Report card for management

[Frankie Blueberries]

How do you think management has done since early 2022 to present day?

I’m not trying to be particularly methodological here, but the basis for my rankings is that a B = satisfactory/meets expectations. Anything above exceeds expectations, anything below is below expectations.

My overall grade for management is a B+. I breakdown each category below

Trades

• Hamonic for a 3rd round pick (80th overall, used to draft D-Petey) - B+
• 3rd round pick (79th overall) for Dermott - C
• Motte for a 4th round pick (119 overall) - B
• Dickinson + 2nd (61st overall) for Stillman - C
• DiPietro + Myrenberg for Studnicka - C
• 5th round pick (139th overall) for Bear and Pederson - B
• Horvat (25% retained) for Beauvillier, Raty, and 1st round pick (17th overall) - B+
• Lockwood + 7th round pick for Kravtsov - B
• Stillman for Bloom - B
• Schenn for a 3rd round pick (89th overall - Mynio) - B
• NYI 1st round pick (17th overall) + 2nd round pick (43rd overall) for Hronek + 4th round pick (105th overall - Mueller) - B
• Lazar for a 4th round pick (107 overall) - B+
• Pearson + 3rd round pick for DeSmith - B
• 5th round pick (157 overall) for Lafferty - B
• Rathbone and Plasek for Friedman and Glover - B+
• Beauvillier for 5th round pick - B+
• 3rd and 5th round picks for Zadorov - A
• Studnicka for Cicek and a 6th round pick - B
• Kuzmenko, Jurmo, Brzustewicz, 1st round pick (28th overall), NJ 4th round pick (107 overall) for Lindholm - B

Overall grade: B+

Free agency

I’m not going to go through every contract (for prospects already in our system, or AHL depth that never play any meaningful NHL games), but here are the main ones:

• Bains - 3 year ELC, $816k - B+
• Kuzmenko - 1 year, $900k - A+
• Hirose - 2 years, $787k - B
• Aman - 2 year ELC, $883k - B+
• Joshua - 2 years, $825k - A-
• McWard - 2 years, $922k - B
• Lazar - 3 years, $1 mill - B
• Mikheyev - 4 years, $4.75 mill - B-
• Suter - 2 years, $1.6 mill - B+
• Blueger - 1 year, $1.9 mill - A-
• Cole - 1 year, $3 mill - B+
• Soucy - 3 years, $3.25 mill - A

Overall - B+ although A- would be fair as well. I rated the Mikheyev signing without hindsight because no one could have predicted his injury. He got a B- because he didn’t really fit a team need at the time he was signed (other than improving the PK), while the team did not have much cap space to address other, more pressing issues like defence.


Contract extensions

• Pettersson - 8 years, $11.6 million - TBD as he has not played a game during this contract, but I would probably give it a B- given his history and the expected rising cap.
• Miller - 7 years, $8 mill - B+, the term / Miller’s age is the only drawback.
• Boeser - 3 years, $6.65 mill - B+
• Kuzmenko - 2 years, $5.5 mill - C+
• Hoglander - 2 years, $1.1 mill - B+
• Podkolzin - 2 years, $1 mill - B

Overall grade: B+



Drafting

TBD given only 2 drafts have occurred which is too short a time period to evaluate the results. Lekkerimaki, Willander, Pettersson, Brzustewicz, and Kudryavtsev all look like solid picks relative to their draft position.



Other

Management has done a great job in hiring a new coaching team of Tocchet, Foote, Gonchar, etc. along with filling out the rest of the management roles in hiring Castonguay, Granato, etc. and bringing in ex-NHLers into player development roles.

Overall grade: A

Click to read more...

 

[iFan]

Management has done a great job for us. I have zero issues with them. They do have their work cut out for them this offseason, I'm interested to see how they handle this, but I do have confidence in them.

 

[AwesomeInTheory]

Didn't win the Cup. F-.

 

[arttk]

Didn't win the Cup. F-.

Wonder what Benning’s grade is, Z?

 

[AwesomeInTheory]

Wonder what Benning’s grade is, Z?

Wait and see.

If I were to give Benning a grade it'd be whatever 'flunked out' or 'did not graduate' constitutes.

But more realistically, I think that management did a good job. They had scouted the right players, were able to divest themselves of bad contracts and have started to build up organizational depth after Benning's years of incompetence cratered the team in virtually every category (except for the all-important consecutive Calder Finalistzzzzzzzz!!!!!!)

Mikheyev is probably the biggest flub and I can't 100% fault them for giving him a chance to bounce back from significant surgery. I would really prefer not to see him in a Canucks uniform next season, but we'll see.

Hronek was okay, too, although he did fall off a cliff as the season went on.

Biggest concerns going into next season, IMO, are top six help and bolstering the blueline.

 

[The Colonel]

Alright I'll do by own variation here-


Trades

• Hamonic for a 3rd round pick (80th overall, used to draft D-Petey) - A
• 3rd round pick (79th overall) for Dermott - C-
• Motte for a 4th round pick (119 overall) - B+
• Dickinson + 2nd (61st overall) for Stillman - C
• DiPietro + Myrenberg for Studnicka - C-
• 5th round pick (139th overall) for Bear and Pederson - B-
• Horvat (25% retained) for Beauvillier, Raty, and 1st round pick (17th overall) - B
• Lockwood + 7th round pick for Kravtsov - C+
• Stillman for Bloom - B-
• Schenn for a 3rd round pick (89th overall - Mynio) - B+
• NYI 1st round pick (17th overall) + 2nd round pick (43rd overall) for Hronek + 4th round pick (105th overall - Mueller) - B-
• Lazar for a 4th round pick (107 overall) - B
• Pearson + 3rd round pick for DeSmith - B+
• 5th round pick (157 overall) for Lafferty - C
• Rathbone and Plasek for Friedman and Glover - B-
• Beauvillier for 5th round pick - A
• 3rd and 5th round picks for Zadorov - A+
• Studnicka for Cicek and a 6th round pick - B-
• Kuzmenko, Jurmo, Brzustewicz, 1st round pick (28th overall), NJ 4th round pick (107 overall) for Lindholm - B+

Overall grade: B+

Free agency

• Bains - 3 year ELC, $816k - B
• Kuzmenko - 1 year, $900k - A+
• Hirose - 2 years, $787k - C
• Aman - 2 year ELC, $883k - B+
• Joshua - 2 years, $825k - A-
• McWard - 2 years, $922k - B-
• Lazar - 3 years, $1 mill - C
• Mikheyev - 4 years, $4.75 mill - D
• Suter - 2 years, $1.6 mill - A
• Blueger - 1 year, $1.9 mill - A
• Cole - 1 year, $3 mill - C+
• Soucy - 3 years, $3.25 mill - A

Contract extensions

• Pettersson - 8 years, $11.6 million - C+
• Miller - 7 years, $8 mill - A-, the term / Miller’s age is the only drawback.
• Boeser - 3 years, $6.65 mill - A
• Kuzmenko - 2 years, $5.5 mill - C
• Hoglander - 2 years, $1.1 mill - B+
• Podkolzin - 2 years, $1 mill - C

Overall grade: B

 

[credulous]

i'm not gonna go transaction by transaction and to some extent i think it's a little unfair because there was still a lot of benning's mess to clean up but i'm pretty down on management for two big reasons:

they've been in charge for over 2 years now and the core is still the same as it was when benning was fired (minus horvat). pettersson, hughes, miller and demko are still the teams best players and the ones who are being counted on long term. there's only five players acquired by the current regime under team control next year: mikheyev (deadweight), suter, soucy, aman (depth pieces) and hronek (potentially a core piece but opinions on him are mixed at best)

this would be somewhat understandable if they'd done a good job on rebuilding the farm system but that leads to the other reason i'm pretty down on them:

they've spent a *lot* of future assets over the last 18 months either cleaning up the cap or renting short term players. the only teams with less 1-3 round picks in the next three drafts are the avs, the lightning, the rangers and the leafs

 

[TruGr1t]

B for me. Some good work on things like Zadorov trade and depth defensive signings like Cole and Soucy. Some bad work on some of the forwards, especially going all-in on Mikheyev for some stupid reason. A contract I hated the moment it was signed. Lindholm turned out well, but you paid for it in kind. Not a lot of draft capital kicking around in the near term. Prospect system is still 2-3 years from bearing fruit. They've done some good work in Abby, but mostly just reinforcing with vets ... not much exciting down there in terms of near-term impact.

Failed to address the wings (and by proxy top-six scoring). Very rear-view mirror, but probably also regretting losing Horvat for Hronek if the latter walks this summer (somewhat dependent on return, but you ain't getting a Horvat).

Rutherford has obviously brought more experience and gravitas to the front office, but the really tough work begins this summer because I see a real possibility they take a step back next year.

This is obviously an upgrade from Benning who regular got a "Did not participate" grade, but whether its stocks or anything else, all gains look better from a lower base.

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

Overall, I’m very pleased with the work Allvin and Rutherford have done. They’ve very quickly restored respectability to this franchise. They’ve made some missteps here and there, but I think their overall body of work has been largely very strong.

This off-season will be a fascinating one.

 

[I am toxic]

Wonder what Benning’s grade is, Z?

Let's not insult complete losers . . .






. . . by comparing them to Benning

 

[SeawaterOnIce]

Overall - B+ although A- would be fair as well. I rated the Mikheyev signing without hindsight because no one could have predicted his injury. He got a B- because he didn’t really fit a team need at the time he was signed (other than improving the PK), while the team did not have much cap space to address other, more pressing issues like defence.

It's was a clear F. Much like Ferland, there were major concerns in Toronto regarding his durability. This isn't with the benefit of hindsight either because I remember lambasting the signing because they overpaid for a third line PK specialist.

 

[arttk]

It's was a clear F. Much like Ferland, there were major concerns in Toronto regarding his durability. This isn't with the benefit of hindsight either because I remember lambasting the signing because they overpaid for a third line PK specialist.

I don’t think ACL are really that predictable. Muscle injuries or whatever sure but ACL tears are caused by freak accidents. If he had a torn ACL before then sure but this was his first time.

 

[Hit the post]

I don’t think ACL are really that predictable. Muscle injuries or whatever sure but ACL tears are caused by freak accidents. If he had a torn ACL before then sure but this was his first time.

Yeah the distinction with Ferland is that he was damaged goods before Jethro Bodine even signed him (to the point his contract couldn't be insured - *HUGE* red flags).