Evaulatuing Vancouver Canucks GM Mike Gillis

Okay let’s take the emotion out of this and look at it from a purely analytical hockey point of view. GM Mike Gillis took over from Dave Nonis who succeeded Brian Burke. The current Canucks are made up of players that Nonis and Burke were responsible for.

I’ll deal with just the main key players that we will call the “core”. Between Burke and Nonis the following players, that they were responsible for and in no particular order where: The Sedins, Sami Salo, Roberto Luongo, Ryan Kesler. Alex Burrows, Mason Raymond, Willie Mitchell, Alex Edler, and Kevin Bieksa.

Mike Gillis, to date, has brought in Pavol Demitra, Steve Bernier, Mikael Samuelsson, Kyle Wellwood, Christian Ehrhoff, and Shane O’Brien.

Out of the players that Gillis has brought to the team, only Samuelsson, Ehrhoff and O’Brien would be considered of having a positive impact. Demitra (20G in 78 games), Bernier (26G in 132 games) and Wellwood (24G in 123 games) have a total of 70 goals between them in approximately 333 games or .21 goals per game for a cap space cost of $7.2 million this year alone.

The signature deal for Burke was the drafting of the Sedins and for Nonis the trade for Luongo. Mike Gillis has yet to add a significant player to this team unless you count Ehrhoff’s offensive ability as a possible.

Although Ehrhoff is seventh in team scoring, fourth on the Canucks with a +23, he also happens to lead the team in giveaways with 43. 

The Canucks are in the most important part of their season’s schedule and the trade dead line, due to the Olympics, is now a total of 9 days. Six before and three after those Olympics.

This team does not have a strong enough third line with the Wellwood trio nor has it enough toughness on defense or at the forward position, to do much damage in the playoffs, if they make it.

Notice that I have not counted them as a playoff team, as the road trip before and after may well determine that.

There are plenty of players that Gillis could pursue as outlined in my recent article “With Kovalchuk Gone, Who Do the Canucks Look At ?” This time period for a potential trade, could well define Gillis, in the rankings of Canucks GMs and determine, if the Canucks can be considered as a cup contender.

At the time of this writing I do not see the latter.