To be a bit of a broken record to what I said yesterday to my small but elite followership on Twitter, there are few phrases scarier in hockey than “looking for an experienced General Manager.” The current selection of retreads available would include Jim Benning, Peter Chiarelli, Dale Tallon, Marc Bergevin, Ron Hextall, Brian Burke, Cliff or Chuck Fletcher, Brian Lawton, and Dave Nonis. There are a few other less concerning options that still don’t excite like Brad Treliving and Jason Botterill, but generally experienced GM means a commitment to chaos.
That’s one of the reasons I’ve landed on my favourite of the experienced group, Mike Gillis.
Let me start off by saying that I absolutely despised Gillis while he was in Vancouver. A big reason for despising him though was based on his success. He re-signed the Sedins on great contracts, he maximized the term available to him with Luongo, added smart pieces all over Vancouver’s roster, and took the Canucks to the Stanley Cup Finals. It wasn’t until they took a modest step back from that high that he was chased from Vancouver and the Canucks became the comical mess they are today.
Since that poin …

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Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation