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To what extent is Jim Benning responsible for the Canucks’ current success?


Jeremy Hronek

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Suter-Miller-Boeser 

Mikheyev-Pettersson-Lindholm

Joshua-Bluegar-Garland

Hoglander-Aman-Lafferty

 

Hughes-Hronek

Cole-Myers

Zadorov-Soucy

 

Demko

DeSmith

 

With Podkolzin in the system.

 

Demko, Pettersson, and Hughes are on sweetheart contracts (although Pettersson’s will obviously change next season), while JT Miller was brought in a few years back despite many local hockey pundits being against the idea.

 

With the exception of Hronek and Lindholm, all of our current core players are a result of Benning’s draft picks and trades.

 

Now - please don’t get me wrong.  Benning made some significant mistakes as a GM as well. However, despite the mistakes, our entire core and their subsequent “sweet heart cap hits” cannot be ignored can it?

 

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I won't give him credit for drafting and according to Linden (and confirmed by scout Jonathon Bates) after the way of handling the draft of 2016 with gm and scouts at odds, TL did not like it and put Brackett in charge and has stated that if it would have been left up to JB, One of the big core players EP would not have been picked 

 

Why you trying to bring us down talking about JB 🤨 We have much better  than that now finally😀

 

If you Talk about his job  as a GM and not the scouts jobs and you will see how he messed up being a GM

He had close to 8 yrs, surely some good ones in all that time, but who in here couldn't have made a few as well?

He was a bumbling fool

PA was a scout for 19 years and his ego won't let you believe it is choice to pick the draft picks and trusts his team and said SO publicly

He leaves that to his scouting team as all GM's do as well. He is now a GM WITH A DIFFERENT JOB

 

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10 minutes ago, Ballisticsports said:

I won't give him credit for drafting and according to Linden (and confirmed by scout Jonathon Bates) after the way of handling the draft of 2016 with gm and scouts at odds, TL did not like it and put Brackett in charge and has stated that if it would have been left up to JB, One of the big core players EP would not have been picked 

 

Why you trying to bring us down talking about JB 🤨 We have much better  than that now finally😀

 

If you Talk about his job  as a GM and not the scouts jobs and you will see how he messed up being a GM

He had close to 8 yrs, surely some good ones in all that time, but who in here couldn't have made a few as well?

He was a bumbling fool

PA was a scout for 19 years and his ego won't let you believe it is choice to pick the draft picks and trusts his team and said SO publicly

He leaves that to his scouting team as all GM's do as well. He is now a GM WITH A DIFFERENT JOB

 

I've said this about Mike Gillis many times also but I guess that doesn't apply to him!?, He brought in all the right pieces to get us close to a cup but got blamed for bad drafting .

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Benning got the players but, as some folks in Sportsnet said (likey Drance), how much credit can you give Benning for managing a team so bad it picked from the Top 10 draft in consecutive years? 

 

I do give Benning for drafting Pettersson though so that's something considering he went off the BPA board.

 

Miller trade was a good one but it was big swing trade. And while Miller trade did work out, his other big trades were a Swing and a Miss. OEL, Gudbransson, Sutter etc. So it balances out over his course of his tenure that his "Miller level/impact" trades have been mostly awful.

 

I say Benning is 5% responsible. I guess it would have been closer to 15% but Benning was also responsible for creating a rotting culture within the organization that required Allvin/Rutherford 2 years to fix. 

 

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Outside of the obvious ones with Pettersson and Hughes, the only two good to solid picks he made were Demko and Höglander, with the jury still out on Podkolzin. Miller was a fine trade at the time too but that's about as far as I'll go. Too much drama and unprofessionalism during his time to be worth given any praise. 

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20 minutes ago, Pears said:

Outside of the obvious ones with Pettersson and Hughes, the only two good to solid picks he made were Demko and Höglander, with the jury still out on Podkolzin. Miller was a fine trade at the time too but that's about as far as I'll go. Too much drama and unprofessionalism during his time to be worth given any praise. 

 

Hughes was already the BPA. I credit this pick more with Montreal, Arizona, and Detroit messing up their pick than Benning being the smartest guy in the draft floor. 

 

I recall having Hughes as 3rd or 4th in my mental draft board so I was shocked to wake up finding out Canucks drafted Hughes. 

 

I marked out and decided to check how that happened and then I Lol'ed seeing what MTL, ARZ, and to a lesser extent DET did. 

 

So while I can acknowledge Benning didn't screw up this pick I attributed it more with those teams being a bit dumb. 

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We saw this team suffer for almost two full years after Jim Benning got fired.  There were some fundamental issues that needed to be addressed, and one of the most important things was his coaching choices.  Travis Green obviously did not get the most out of the players.  When ownership panicked and brought in Boudreau, he also did not get the most out of the players.  

 

Last month I asked the forum if they were still upset with management for how they handled Boudreau's firing.  A lot of folks seemed to have completely gotten over what went down and were fully supportive of management, dismissing the controversy as media frenzy.  I didn't necessarily agree, but it speaks to how influential the coaching choice was, and how the right coach could completely change the work ethic and philosophy of the entire team.  Jim Benning made some all-in moves during the summer of 2021, content with Green as head coach.  It was a fatal mistake that led to the rare instance of both GM and coach getting fired.

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1 hour ago, Ribs said:

He managed to suck so bad that we got a few high picks.

 

True but consider the following:

 

-He still managed to sign Pettersson to a 7.35 million dollar cap ht (which benefits us this season).

-Hughes was signed to $7.8 million (arguably the best cap hit in the league right now)

-Demko is at $5 million (also one of the best cap hits in the league..........and Demko wasn't a "high pick" by the way).

 

So yes, as many faults as Benning had, we can't completely ignore the positive impact that he's had on this current team.  

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10 minutes ago, filthy animal said:

uh oh, another Benning thread. You know the scum of CFF,( the Benning Bros) are just itching to jump on this thread with their excuses and conspiracies.

 

With respect to Benning bros, this thread isn't about that.  

 

Pettersson, Hughes, and Demko (non-high pick) currently have some of the best value cap hits in the league.  

 

Garland and Miller have been significant impact players for us, while Hoglander has also taken a bit of a leap.  

 

Pettersson, Demko, Miller, Boeser, and Hughes were all brought in under Benning's watch.  

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Another thing - apart from Hughes and Demko, the surviving contracts signed by Benning are not that great.  Pettersson should've been locked up long term but we were tight on cap space and it made management gun-shy on a bigger extension.  Boeser's first extension was a disappointment, as he did not fully live up to those expectations.  His relatively high cap hit put management in a serious bind on whether to extend him again or not.  Garland is an interesting case - you typically wouldn't praise a GM when a $5M guy eventually ends up playing bottom six minutes, but it would be unfair to suggest Garland is just any bottom six player.

 

And of course... the Big Tex.  Bless him and his neck, but that contract has been a rough one since day one.  🦒

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18 minutes ago, filthy animal said:

uh oh, another Benning thread. You know the scum of CFF,( the Benning Bros) are just itching to jump on this thread with their excuses and conspiracies.

 

I will say this though if Canucks win the cup this year. I would be fine if Rogers Arena names a Urinal after him 

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Just now, iinatcc said:

 

I will say this though if Canucks win the cup this year. I would be fine if Rogers Arena names a Urinal after him 

 

Havent they named the urinals "the Benning" already? LOL. Gawd I really hope this is the year we win it all. If Lindholm becomes remotely close to that top shelf player he was in the Flames 2 years ago, geezus we'll be tough to beat

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15 minutes ago, Jeremy Hronek said:

True but consider the following:

 

-He still managed to sign Pettersson to a 7.35 million dollar cap ht (which benefits us this season).

-Hughes was signed to $7.8 million (arguably the best cap hit in the league right now)

-Demko is at $5 million (also one of the best cap hits in the league..........and Demko wasn't a "high pick" by the way).

 

So yes, as many faults as Benning had, we can't completely ignore the positive impact that he's had on this current team.  

 

Coaching coaching coaching coaching coaching.  The only thought that should go in your mind when you watch the Canucks right now is "Wow, look at how the new coaching staff has made everyone buy into what they're trying to accomplish."  This team is fast, tenacious, and relentless across the entire ice, on both sides of the puck.  It's a systematic change brought on by a new coaching dynamic.  What we are not seeing is Jim Benning's legacy.  That connection is simply too far of a stretch from everything good that's happened to us this year.

 

For what it's worth, the surviving Benning core couldn't do shit with all those albatross contracts weighing the team down.  Even with massive savings on overperforming players (including Miller at just $5M), the team had absolutely no depth because so much money was tied up on trash players.  The Myers contract was bad.  The Eriksson contract was horrendous.  The OEL contract he brought on was horrendous.  The Dickinson extension was bad.  The Pearson extension was bad.  The Beagle contract was bad.  The Poolman contract - WTF was he thinking there?

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2 minutes ago, Miss Korea said:

Another thing - apart from Hughes and Demko, the surviving contracts signed by Benning are not that great.  Pettersson should've been locked up long term but we were tight on cap space and it made management gun-shy on a bigger extension.  Boeser's first extension was a disappointment, as he did not fully live up to those expectations.  His relatively high cap hit put management in a serious bind on whether to extend him again or not.  Garland is an interesting case - you typically wouldn't praise a GM when a $5M guy eventually ends up playing bottom six minutes, but it would be unfair to suggest Garland is just any bottom six player.

 

And of course... the Big Tex.  Bless him and his neck, but that contract has been a rough one since day one.  🦒

 

this also. If Benning signed Pettersson to a 8 year $9 million to $10 million extension instead of taking OEL's $7+ million contract. Canucks wouldn't be worrying about this right now and even if they do extend him to like $12+ Million which eats up a bigger chunk of the cap.

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3 minutes ago, filthy animal said:

 

Havent they named the urinals "the Benning" already? LOL. Gawd I really hope this is the year we win it all. If Lindholm becomes remotely close to that top shelf player he was in the Flames 2 years ago, geezus we'll be tough to beat

 

The funny part is if Canucks do win it all. Benning was right that this team was 2 years away from competing. 

So he would be right on that part ... though just w/o him 🤣

 

I think another winger wouldn't hurt not sure how comfortable i'd be having Suter and Mikheyev as Top 6 wingers. 

 

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5 minutes ago, iinatcc said:

this also. If Benning signed Pettersson to a 8 year $9 million to $10 million extension instead of taking OEL's $7+ million contract. Canucks wouldn't be worrying about this right now and even if they do extend him to like $12+ Million which eats up a bigger chunk of the cap.

 

Everyone noticed it except Benning.  By taking on OEL and extending Conor Garland, we suddenly ran out of room to properly extend both Pettersson and Hughes.  Pettersson had to get signed right away, so both sides settled on a bridge deal.  And of course, we wouldn't have acquired that awful OEL contract if Benning had just waited one more fucking year for the expiring contracts of Eriksson, Beagle and Roussel.  That's right - Jim Benning went all-in on a year that eventually started off 8-15-2.

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7 minutes ago, Miss Korea said:

For what it's worth, the surviving Benning core couldn't do shit with all those albatross contracts weighing the team down.  Even with massive savings on overperforming players (including Miller at just $5M), the team had absolutely no depth because so much money was tied up on trash players.

 

I think one of Benning's fatal flaw is that he didn't seem to understand how run an NHL club in today's NHL. 

Example, I had no problems picking up Beagle and Roussel but not at the deals they had. And Gudbransson for a young prospect and a 2nd made no sense considering Gudbranssons' poor Analytics and actual raw numbers.  

 

It really felt like Benning was running an NHL team during the 80's and early 90's. No cap, screw analytics, big = amazing, etc.  

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5 minutes ago, Miss Korea said:

 

Everyone noticed it except Benning.  By taking on OEL and extending Conor Garland, we suddenly ran out of room to properly extend both Pettersson and Hughes.  Pettersson had to get signed right away, so both sides settled on a bridge deal.  And of course, we wouldn't have acquired that awful OEL contract if Benning had just waited one more fucking year for the expiring contracts of Eriksson, Beagle and Roussel.  That's right - Jim Benning went all-in on a year that eventually started off 8-15-2.

 

Drance said something hilarious though. If the Canucks missed the playoffs (or lost the play in tournament againts The Wild) in the 2019-2020 season. They wouldn't have had the first to deal for OEL. So you could say getting to the 2nd round of the playoffs is what lead to the OEL mess the team has now 🤣

 

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Just now, iinatcc said:

 

I think one of Benning's fatal flaw is that he didn't seem to understand how run an NHL club in today's NHL. 

Example, I had no problems picking up Beagle and Roussel but not at the deals they had. And Gudbransson for a young prospect and a 2nd made no sense considering Gudbranssons' poor Analytics and actual raw numbers.  

 

It really felt like Benning was running an NHL team during the 80's and early 90's. No cap, screw analytics, big = amazing, etc.  

 

Oho, don't get me started on analytics.  Holy Jesus.  

 

image.png.583e567f90f747fa2fdb0cd84b950a15.png image.png.8ea8e1b4ea32f340e47964e76ec169b0.png image.png.8f8d86b264f81c2d100cd42d6602fa7c.png image.png.0529926f0cfae2a183ef8470d24f54eb.png

 

Jet Black Jim: "Man these guys look amazing - we should definitely pick them up!"

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