Another example of ineptness at the NHL corporate level, this time it is the Vancouver Canucks and their GM. Ryan Kesler is out for three months after hip surgery. That's not his fault, but I can't help but shake my head nonetheless…

Kesler had hip surgery and will be gone for the remainder of the regular season as well as the first round of the playoffs (if the Canucks get there).

I don't know if any of you remember me bashing the Canucks for matching the Philly offer sheet…but I said at the time that the Canucks could have used that money to sign a scoring winger and simply replace most of Kesler's talent with a Boyd Devereaux-type for $500 thousand.

Some laughed at the comparison, including our own Burnsy. For the record, Kesler had 16 points in 48 games and was a plus-1. Devereaux has eight points in 11 games and is a plus-5.

I'll repeat myself – the Canucks should have walked away from that offer sheet, taken the second round pick for this coming summer, signed Devereaux for $500,000, and signed a better winger than Jan Bulis (i.e. add the remaining $1.4 million to Bulis' $1.3 million). What could they get for $2.7 million? Let's see…

Anson Carter is the obvious one. He is no superstar, but he did click with the Sedins. He signed for $2.5 million.

Bill Guerin signed for $2.4 million.

So what would you rather have – Guerin, Devereaux, $300,000 and a 2nd round pick?

Or Ryan Kesler?

If questioned, GM Dave Nonis would say what any other NHL GM would say in that situation. "The deal looked right at the time", "we had to keep our young player", "the injury makes it look worse than it is, but he was having a fine season before that", "how could we have know he would get hurt?"

I would respond "no it didn't look right at the time", "no you didn't have to keep your young player", "who cares about the injury – you still could have done better with your money", etc.

NHL teams, please email me at [email protected] and request an interview for your GM position. For $10,000, I will give you one hour of my time for an interview. If I do not accept your offer, that deposit is non-refundable.

Some clown in an NHL team's head office just might be dumb enough to do that. Even after I wrote that last sentence.