Canucks GM Remodeling Team To Enhance Player Performance
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Gillis Studying Players' Rest, Travel,
Nutrition, Communication Habits |
Canucks GM Mike Gillis, a former hockey agent, is "overhauling the organization and focusing on improving players within the ranks," according to Matthew Sekeres of the GLOBE & MAIL. Though agents "sometimes prove ill-suited to club administration," Gillis is "consumed with putting players into the optimal position to succeed." Agent Ritch Winter said that Gillis' 15 years as an agent "positioned him to understand how the best-in-class NHL teams operate." Winter: "Agents have intimate contact with 30 general managers and gain knowledge and understanding of how they run their organizations. You get to see the best of all worlds." Sekeres noted Gillis is "applying those lessons in Vancouver with a twist of West Coast style, thinking more outside the box than inside." For Gillis, "every element of the organization, no matter how small, will be studied," and it has "begun with rest, travel, nutrition and communication." Gillis has "commissioned a military sleep expert and had the players wear biorhythm bracelets to measure their waking and slumbering hours during an early-season trip." With the bracelet feedback, the team "will know which players sleep after games, who sleeps on the plane, and how long they sleep." Ultimately, the data "may be used to determine roommate pairings, practice times on the road, and the optimal times to fly into and out of cities." Nutritionally, Canucks Strength & Conditioning coach Roger Takahashi "interviewed players before the season to gauge individual tastes and tendencies, and consulted a dietician to design three-square-a-day meal plans." The Canucks "created menus with the chefs" at Aramark, the food and beverage provider at GM Place and Air Canada, their charter airline operator. Also, the new GM Place players' lounge is "described by players and team officials as a sanctuary within a sanctuary, equipped with the best audio-visual amenities and computer kiosks." Willis also has "increased the player development budget, believing money is more wisely spent nurturing his own seedlings than buying someone else's product at market." With the Canucks leading the Northwest division, Sekeres wrote of Gillis' efforts, "So far, so good" (GLOBE & MAIL, 11/15).
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