The only thing Benning is good at is drafting.

This really goes to show how bad the drafting was pre-Benning. Edler, Horvat, hutton are the only non Benning players.

There are plenty of Gillis picks out there aged 27-32 that are no where near the NHL. Brutal

To be fair, we were contenders during that time but yeah, drafting good players wasn’t a thing from the Gillis era

Still though. Look at 2010. Gillis had the option to keep his 1st round pick that year and trade away his 2011 first rounder instead (to Florida as per of the Keith balled trade). He had already traded away the 2010 2nd and the 2010 3rd. He decided to trade the 2010 pick anyways. Florida selected Howden with it, but kuznetsov, coyle, and Brock Nelson we’re all still on the board and they all went in the 5 spots after the Canucks original pick. The player the Canucks were targeting that dead in the first round was JARED TINORDI! They confirmed the trade to Florida after tinordi was picked at 22

Since he traded it away, the Canucks didn’t pick until the 4th round. Complete waste of a draft when so much talent was still on the board. Part of the trade to Florida included Michael Grabner who was a top prospect at the time. So he traded away a top prospect and then took a mulligan on the draft… an people wonder why the cupboards were so bare when he left.

At least he left us with our captain?

I wasn’t really super into drafting signings and whatnot. Back then I just enjoyed watching the Canucks dominate

Yeah me as well. I didn’t pay attention to prospects at all. Looking back on it though, Gillis made some incredibly short sighted moves and didn’t have the prospect system to back it up.

he isn't bad at signing RFAs ether