JamesB Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 During the summer Benning made a lot of moves. Those moves were extensively discussed at the time but of course we did not know how they would work out. Now is not a bad time to make an assessment. I have listed the major moves more or less in order and have graded them. (This is a long post. If you are not interested, just don't read it instead of complaining about the length. But I would love to read other comments.) 1. Trading Kesler for Bonino, Sbisa, 1st round pick (McCann): Grade A. Kesler is good player, good on the PK, good on the PP, good on shutdown, contributes to the physical game, good skater, good in the face-off circle, good shot, generates significant offense. But he is surly at the best of times and this is not the best of times. He wanted to be traded and we now know he was a major problem "in the room" -- damaging team morale. Just getting rid of him helped morale. Bonino has taken his place at 2C and has done pretty well. He has provided decent secondary scoring despite playing with wingers who are more like 3rd liners than 2nd liners. He plays well on the PK and is a responsible 2-way player. And his cap hit of $1.9 miillion is a bargain and is a big saving on Kesler's cap his of $5 million. Sbisa was probably 7th on the depth chart in Anaheim. He was expected to be a solid third pairing guy on the Canucks who could challenge for a top 4 spot. He played some top 4 while Hamhuis was injured and was overmatched, leading to the worst plus/minus on the team. But he is a solid 3rd pairing guy if paired with a stay-at-home partner. He is probably not quite as good as expected but has still helped the team. McCann missing training camp and the first part of the junior season because of mono. And even after coming back it would have taken a while to get back to full strength, But he has played well since then. He looks very likely to be on the Canadian world juniors next year. So far he is about what would be expected for a good pick in the second half of the 1st round or maybe a bit better. Also, Kesler only had 2 years left (including this year) on his contract, after which he would have been gone anyway. And the cap space freed up with his depature made it possible to sign Miller. 2. Signing Ryan Miller: Grade B+ Miller is an elite veteran goalie who is probably slightly past his prime. The price tag of 6 million per year for 3 years seemed high. Many people wanted to go with Lack and Markstrom. After some ups and downs Miller seems to have established himself among the top third of NHL starters -- pretty similar to Luongo and Schneider. 6 million is still pricey and he might experience age-related decline over the next two seasons. However, my guess is the Canucks would not be playoff contenders without him this year. 3. Trading Garrison for a second round pick, creating cap room to sign Vrbata: Grade B. The Garrison trade was all about creating cap room. Trading Kesler provided enough room for the JB's top priority --getting Miller and trading Garrison made room for the second priority -- getting a legitimate top line sniper. Vrbata is very good and is earning his cap hit of $5 million, but Garrison is a good D who is playing well in Tampa and who liked being in Vancouver. And his "fancy stats" are very good. Personally, I liked Garrison and did not like trading him. Sbisa was his replacement but Sbisa is nowhere near as good as Garrison. However Vrbata has been an excellent sniper and leads the Canucks in goals (by a big margin) with 18. However, he is not great defensively and has probably hurt the first line's defense relative to playing Hansen or Burrows with the Sedins. On the whole I think this deal helped the team, but by less than many people think, 4. Using the second round pick obtained for Garrison to pick up Vey: Grade C+. The alternative was to re-sign Santorelli and used the pick to draft McKeown -- a solid defensive prospect. I like Vey and he is young enough that he might continue to improve significantly. He is a strong offensive talent who scored a lot more in junior and in the AHL than Shinkaruk, for example. And he has helped the team this year. That is pretty good value for a second round pick. But Santorelli would have helped the team more this year and the Canucks would have had another good prospect. Too early to asses how good this move is. 5. Trading a 3rd round pick for Dorsett: B+ Dorsett has played well and is much better than the expected value of a 3rd round pick, And his cap hit is low. But he is a UFA after this year, so the Canucks really only got one year in return for the pick. They might re-sign him next year but they probably could has signed him next year anyway in the UFA market it they wanted to. 6. Draft: A In the first round the Canucks picked Virtanen instead of Nylander with the #6 pick. We won't know for a while which player will be better in the NHL. Nylander was much better at the world juniors but his skill set will not necessarily transfer to the NHL. By now all of CDC has convinced themselves that Virtanen was the right pick. I personally favored Nylander before the draft but now favor Virtanen. This could go either way. But the picks of McCann in the late first, Demko in the second round, Tryamkin in the 3rd round, and Forsling in the 5th round look fantastic at this stage. And even Petit in the 6th round looks like a serious prospect. It looks like JB got more in one draft than Gillis got in any 3 drafts. Overall: B+ Benning made enough good moves to transform a fading team into a playoff contender. I am not sure that is the best strategy for long run success, but he is probably doing as much as the owner could have hoped for to make the team competitive this year. 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desiboynux4lifee******* Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Next four games will tell benning what he needs to do. Ps im not sure when the deadline is but we play Ducks, Buffalo, Minny, Jets Winnipeg and the ducks will be good measuring stick games before the deadline and teams like Minnesota will be interesting. I feel Minnesota hasn't hit there stride yet, and Buffalo is a coin flip. Either way if we go 1-3 or 1-3-1 I hope Benning starts finally trading away some of the core. eg Higgins, Bieska, Burrows, Hansen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
messier's_elbow Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 If he makes deals we don't want any old vets we have enough of those... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lychees Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Not gonna lie, Dorsett is easily an A for me. Loving what he brings to the table game in and game out, it's easy to discount him on the 3rd/4th line but he's been vital on that line in all aspects Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HC20.0 Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Really, only Vey and Sbisa are looking iffy so far, and Vey's only a rookie. I like what Benning's done. Especially with the draft we had. I know everyone's peeved that Garrison's having a good year, but he never quite fit in here, and there was even talk of buying him out before we traded him. Glad he landed on his feet. But his trade got us Vrbata, who has been a scorer we desperately needed, so I wouldn't undo it at all. We're no contender, but at least we're trying to win instead of tanking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canuckpuckluck1 Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 I think it's time to look at selling this year. Today the Canucks showed they are not good enough to compete in the playoffs. Tampa is a pretty good team with great top end skill, and very handy defence matched with some serious speed. That was one thing that stood out to me, they transitioned so quickly and really made the Canucks look slow. Here's the kicker though.....I don't think Tampa is a cup winning team! Sure the Canucks were on the backend of a road trip....backend of a double header......4 games in 4 days etc but really that's just like the play offs isn't it? What's the point of limping into the playoffs when the Canucks could offload some older players or players that aren't going to improve the team next year, in return the team can stockpile some more picks, clear some cap space to pick up experienced players at the deadline that will improve the team for next year or wait until the draft and work some deals. It also allows the coach to play more of the younger guys so they can gain more experience, without heaping pressure on them. I for one have really enjoyed the way the team started the season and feel it is moving in the right direction, I agree with WD , Benning and Linden with the creation of winning culture as opposed to TANKING, but I struggle to see the benefit of being ushered from the playoffs in 4 games and having a roster that is difficult to change in the off season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canuktravella Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 only old vet id consider would be jagr but he plays like a 30 yr old id love seeing a jagr sedin vrbata line and a sedin bonino vey line Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canuktravella Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 hansen higgins and sbisa need to be gone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rounoush Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 hansen higgins and sbisa need to be gone LOL? Hansen has been a stud for us and Sbisa gets an unnecessary bad rap from the fans. Higgins, on the other hand, has definitely been playing his way right off the team. I really like the guy, though, so I want him to do well but it's been a pretty bad year for him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DefCon1 Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 hansen higgins and sbisa need to be gone Hansen has how many goals again? Playing on the 4th line...He is hitting double digits on the 4th line and having a great year and you want to get rid of him? why? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hatedkid666 Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Draft should be A+ all actually good prospects Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Industrious1 Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 So hard to rate something like draft selection...especially in the first year. I will say that Horvat has gone above and beyond what most people have expected, which is a nice surprise considering the Canucks level of success with rookies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nux4lyfe Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Yep, Dorsett get's an 'A' from me as well, does everything he's been asked too, solid pick up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nuxfanabroad Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 An enjoyable read, & pretty accurate ratings. Seemed objective with some good insight/explanation for the casual fan. Nicely done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canorth Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Yep, Dorsett get's an 'A' from me as well, does everything he's been asked too, solid pick up. put it on his jersey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeremyCuddles Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Dorsett is a B+ in my books. He's prone to bad penalties sometimes. But other then that he's a beaut. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuck nit Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 I think it's time to look at selling this year. Today the Canucks showed they are not good enough to compete in the playoffs.Sure the Canucks were on the backend of a road trip....back end of a double header......4 games in 4 days etc but really that's just like the play offs isn't it?What's the point of limping into the playoffs....Yeah,the Canucks were playing on the road,back end of a double header,four games in 4 days,etc....That is nothing like playoffs.Both teams travel and both teams are equally worn out.The Bolts were at home for one full week and played but two fairly easy games before the Canucks showed up.Still,the game was pretty even until the third period. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Standing_Tall#37 Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 I'd say Miller was an A. Without him it woulda been a loooooong season but....I'm sure we woulda been in position to draft McDavid/Eichel/Hanifin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nux4lyfe Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Dorsett is a B+ in my books. He's prone to bad penalties sometimes. But other then that he's a beaut. Well what do you expect from an 'enforcer'? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lonny_Bohonos_14 Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Next four games will tell benning what he needs to do. Ps im not sure when the deadline is but we play Ducks, Buffalo, Minny, Jets Winnipeg and the ducks will be good measuring stick games before the deadline and teams like Minnesota will be interesting. I feel Minnesota hasn't hit there stride yet, and Buffalo is a coin flip. Either way if we go 1-3 or 1-3-1 I hope Benning starts finally trading away some of the core. eg Higgins, Bieska, Burrows, Hansen. Deadline is March 2nd, so there is lots of time to evaluate. That said, I don't believe anything other than a huge tear or a complete bomb will change Bennings plan. He's been pretty steadfast on staying competitive, but not mortgaging the future. I could see Sbisa being dealt - I think Corrado has shown that he deserves to stay - but other than that, I think we ride into the sunset with essentially the same roster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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