Where to now Mr. Gillis?
Perhaps this is too soon after elimination or maybe unfair because Mike Gillis hasn’t yet shared his assessment, but it’s unavoidable: the buck stops with him. If we dare look back at the Nonis years (the invisible hand of the Aquilini’s notwithstanding), we often ignore the positives – the Luongo deal, the fiscal responsibility – and lambaste ol’ Donuts for stringing together teams that, like many before them, couldn’t get it done. Nonis locked up the old core following the lockout (Naslund, Morrison, Cloutier) and they failed. Following that he gambled big on Luongo and that squad, while much better, also failed. Now his successor has locked up the new core (Sedins, Luongo, Kesler, Burrows) for considerably longer, stood by quietly through two drafts and two deadlines and now has two straight second round exits to add to his resume. Let’s jump back two years ago when Gillis was hired. What was his assessment then and how much progress has this club made? People will be evaluated on p
