The idea seems impossible on its face: bring back one of the most divisive general managers in Vancouver Canucks’ history to replace the man who replaced him.
Mike Gillis helped take the Canucks to their highest heights as a franchise, winning two Presidents’ Trophies and coming one game from the Stanley Cup. At the same time, he earned ire for his drafting record, handing out too many no-trade clauses, and a turbulent final year, where the Canucks hired a controversial coach, plunged down the standings, and saw the best goaltender in franchise history demand a trade.
By the end of his tenure, fans were chanting "Fire Gillis" the same way they chanted "Fire Benning" this weekend.
So, it’s worth taking any rumours that Gillis might return to the Canucks with a few grains of salt.
"[Gilman] is definitely in the mix."
Over the past couple of days, however, there have been rumblings that the Canucks might be considering bringing back Gillis, this time as president of hockey operations, with his former right-hand man Laurence Gilman as GM.
“Laurence Gilman, who is currently with the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Marlies, he’s definitely in the mix with the Vancouver Canucks,” said Darren Dreger on TSN’s Insider Trading.
“Francesco Aquilini during his news conference Monday also mentioned a few times the possibility of a president and GM hire, that there could be a couple of people hired in senior leadership,” added Pierre LeBrun. “Perhaps Mike Gillis and Laurence Gilman could be brought back in their old Canucks roles, although elevated — Gillis as president and Gilman as GM.”
It’s easy to dismiss these types of rumours and reports. Any time there’s an opening in the NHL, all sorts of names will pop up as being “possibilities” or “in the mix. Gillis and Gilman could be a possibility in the same sense that Marc Bergevin is a possibility: their names will come up, of course, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything.
In fact, Gilman’s name has frequently come up for other GM vacancies — in 2018, he had an opportunity to take a job with the Carolina Hurricanes, but turned it down, citing issues with term, salary, and job description. It’s only natural that Gilman, who is whip-smart and has worked in NHL front offices since 1998, would be considered for the vacancy with the Canucks, particularly since he’s intimately familiar with the Vancouver market.
Given their history together in Vancouver, it isn’t surprising that Gillis’s name would pop up alongside Gilman’s in relation to the Canucks. And what better role for Gillis than president of hockey ops, a role that he himself said he would prefer over being GM and one that hasn’t been filled for the Canucks since Trevor Linden “amicably” parted ways with the team in 2018.
Accordingly, it’s easy enough to look at such rumours, chuckle to yourself, think, “That will never happen,” and move on with your day.
More than just a rumour?
But there might be more to it than just the typical rumours and reports sparked any time a GM gets fired. The Canucks may actually be considering bringing Gillis and Gilman back to Vancouver.
According to Matt Sekeres, there is someone in the Aquilini’s circle pushing for them to bring back one or both of Gillis and Gilman. Now, Serekes’s sources haven’t always been right but I’ve heard similar: multiple voices want not just Gilman or Gillis, but both.
When Francesco Aquilini and Stan Smyl were asked by Postmedia’s Patrick Johnston if the team would consider hiring someone who had been with the Canucks before, Smyl just smiled, while Aquilini simply said, “Everything’s on the table.”
Aquilini said that if the team were to bring in both a president of hockey ops and a GM, they would have to come as a tandem.
“They know each other, they can work together. Those two people have to work very closely together. You’d have to find the perfect fit, and that’s not easy to find. But that option’s on the table,” said Aquilini.
While there are plenty of other duos that could be a president and GM tandem, it goes without saying that Gillis and Gilman know each other, can work together, and would arguably be a perfect fit with each other.
Would they be a perfect fit with the Canucks?
Gillis and Gilman have waited for just the right opportunity
One thing is certain: Gillis and Gilman would demand autonomy. There has been the perception, right or wrong, that Francesco Aquilini has been far too hands-on with hockey operations. Even now, it’s quite clear that Bruce Boudreau was ownership’s hire.
It’s likely that part of the reason Gilman turned down the job with the Hurricanes is that he wouldn’t have full autonomy. Likewise, Gillis is not the type of person to put up with meddling from above.
The last time Gillis allegedly allowed that sort of meddling was when Aquilini allegedly was allegedly responsible for allegedly hiring John Tortorella to allegedly coach the Canucks.
I liberally sprinkled “allegedly” into that sentence because the last time multiple reporters suggested that Aquilini was responsible for Tortorella, the Aquilini family threatened to sue. So, to be clear, I’m not saying Aquilini did any such thing, though I would note that neither the Globe and Mail nor The Province issued a retraction of said allegations and, to my knowledge, neither was actually sued.
It’s my understanding that Gilman would be open to a return to the Canucks to take on his first job as an NHL GM. Would Gillis?
More importantly, would Aquilini be willing to bring back Gillis after firing him nearly eight years ago?
"If that kind of environment is there, then I’m absolutely interested."
Bringing Gillis back would be tantamount to Aquilini admitting that Gillis was right all along when he advocated for a complete rebuild. You could argue that the evidence since his departure overwhelmingly supports that argument as the team got back into the playoffs for a first-round exit then has missed the playoffs in five of the next six seasons.
Re-hiring Gillis would require Aquilini to swallow a little bit of his pride.
It would also require Aquilini to open up both his wallet and his mind.
After Gillis was let go by the Canucks, he travelled the world looking at some of the best-run organizations in other sports, trying to learn what made them tick, as well as spending time at Stanford University in California and the Biotech Campus in Geneva, Switzerland. He came away from that experience with a specific vision for how to run a hockey team that would require very different ways of doing things.
That, more than anything else, is why he hasn’t worked for any other NHL teams since the Canucks.
“I made up my mind when I left Vancouver that I would only go into a situation where I felt that there was going to be alignment from top to bottom where you could do a lot of interesting things and people weren’t going to criticize you because you weren’t doing it the old way,” said Gillis. “They would, in fact, embrace the idea that you were finding new ways to be successful.
“If that kind of environment is there, then I’m absolutely interested. But if it’s not, then I’m not.”
At another time, speaking of what kind of role he sees himself in, Gillis went into why he would rather be a president of hockey ops than a GM.
“As a general manager of a team, you’re really myopic. You’re really focused on your team performance, on your individual player performance, on your coaching performance,” he said. “I like that part of the job, but right now I’m more interested in how you build an organization, how you see results, how you measure results.”
“I’m really interested in analytics, sports science, human performance, and how to blend those things into a high-culture organization,” he added.
All of those things take an organization willing to be progressive and take risks on things that haven’t necessarily been tried before in the NHL, even if they have been in other sports. They also require money.
It could all come down to the almighty dollar
Gillis laid out his plan for hockey operations in a presentation to the Pittsburgh Penguins that was “accidentally” leaked by his son on Twitter. It was quickly taken down again but not before it made some waves in the hockey world.
His plan for organizing hockey operations wouldn’t come cheap but there’s no salary cap for front office expenses. One of the elements of Gillis’s proposal was two separate teams of scouts, each headed by their own assistant general manager. The idea was to create two entirely separate draft lists to avoid groupthink and attempt to head into the draft with more objectivity.
Considering the draft was Gillis’s primary weakness as GM of the Canucks, that plan sounds intriguing.
Gillis was quick to take responsibility for the team’s poor drafting after he was fired, saying that waiting too long to make changes to the team’s scouting staff and system was his biggest regret. His plan for fixing that issue would come at a price but it's an intriguing proposition.
If Gillis has a vision in his mind of the perfect way to run an NHL organization and the Canucks are willing to allow him to enact that vision, it might be hard for Gillis to turn down.
As to the question of whether Aquilini would be open to Gillis’s return, perhaps it could come down to money.
According to Forbes’ 2021 rankings, the Canucks are the 14th most valuable franchise in the NHL at a valuation of USD 825 million. When Jim Benning took over as general manager of the Canucks, they were ranked fifth in the NHL with a valuation of USD 800 million.
While other NHL franchises have seen their values skyrocket — the New York Rangers went from $1.1 billion to over $2 billion — the Canucks’ value has stagnated. That can’t feel good for the Aquilini family, for whom the Canucks are just a part of their business ventures.
Which GM oversaw the largest growth in value in franchise history? You guessed it: Mike Gillis.
When Gillis took over as GM in 2008, the Canucks were valued at $236 million, the eighth highest in the NHL. Though many other factors play into an NHL team’s valuation, the Canucks’ winning ways under Gillis certainly played a role in its rise to $800 million by the end of his tenure.
It’s not hard to imagine that Aquilini and the rest of his family might look at that rise in value under Gillis and make bringing him back a simple financial decision.
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