An excerpt from the Vancouver Sun (Brad Ziemer):
Mike Gillis figures it’s now a two-team race and the Vancouver Canuck general manager still believes he has more than a decent chance of landing free-agent centre Mats Sundin.
Gillis has not had any recent discussions with Sundin, but read his comments that were published in a Swedish daily on Monday.
“What I took from it was that it sounds like he is considering two teams, Toronto and us,” Gillis said in an interview Tuesday.
Habster:
If you read the entire article, the Swedish interviewer/reporter doesn’t ask any questions about the Canadiens or their offer. Mats Sundin does mention the Canadiens making an attractive offer but he answers direct questions from the reporter about the Canucks and the Maple Leafs, not the Canadiens. I’m not sure why that is??!!
From what I’ve seen and heard from Canuck GM Mike Gillis has not impressed me at all. His moves to date have been poor with the only notewothy signing being Pavel Demitra who is a perimeter type player with his best years behind him. He allowed Mats Naslund to leave and traded for Steve Bernier who isn’t exactly a proven NHL goal scorer just yet. Picking up Kyle Wellwood from waivers wasn’t an earth shattering move as well.
Gillis arrogance and over confidence will be his downfall in the Sundin situation and in his dealings with other NHL GMs and players in the future. It won’t take long before he wears out his welcome within the NHL with head scratching moves like the $2.5 million offer sheet he made to David Backes. The Blues certainly made him pay the price when they made a $2.5 million counter offer to Steve Bernier.
It raised a lot of eye brows when Canucks management hired the former player agent over other more worthy candidates like Steve Tambellini who has patiently waited for his opportunity within the Canucks organization.