Vancouver Canucks president and owner Francesco (Aquaman) Aquilini fired general manager Dave Nonis Monday in a move that surprised many. (But not us. We knew you cared!) The mainstream media is criticizing the move; we’ll get to that in a minute.

It was the right thing to do. I like Nonis (his public persona, anyway – I don’t know him) and you always hate to see someone lose their job, but let’s face it: not making the playoffs in two of three seasons at the helm doesn’t cut it. (Nonis was GM for four years, but his first year was the 2004-2005 lockout.) That shit might fly in Toronto, where mediocrity is the gold standard for everything, but not in Vancouver. I don’t think anyone would call Nonis’ tenure a total failure; it simply wasn’t good enough.

Let’s take a look at what the MSM scribes are saying.

From Iain MacIntyre:

. . . Aquilini’s decision to so quickly change management regimes is shocking, considering the Canucks are as few as two or three skilled forwards away from being able to compete with any NHL team.

Nonis had ample opportunity to acquire “two or three skilled forwards,” through drafts and trades, and he failed to do so.

From TSN’s Bob McKenzie:

As a rule, GMs are given at least a five year run unless there is a sense the franchise is spiraling in the wrong direction and although the Canucks missed the playoffs this season, there doesn’t appear to be any empirical evidence that the Canucks are on a free fall.

First of all, what rule are you talking about? Aquilini owns the team, he can fire the GM whenever he wants. There’s no fucking rule. Secondly, what do you call it, Bob, when a team wins their division one year and ends up in last place the next, after an epic late-season choke job? That isn’t a free-fall?

. . . the sense throughout the league is that Nonis has put together a good organization in Vancouver and was doing a good job of drafting and developing young talent.

That may be the sense throughout the league (read: whoever Bob knows in Toronto), but it certainly isn’t the sense among anyone I know of. You know, the customer. Most people I’ve talked to think the Canucks have done an abysmal job of drafting. In recent years, the Canucks have passed on Anze Kopitar, Andrew Cogliano, Paul Stastny, Guillaume Latendresse, Milan Lucic and Martin Hanzal, to name a few. (What was that earlier about two or three skilled forwards?)

Of the first-round players drafted since Nonis took over, only Luc Bourdon has had a whiff of cracking the lineup, and that’s only because of all the injuries on D this year. Even then, Mike Weaver played more games than Bourdon, a highly-touted defensive prospect. To reiterate, with the defensive corps decimated, head coach Alain Vigneault preferred to go with a guy who’s bounced around in the minors for the last seven years, rather than a so-called blue-chip prospect. That’s some top-notch player development there, Bob.

From Ed Willes:

Nonis’s firing seems to be a panic move based on the Canucks’ late-season collapse. The former GM believed he and the Aquilinis were on the same page when the organization refused to pay the big prices demanded for the most coveted players at the trade deadline.

Apparently, the brothers have since changed their minds.

But this is also part of a larger pattern of impulsive, erratic leadership which has haunted the Canucks since the Aquilinis appeared on the scene.

Maybe I’m missing something because I live in Calgary so I don’t get a lot of the local hoopla, but I hadn’t noticed any “impulsive, erratic leadership” in the Canucks. You’d think that type of thing would show. Far from it, Nonis seemed to enjoy wide latitude when it came to running the team. And he ran it cautiously, methodically, and with a good deal of sense. Unfortunately for him, they needed more winning.

Willes goes on to accuse Aquaman and his brother of using the team solely for profit:

. . . the Aquilinis have left the distinct impression the Canucks are being run as a business investment whose sole purpose is to make money and not to win the Stanley Cup.

Again, I don’t get that impression at all. In fact, that’s how I felt about the team under former owner John McCaw. This ownership seems to me to be interested in building a winner, which is why they fired the GM who wasn’t able to produce one. And if a pleasant result of a winning sports club is that its owners make money, what’s wrong with that? Nonis’s Canucks were grindingly boring at times, and nobody wants to watch that. I wouldn’t be surprised if the team’s consecutive-sellout record falls next season as a result. You can hardly blame the brothers Aquilini for knowing that losers don’t make money. That’s why they’re rich.

As Tony Gallagher put it:

It’s one thing to lose, but quite another to lose in boring fashion. And if there is one thing an owner cannot have, it’s watching his customers fail to be entertained, and on many nights this season that was certainly the case, this team often excruciatingly boring even on nights when they won.

Amen, brother.

With Nonis being shown the door, many are wondering what will become of his deal with Fabian Brunnstrom, a breakout Swedish Elite League forward who was said to be close to signing with the Canucks.

MacIntyre again:

The most immediate on-ice ramification for the Canucks is that they can probably say goodbye to elite prospect Fabian Brunnstrom, a high-scoring, 23-year-old Swedish free agent who had chosen to sign with the Canucks among 20 NHL suitors.

TSN reported Saturday that the Brunnstrom deal would fall through if Nonis were fired. And Brunnstrom’s agent, J.P. Barry, made it clear Monday that Nonis was largely responsible for winning his client’s trust by visiting him in Sweden and being the first to show serious interest in the winger.

Honestly, who cares? One of the reasons he chose the Canucks over teams like the Red Wings was that they were willing to guarantee him top-six minutes with the Sedins. So he hasn’t even played a game in the men’s league yet, and he’s a prima donna who won’t sign unless you promise him he won’t have to get his fingernails dirty on the third or fourth lines. Fuck that. This team needs a transplant of heart and commitment, not petulant demands for ice time from snot-noses.

Here’s hoping the new Canucks GM, whoever it turns out to be, continues cleaning house. I’m not entirely sure I stand by my call to fire Vigneault. Maybe he should get another chance to prove what he can do with a better offence in front of his vaunted defence. But the new man should definitely work on retooling the squad of heartless bums that showed up for the last nine games of the season.

- The Sieve

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