My initial reaction to this was that it wasn't good, but that was based on the team spending only $1.7M less in goal and getting substantially worse, but that really isn't fair. It's kind of throwing this deal in the blender because of having this bias against Benning's cap management from previous deals. I don't like that they put themselves in a position where they had to cheap out in net because of some bad signings, but on it's own, being prudent now is probably a smart move. Holtby will be paid as a mentor, can be exposed in the expansion draft, won't by on the books when Hughes or Demko need their next deals, and at last at 31, has a reasonable chance of rebounding to being an average starter, which isn't bad for $4.3M.

It sucks that Vancouver has to probably take a bit of a step back, but in reality the contracts required to keep Markstrom, Tanev, and likely Toffoli would not have been good decisions. Those players were useful and valuable to the team, but have simply developed a pedigree based on what they have done already that price them out of being good value going forward. So I can't really criticize benning for not showing restraint for a couple of years, then criticize him more when he finally does. This deal, on it's own merit is solid.