Sutter's the worst of the two GM firings IMO. With the Canucks currently, they still have a pretty good team intact. The only reason why the Canucks weren't able to make it into the playoffs this year is 2 things:
1) they fired a coach that the team was success with
2) they had some injuries that set them back a lot.
In comparison, though, the Canucks fired Gillis probably at the right time and they can still live with a team they have going forward and still be very competitive in the next few seasons barring any major injuries. However, similar to the situation with Calgary, now that Gillis is gone, so too must Torts go. If not, the Canucks team will perform like what Calgary did when Brent Sutter ran the team down to shame.
Firing Alain Vigneault at the end of last season was Gillis' biggest mistake. The second big mistake with Gillis is signing Luongo to that 12-year $64 mil contract. Third mistake is
instead of letting the Sedins walk, he re-signs the twins to a contract to the end of their careers. After that Boston Cup final, everyone knew how to play their top line hard. The Sedins are the typical Swedish/European prototype - skilled and soft.
As for Sutter, after the initial run for the cup and the Flames were at the top, he was not able to re-enforce any depth at the center position. He kept tinkering with the big solid defencemen that was the trademark of the Flames and ignored bolstering the depth of the forward lines. Then, to top it all of, it was his unwavering nepotism that got this whole club into the downward spiral. I guess hiring Brent Sutter and firing Iron Mike was the topping for the disaster in addition to the greediness to get J-Bo. Maybe if Brent wasn't coaching those 3 years and Hartley was, the complexion of the team would be totally different.
|