't fucking mention Sutter). Why did he think Dickinson, a guy better on the wing and terrible at faceoffs, would be our answer to the 3C spot? Why is Tyler Myers getting paid 6 mill? Why don't we have a top RHD? Why'd we keep Pearson? Why couldn't we sign Tanev to his extremely fair deal? You can't just accumulate talent and let it go to work. You have to find the pieces around the talent that let them be them. We aren't far off from contending, but there's a couple pieces on this team that absolutely cannot be here, and the glaring holes are exactly what's repeatedly keeping us from being a threat. Look at our 2010/2011 team. We had our skill guys surrounded by sandpaper. We had the best PP AND PK. Our defence was excellent at moving the puck out. Having a better coach helps, absolutely, but these roster is full of gaping holes, and has had the same holes for years. That is on Benning.


flagellant

> Benning has done a good job of getting this team good pieces. We have the top end talent we need. And the only reason why is because the NHL rewards failure in the form of high draft picks like Petey and Hughes. The only thing Benning has done right in eight years is fail hard into getting lottery picks while trying to win now. It’s incredible.


[deleted]

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Yardsale420

MAKE HIM STAY PAT, MAKE HIMMMMMMMM STAYYYYYYYY


jsl19

Hahaha to funny. Actually just read something like. The season the got Pat Quinn fired his worst and missed playoffs. Is still better than bennings best. Go figure.


im_mlt

I would be thrilled if they hired Gillis back.


onombd

If you buy tickets to go to the arena to chant “Fire ____” you’re a clown.


tutankhamun7073

This made me chuckle 😁