I’m of the belief that even the most inconsequential of transactions, events and whatever you may have leaguewide affects every team, at every level, to some extent. Newton’s law and so on.
With that in mind, there just simply isn’t enough time or resources to give them all the attention they deserve in this space. Ideally, though, one can scratch the surface of these events – linked directly to the Vancouver Canucks or otherwise – and examine their far-reaching impact to Roger’s Arena and beyond.
With that, here are my Monday Morning Musings for the week that was.
George McPhee connected to the Vancouver Canucks:
Not sure how I missed this, but Elliotte Friedman dedicated a sizeable chunk of his last 30 Thoughts article to the Vancouver Canucks. Specifically, Friedman tied the Canucks to McPhee – the former Washington Capitals general manager. 
Interesting off-ice move in the organization, as Victor de Bonis moved from COO of Canucks Sports & Entertainment to CEO of Aquilini Group. (That’s the family with ownership of the club.) De Bonis was point man for the team’s business operations over much of the past decade, and it’s expected his replacement will report to him. Since the change was announced late last Friday afternoon, wild conspiracy theories followed. One was president of hockey operations Trevor Linden being promoted, allowing room for another executive somewhere on the totem pole. (The popular rumour was George McPhee, who has a tie-in with Vancouver and traded Linden back there from Washington.) I was told I have an overactive imagination, so forget that.
Jason Botchford stoked the fires a little, addressing the rumour in the season finale version of The Provies…
A front-office shake-up can’t just be ruled out, especially because this is something which was been discussed by the team leadership before.
Interestingly, last summer, after the Canucks fired some of their long-time executives, Linden suggested the team would add to its front office.
The story drifted away by training camp.
Even the Canucks biggest supporters, I think, can see one of the issues with the organization is the lack of experience in management.
The executives are each in roles they haven’t done before.
You could see how ownership potentially could target that as an area of weakness and one which could be improved by spending on a new salary.
Of course, if someone was hired, and in the hierarchy then sandwiched between Linden and Benning, it would what would that mean for Benning?
How would it be spun?
The death throes of McPhee’s time in Washington were terrible. I mean, Filip Forsberg for Martin Erat really is something. Beyond that, though, McPhee did an excellent job of running that team. They were consistently competitive and many of his contracts look like huge steals in retrospect – Alexander Ovechkin, anyone? In fact, they’ve probably got a Stanley Cup to their credit if not for the best seven-game stretch of Jaroslav Halak’s career. 
The Canucks could do a lot worse than McPhee. They proved as much this season.
Ken Holland souring on Anthony Mantha:
Nothing gets the juices flowing at 800 Griffiths Way like a reclamation prospect – giving up on them and finding them alike. Something tells me there’s at least one such prospect sitting on the fringes of the Detroit Red Wings roster…
I’ve been keeping tabs on Anthony Mantha for a while now. For whatever reason, he can’t seem to put it together in Detroit. Or even Grand Rapids, for that matter. There’s no making sense of this one. The work MoneyPuck and Josh Weissbock did with PCS would indicate that Mantha is as close to a can’t miss prospect they get. I mean, he’s big and he’s scored… a lot.
If the Canucks are going to keep taking on fringe prospects, Mantha’s as good a bet as any to develop into a high-end forward. He’s well worth the risk, anyway.
Ken Campbell isn’t the sharpest fellow:
Another weekend, another stupid Ken Campbell take on Twitter. God bless this man. He’s the gift that keeps on giving.
I usually wouldn’t draw attention to this kind of stuff. Honestly, I’m loath to do it. This is too good, though.
Can we just take a moment to soak this in? Pavel Datsyuk didn’t tarnish his reputation when he was homophobic. No, god no. Leaving the NHL for family reasons? That’s an entirely different story. That is mean and bad.
I can get behind the idea that it sucks for Detroit. It definitely does. I’m not convinced that they can’t take his cap hit off their books, though. They’d have to get creative, but it could work. Datsyuk’s $7.5-million is being put to better use than whatever they’re paying Jonathan Ericsson. Of this much, I can assure you.
Finally, a note on VanHac:
My apologies for not covering this Saturday’s game between the Canucks and Oilers. I was busy with VanHac, or the Vancouver Hockey Analytics Conference. And what an excellent time we had.
There were representatives from several professional franchises and the presentations were all excellent. Best of all, though, was getting to meet some of the fine people from our growing community of dedicated hockey analysts. That was neat.
Again, unfortunate that I couldn’t give the final game of the season the attention it deserved. I really did try. Just wasn’t in the cards.