Fogghorn wrote:
When Trevor took over it was widely circulated that Gillis had told Aquillini that the club needed to be rebuilt. That was not acceptable to ownership and part of the reason Gillis was let go. Instead they chose to hang on hunting for a playoff spot, never putting themselves on track to rebuilding properly and being an excellent team.
Linden should have been able to see this when he signed on. If he didn't, he's not good enough for the job. If he did see it he accepted the role of playoff nibbler instead of tanking and rebuilding, and that was his choice. And letting go their advanced stats people was just dumb. Nucks were into this earlier than most teams and now they've regressed below most management groups. Again this is on Linden.
Don't feel to sorry for him, he new what he was getting into.
Agreed, they are all big boys -- but this debacle is on ownership.
Linden obviously knew what he was getting into, but he wouldn't have gotten the job had he advanced what you suggest in his job interview given the context of the Gilles firing.
The issue as I see it is that ownership interference claims are far more palpable than mere innuendo and basically amount to systematic organizational dysfunction since around 2013. The problem is the Aquilini's only listen to what they want to hear. It has been well documented that they are extremely difficult to work with -- just ask anyone who has worked in the Canucks hockey operations department. Two years into Linden's tenure, stories began to surface about philosophical differences within hockey operations. Even if we grant that Linden got the job on the premise of playoff contention, two years in it became quite clear that he tried to shift the organizational plan but there was only one acceptable mantra within the organization. Any dissenting views would not be tolerated.