Benning in his tenure with the Canucks has done nothing but hamper their ability to be a cup-contending team.
From the beginning, his lacklustre "rebuild", and his inability to move on from depreciating assets led to years of mediocrity.
Sure, in those years we had some high picks, and those picks turned into Pettersson, Hughes, and we can't forget Juolevi. But before we praise him for those picks, let's remember that going into the 2017 draft, Benning wanted Glass all along. Luckily for us, his mind was changed and as a result we got our star centerman for years to come. As for the 2018 draft, Quinn Hughes literally fell into our lap thanks to Montreal and Arizona making leaps to get centerman for themselves. Since drafting is by far the best aspect of what Benning brings, I will not criticize Benning on his drafting. At the same time however, I do not believe he deserves near as much praise as he gets. I mean, he couldn't even push his own opinions out of the way enough to hold onto Judd Bracket, who in reality, is the real reason for some of the great picks we've had in recent years.
Now onto free agency, the real issue for Jimbo. Benning, year after year, has made it his mission to improve the team in free agency, when the $$$ and term spent never make any sense. From Eriksson one year, to Del Zotto and Gagner on high cap hits the next, and then how about Beagle, Roussel and Schaller the next? Oh and don't forget about adding size on the blueline via a massive overpayment to Tyler Myers last offseason.
All of these terrible, short-sighted signings in previous off-seasons have led to where we are now: losing key contributors and being picked apart like a cup winner. Benning has shown plenty of willingness to follow in the footsteps of previous cup winners, but always picks the wrong way to do so. Now finally, in a year where players are moving teams for very reasonable deals, we have no $$$ to spend. Yes, the COVID pandemic was an unexpected and unprecedented time for the hockey world. It still does not justify signings still on the books dating all the way back to 2016.
How can it be possible to lose this many key players when your 2 top players are still on ELC's?!
All in all, this team is in line to have several more years of early playoff exits (if they are even lucky enough to make the playoffs).
I don't think you're thinking critically here like much of the fan base. Bennings drafting success has given us pettersson Hughes Boeser Demko Virtanen Gaudette all of which are key roster players. They also managed to have podjolzin hoglander rathbone juolevi which all like they'll be impactful players at the NHL.
Benning has also managed to get key players through trades such as Miller Pearson Toffoli (yes I'll get to that) Leivo Motte.
The reason Benning signed depth players like Roussel Beagle Sutter was to create an insulation around the young prospects that were going to come in through the rebuild. No GM expects to pick up a franchise center and defenceman when they aren't picking in the top 2 of the draft. The canucks were able to flip the switch quite quickly which isn't common as usually teams that aren't blessed with first overall picks take longer to be competitive.
The cap was supposed to go up to 86 mil but due to covid it stayed flat. The moves Benning made earlier were with an assumption that the cap would rise, but due to it staying flat and GM's not wanting to take on bad contracts the canucks will be forced to let prospects fill gaps. That's not the worst thing as canucks have enough prospect depth to do it. They will take a step back next year but they'll be better for it in the long run.
Avoiding the longterm re-signing of tanev and Marky was good moves by Benning. Tanev is injury prone and he's 30 years old. Marky is 30 and has only been playing well in the last 2 years, not to mention he wanted a nmc which won't happen cuz the canucks need Demko.
Toffoli stung cuz they lost Madden and a second but when you have a strong prospect pool you can afford to take risks. No one expected Toffoli to be injured the way he was or the canucks roster to battle injuries the way they did. Miller boeser podkolzin hoglander and Virtanen are the teams future wingers. I don't see a spot for Toffoli long term. The canucks did the right thing.
My only real negative is that the canucks could have re-signed Stecher. He's affordable and can play up and down the lineup.
The canucks need to sign a top 4 rhd whether that's vatanen or hamonic still remains to be seen. Cernak would be better imo.
I don't think you're thinking critically here like much of the fan base. Bennings drafting success has given us pettersson Hughes Boeser Demko Virtanen Gaudette all of which are key roster players. They also managed to have podjolzin hoglander rathbone juolevi which all like they'll be impactful players at the NHL.
Benning has also managed to get key players through trades such as Miller Pearson Toffoli (yes I'll get to that) Leivo Motte.
The reason Benning signed depth players like Roussel Beagle Sutter was to create an insulation around the young prospects that were going to come in through the rebuild. No GM expects to pick up a franchise center and defenceman when they aren't picking in the top 2 of the draft. The canucks were able to flip the switch quite quickly which isn't common as usually teams that aren't blessed with first overall picks take longer to be competitive.
The cap was supposed to go up to 86 mil but due to covid it stayed flat. The moves Benning made earlier were with an assumption that the cap would rise, but due to it staying flat and GM's not wanting to take on bad contracts the canucks will be forced to let prospects fill gaps. That's not the worst thing as canucks have enough prospect depth to do it. They will take a step back next year but they'll be better for it in the long run.
Avoiding the longterm re-signing of tanev and Marky was good moves by Benning. Tanev is injury prone and he's 30 years old. Marky is 30 and has only been playing well in the last 2 years, not to mention he wanted a nmc which won't happen cuz the canucks need Demko.
Toffoli stung cuz they lost Madden and a second but when you have a strong prospect pool you can afford to take risks. No one expected Toffoli to be injured the way he was or the canucks roster to battle injuries the way they did. Miller boeser podkolzin hoglander and Virtanen are the teams future wingers. I don't see a spot for Toffoli long term. The canucks did the right thing.
My only real negative is that the canucks could have re-signed Stecher. He's affordable and can play up and down the lineup.
The canucks need to sign a top 4 rhd whether that's vatanen or hamonic still remains to be seen. Cernak would be better imo.
Think critically not out of emotion.
I llike the majority of your thoughts here, but I do not believe that Virtanen is a key piece to this teams future. He shouldve been moved for a dman, and Toffoli absolutely sholdve come back at that price. I do agree that marky and tanev shouldve left for the prices they demanded though.
As for the rebuild itself, the team should never have committed such long-term deals to "insulation players" like beags, rous, eriksson, sutter, ferland and myers.
I llike the majority of your thoughts here, but I do not believe that Virtanen is a key piece to this teams future. He shouldve been moved for a dman, and Toffoli absolutely sholdve come back at that price. I do agree that marky and tanev shouldve left for the prices they demanded though.
As for the rebuild itself, the team should never have committed such long-term deals to "insulation players" like beags, rous, eriksson, sutter, ferland and myers.
thanks for your input though!
I hear ya and agree with this. Those 4 year term deals for Rouss, Ferland and Beagle are now holding us back from improving the roster. Depth players that help the young guys should not be signed with term! Its pretty sad how he let all these guys go with the intention of rebuilding the blueline, now the blueline is going to be worse.
Heres to hoping he pulls off a miricle and signs Pietro.
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