The long awaited, much-ballyhooed meeting between Mike Gillis and the Aquilini Ownership group has taken place, and we have news to report: the Canucks’ General Manager has emerged from this meeting … still the Canucks General Manager.

The team announced Monday that Gillis’s contract as president and GM of Canucks Sports and Entertainment has been extended, although the duration of the new contract was not announced.

(This leaves the door wide open for endless speculation over the term. Is it a two-year extension? If it a 50-year extension!? There’s simply no way of knowing.)

I don’t have much to say about Gillis’s extension by itself. I’ve gone on record many times as saying I like the guy, so I’m happy to see him remain in charge. He’s made some mistakes in his time — with two years to evaluate it, we can safely say the Keith Ballard trade has been a bust, and the David Backes/Steve Bernier offer sheet scenario was a bit of a fiasco, in retrospect — but I like the way he runs the team overall, from the emphasis on advanced stats and other metrics, to the way the team manages the cap, to the way he and his assistants are always scheming bend the rules of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

The NHL’s General Managers recently wrapped up three days worth of meetings in Boca Raton, Florida, at which rule changes and other innovations to improve the game were suggested. Here at PITB, we were a little surprised to hear about Mike Gillis’s proposal, an initiative to outlaw hand-passing in the defensive zone.

It makes sense when you think about it, but the fact that the suggestion came from Mike Gillis, General Manager of the Vancouver Canucks, was strange. If anyone in the NHL was to suffer from this rule, it would be defensive specialist Manny Malhotra, who wins a great deal of faceoffs in his own zone by way of the hand pass. Why was Mike Gillis trying to spoil Manny Malhotra’s party?

As it turns out, it wasn’t solely about Malhotra. Gillis was trying to bring down the entire Canucks’ system from the inside — to bury his group in a sea of red tape and rule changes. Why? Your guess is as good as mine. But, considering Gillis continues to employ Alain Vigneault, despite the Canucks having only the second-best record in the Western Conference, it’s obvious he’s setting this group up to fail.

And now we have further proof. PITB has produced a very real, super authentic and totally not made up at all transcript of Gillis’s time on the floor, and Canuck fans should be thanking their lucky stars that most of these ideas were vetoed outright. What follows are 11 alarming excerpts from Mike Gillis’s speech:

Manny Malhotra has been much-maligned for his play this season. The defensively-minded centre is on pace for his lowest point total since 2002-03 and has been relegated to a fourth line role, drawing criticism over what some feel is a deserved demotion. Personally, I feel that the criticism ignores the unique role that Malhotra plays in the Canucks lineup. As Thomas Drance suggested, Manny Malhotra is the Penny to the Sedins’ Inspector Gadget: he plays the tough minutes so other Canucks don’t have to.

What everyone can agree on, however, is that Malhotra remains a faceoff wizard. Now, it seems, Mike Gillis wants to take even that away from him.

If your main source of Canucks news is Pass it to Bulis, you’re probably under the impression that the Canucks are incredibly witty, clever, and fond of silly jokes. After all, the Canucks give silly animal nicknames to each other, photoshop each other naked, and ruin each others’ interviews. Meanwhile, Kevin Bieksa is one of the best quotes in the NHL and Keith Ballard has unparalleled self-deprecating dry wit, and Roberto Luongo is surprisingly willing to joke around.

Since Alex Burrows and Maxim Lapierre are two of the best chirpers on the team, it would be completely understandable if you thought that all French Canadians are great at chirping. Unfortunately, Alain Vigneault proved that wrong.

In all the hype surrounding the acquisition of David Booth from the Florida Panthers, there have been repeated descriptions of the fleet footed Booth as a “power forward”.  And, as is often the case in this hockey mad market, such claims are over blown. The notion of a “power forward” implies a few things typically.  [...]

Just in time for Halloween, the ghost of Dale Tallon has struck again.  Since becoming general manager of the Canucks, Mike Gillis has not been a terribly active trader, but his biggest deals have been with the Florida Panthers (whose GM is ex-Canuck Dale Tallon, Vancouver’s consolation prize in their inaugural season wheel spinning that [...]

On the eve of the Canucks’ forty first NHL season, it will be nearly impossible to top the performance of the 40th anniversary edition. That team put up not only the greatest regular season performance in franchise history, but arguably one of the best regular seasons of any team anywhere. Don’t believe us? Well, it’s [...]

One of the reasons NHL teams sign veteran players to Professional Tryout Offers (PTOs) is to give an unsigned free agent a chance to make the team, but this is not the only reason. For Mike Gillis, it’s likely not even the primary reason. Coming off the shortest off-season in team history, Gillis and Vigneault clearly had no interest in icing a lineup in either Calgary or Vancouver last night that bore any resemblance to the actual Canucks.

Some actual player personnel news in Canuckistan today, as the club announced the signing of Victor Oreskovich to a one-year, two-way contract worth $605,000 in the NHL and $105,000 in the AHL. Oreskovich was the last remaining free agent from the 2010-11 Vancouver Canucks.

Oreskovich, an RFA, received his qualifying offer at the end of June, at the same time as fellow RFAs Maxim Lapierre and Jannik Hansen. Lapierre re-signed immediately, and Hansen re-signed just one month later, but negotiations with the Oreskovich camp lasted the entire summer. Clearly, Oreskovich wanted a one-way deal and held out until just a week before the start of training camp in hopes of getting one. That he didn’t means this is a clear win for Mike Gillis.

Here’s an unfortunate incident that will likely cause you to shake your head: the Toronto Star has come under fire for an unfortunate error in their August 16 report on the passing of Rick Rypien in which they misquoted Gillis referring to Rypien — whose struggles with mental illness are now coming to light — as “crazy”.

Canucks news comes fast and furious, and sometimes we find ourselves playing catchup. Thankfully, the Dreaded Two Goal Lead–often called “the worst lead in hockey”–is super easy to come back from. Everybody knows it’s a guaranteed death sentence for those that hold it. Well, much like an ice hockey team coming from two goals down, PITB will now effortlessly catch up.

The NHL Awards are tonight and it’s an exciting time for Canucks fans as Daniel Sedin, Ryan Kesler, Roberto Luongo, Alain Vigneault, and Mike Gillis are all up for awards. It’s a fun time when all the hockey players dress up in fancy suits and take awkward red carpet photographs. Personally, I’d love to tune in and enjoy the show, but since Jay Mohr is hosting it, I won’t. I won’t enjoy it, so I won’t tune in. I know I will just get angry that they brought back the painfully unfunny Mohr for a second time hosting, when it appears that he doesn’t know anything about hockey. I’m sure he’s a nice enough guy (actually, I’m not sure of that at all, but I’ll assume), but it’s awkward hearing someone tell jokes about hockey when it seems like he doesn’t actually understand the jokes. Also, he’s terrible.

Did they ask anyone else to do it? Could they not think of anyone else to ask? Because I can think of a few people who would be better than Jay Mohr. Here are 10 better options:

When Mike Gillis was hired as the general manager of the Vancouver Canucks, he immediately expressed an agenda to build a organization with integrity and character throughout. He worked to change the culture inside the dressing room, seeking players with positive reputations and a commitment to community-building. Outside the dressing room, he did the same, stressing an organization that valued its players, and recognized and honoured the division between hockey and personal life. There is no greater example of this than the case of Manny Malhotra, whose devastating eye injury and subsequent recovery has been perfectly handled by the Canucks organization.

Almost every playoff-bound team makes minor moves and trades throughout the season, with the most significant usually made in the time leading up to the trade deadline. Each time looks to add that one missing piece that will push the team over the top. Each of the four teams remaining in the Stanley Cup playoffs made some significant mid-season moves that have helped carry the team to this point in the playoffs, but which GM improved their team the most?

Canucks news comes fast and furious, and sometimes we find ourselves playing catchup. Thankfully, the Dreaded Two Goal Lead–often called “the worst lead in hockey”–is super easy to come back from. Everybody knows it’s a guaranteed death sentence for those that hold it. Well, much like an ice hockey team coming from two goals down, PITB will now effortlessly catch up.

Mike Gillis looked calm, cool, and collected while he spoke to the media yesterday, but his words belied his Freeze-ian exterior. Like Howard Beale, Gillis is mad as hell and he’s not going to take it anymore. This is, of course, the Mike Gillis version of “mad as hell” that takes the form of a list of statistics rather than an impassioned diatribe. Clearly, Gillis could use a speech writer and some acting lessons (perhaps from Scott Rintoul).

Gillis, in his patented monotone, harangued the reffing in the series, pointing out the discrepancy between the penalty calls for and against the Canucks, particularly in the last four games. He even highlighted some particularly egregious missed calls and lambasted the officials for their inconsistency. Is he right? Does it matter?

Yesterday, a hot and bothered Canuck General Manager Mike Gillis appeared before the media to make public his disgust for the officiating in this series. In a move eerily reminiscent of a 2002 scripted Brian Burke performance, the usually cool and confident Gillis appeared anything but, attempting to draw attention to what some are calling an anti-Canuck conspiracy. More [...]

If Gillis’s first name was Jack, and he made all the best trades, the headline could be, “Jack of All Trades.” The Vancouver Canucks have been one of the NHL’s best teams for most of the season and, barring a major collapse, will go into the playoffs as a Stanley Cup frontrunner. They’ve never been [...]

Canucks news comes fast and furious, and sometimes we find ourselves playing catchup. Thankfully, the Dreaded Two Goal Lead–often called “the worst lead in hockey”–is super easy to come back from. Everybody knows it’s a guaranteed death sentence for those that hold it. Well, much like an ice hockey team coming from two goals down, [...]

You’ve got to hand it to a lot of Canuck fans. They really know how to get their hopes up. True, it’s not as bad as last year, when the White Towel was already planning the parade route after the first round, but there’s still a lot of ridiculous “this is our year” nonsense going [...]

For much of the season, the Canucks’ 4th line has been a target for criticism. It’s been a patchwork unit all year long, with little in the way of consistency (save the presence of Tanner Glass). Worse, the players the Canucks have placed on it have had such varying skillsets and playing styles that we [...]

The Canucks have been good for awhile now, and I think I speak for everyone when I say this is relatively novel territory. It’s not usually like this. I’m not used to caring very little how the other Northwest teams fared on a night-to-night basis, or clicking “League” instead of “Division” when I look at [...]

Other General Managers had no idea what to get this guy for Christmas. He’s just hard to shop for right now. You remember a month ago when someone asked you what you wanted for Christmas? Some years, you have the answer right away, but some years, you just don’t know. You’re perfectly content. You can’t [...]