Brackett couldn’t win in power struggle
It’s completely in the hands of Benning and Weisbrod to direct Canucks’ future now
Like the saturation coverage given the Bundesliga, here’s something else you can probably do without: the Monday morning musings and meditations on the world of sports.
■ In the aftermath of Friday’s announcement, a narrative has emerged that Judd Brackett sought complete autonomy for the Vancouver Canucks’ amateur scouting department and wanted to run the draft independent of general manager Jim Benning and assistant general manager John Weisbrod.
It’s a convenient depiction of the situation and if you believe that characterization, it makes Benning’s decision to part ways with Brackett understandable. But it also oversimplifies a complicated situation.
Brackett was hardly a lone wolf who had to have things his own way. He understood collaboration. He understood chain of command.
What he didn’t understand is critical decisions which were made involving his scouts without his input.
That, at least, is Brackett’s take. He was also a Trevor Linden man and when Linden was fired after the 2018 draft, the scout lost a key ally.
On that basis, maybe it’s understandable tensions would build between Brackett and Benning. The general manager wanted things run a certain way. Decisions were made with limited or no input from Brackett.
As a result, the scouting director decided he couldn’t work under Benning and Weisbrod and rejected a new contract. No one was surprised when the impasse reached an inevitable conclusion on Friday.
There’s just one further thing to consider. Brackett is hardly the only hockey man who’s lost their position within the organization during Benning’s time here and the pattern gives one pause.
Assistant general managers Laurence Gilman and Lorne
Henning and director of player development Eric Crawford were dismissed in 2015 after Benning’s and Weisbrod’s first year. Linden was fired two years ago. Now Brackett’s gone.
Yes, the circumstances around each instance were different and, yes, Linden signed off on Gilman, Henning and Crawford.
But with each move, Benning and Weisbrod also broadened their power base while eliminating voices which didn’t always align with their own.
In Linden’s case, it cost him his job and control of the organization and there are stories about how his dismissal went down.
But however things transpired, this is Benning’s and Weisbrod’s show now. They have the freedom to make their own decisions and hire their own people. They have the power to lead this team and, clearly, they have the support of ownership.
That’s interesting because, a little over two years ago, both their positions appeared to be in jeopardy. Linden then lobbied for a Benning contract extension and, as a show of support to the GM, kept Weisbrod around.
Six months later Linden was gone and Benning and Weisbrod are still standing.
Are they the two men who’ll deliver a glorious new future for this franchise? Well, the early returns are promising and no one would argue the Canucks aren’t in a better place today than they were two years ago.
But I keep coming back to one thing Benning said during Friday’s media session. When addressing the thorny issue of who gets credit for drafting some of the Canucks’ young stars, he said he doesn’t get into that “nonsense.”
“Winning organizations don’t do that,” he added.
That’s true. But winning organizations also find a way to keep talented people around.
■ On a related note, Benning’s hire of Troy Ward, the former Abbotsford Heat and Vancouver Giants’ head coach, is worth noting.
Ward was hired as an amateur scout without consulting Brackett. He spent three years as the head coach in Abbotsford, the Calgary Flames’ AHL affiliate, when Weisbrod was the assistant general manager with the NHL team.
Weisbrod and Flames GM Jay Feaster were both fired by Flames president Brian Burke midway through 2013-14 season. Ward was fired by new Flames general manager Brad Treliving at the conclusion of that season.
Ward was also interviewed for the head coaching position in Utica three years ago before Trent Cull was hired to coach the Canucks’ AHL affiliate.
Linden reportedly selected Cull over Ward.
■ I’ve given this a lot of thought and came to the following conclusion. I think the United States has bigger enemies right now than the mainstream media.
■ And finally, when I was a kid growing up in the ’60s, I watched the images from Montgomery, from Watts, from Detroit and Memphis on the CBS Evening News and tried to understand what they meant.
In the ’70s I watched the Boston busing riots. In the ’80s I watched riots in Miami. In ’92 there was the Rodney King riots. In 2009 there were riots in Oakland. Six years ago it was Ferguson. Now it’s Minneapolis and so many other places in the States.
I’m 64 now and these stories have been a part of my life ever since I can remember and I still don’t understand the hate, the prejudice and the violence it spawns. Rodney King was almost 30 years ago and it feels like we’ve never left that place.
On Sunday, Los Angeles
Clippers head coach Doc Rivers, the son of a Chicago cop, posted the following on Twitter.
“Being black in America is tough. I’ve personally been called more racial slurs than I can count, I’ve been pulled over many times because of the colour of my skin and even had my house burned down.
“The response we’re seeing across the nation, to the murder of George Floyd is decades in the making. Too often people rush to judge the response instead of the actions that prompted it. We have allowed too many tragedies to pass in vain. This isn’t an African-American issue. This is a human issue.”
So if humans can write symphonies, split atoms, map genomes and paint great works of art, why can’t we make this better?