[opendoor]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

It's all on the Canucks in my opinion.

Off season 2010, Luongo is the arguably the best goalie in the league, certainly a top potential free agent. He's coming off a contract that's paid him 6.75 million a year (equivalent to over 7 now). He is looking at a raise, as the cap has gone up and he has shown himself to be an elite goalie (preceding series against chicago notwithstanding).

Mike Gillis goes into that offseason having to sign both sedins, luongo and Kesler. Mistake #1 is going into an offseason without extensions to any of your core group of players. Luongo will not fit on the team without taking a substantial, substantial pay cut. Luongo is likely seeking 7 million a year for a significant term, 6/7/8 years, whatever it is he wants. I'm assuming 8 years, because that's the rough amount of money he earns if he retires prior to what is assumed to be tacked on years.

Gillis says, we can't afford a cap hit of 7 million a year, we can afford a cap hit of 5.5 (because I've made a huge mistake in my contract negotiations). Keep in mind, this is the same Mike Gillis who famously stated he didn't think the sedins were good enough to build around. He had all year to extend them, likely to Daniel Alfredsson sized cap hits prior to the start of the season (which was rumoured at the time. Dave Nonis was apparently going to go to sweden that summer to sign the extensions). Hubris, Gillis' biggest obstacle, prevented that from happening until the Sedins established themselves as Art Ross/Hart candidates (let alone being good enough to build around). Suddenly, he didn't have a choice.

So, Gillis is squeezed by his own arrogance. He can't afford to sign his guys all to the cap hits and dollars they want. How does he get around that? Tacking on huge, cap circumventing years to Luigi's deal. Luongo of course says what any of us would, "So, you're going to give me the money I wanted and more? Sure, I'll take the deal."

Yeah, you might want to check your timelines and your facts again. The Sedins were re-signed on July 1st 2009, Luongo was extended a few months later with an entire year left on his contract so the extension didn't kick in until July 1st, 2010, and Kesler was extended as an RFA on March of 2010. Further, at the time of the Luongo extension the Canucks had only $26M committed for 10-11, so I fail to see how they were in some kind of cap crunch.

As for the Sedins, they weren't going to come much cheaper if it all. Their agent repeatedly brought up the Gomez and Drury contracts as comparables and he drew a big distinction between their abilities and that of his other client Horcoff who got a $5.5M a year extension. At one point the Sedins were asking for Zetterberg style deals (12 year $65M or so). As it stands, they've been two of the biggest bargains in the NHL under the contracts Gillis signed them to.

Nice story, but you might want to try to square your basics with reality before you let fantasy take over. As it stands, it's a pretty terrible and disingenuous argument.

This is so clearly and absolutely at the feet of Gillis, it's not worth debating. If we start talking about potential trades that were out there, and apparently a couple were out there, it gets even worse.

What an absolutely unmitigated disaster that guy has been since becoming GM.

If only other Presidents/GMs could ride an unmitigated disaster to 5 straight division titles, 2 President's Trophies, and 56 playoff games (30 of which were home dates) while increasing their franchise value by nearly 50%.

EDIT: I don't want to act like everything's sunshine and roses and I have definite problems with some of Gillis' moves, but calling his tenure a disaster is a little much IMO.