ken kaniff

Benning hired Green is what I meant. How many times have teams seen a huge bump after a coach change? Pretty common. How long can they keep it up for. Regardless just because the team is doing well now doesn’t excuses the 8 years of Benning’s screw ups prior. If JB wasn’t so bad and if we had a competent GM this team would have been ready to compete 2-3 years ago.

Benning hired the coach? If it was all the coaches fault this team sucked then Benning is to blame for not firing him and getting a good coach. So just add that to the long long list of everything else Benning did wrong

If they’re going to go with a rookie GM this is how you do it. Established President. Established Coach. Guys who have been in the NHL for a while and have a proven track record to support the rookie GM. Not whatever the hell we were doing the last 8 years with a rookie GM, Coaches, President. The last 8 years were a total fail because Aqua didn’t set anyone up for success

Honestly I just didn’t know any better with Green tbh. With Willy D and Green I guess I forgot what an NHL coach looks like but now that Bruce has taken over the system in place matches the NHL game and the team so much better than what Green did. They don’t look like they’re just collapsing around the goalies anymore which is a huge win. As for Gillis, ya he didn’t leave much for Benning in terms of prospects but Edler and Tanev were still relatively young and good players when Benning took over. Tanev and Edler are still both serviceable NHL players. Benning knew where the team was when he took over but could never build an even average defence his whole tenure

I hated Benning for years. I thought he was an awful GM and I’m still pretty confident I could have done better. But now that he has gone and I have calmed down a bit, looking back… He was still not very good, but maybe not as bad as I thought. Yes the team is now competitive but teams often get a bump when a coach is fired mid season, let’s see how long this last for. And there is still some glaring issues with this team. The defence is still not very good. OEL, Hughes and Myers are the only NHL level dmen on the team. The rest are fringe NHL players. The forward group is above average but the depth is still lacking imo. Prospects are almost non existent. Yes the noteworthy prospects have graduated to the NHL club but considering we were supposed to be rebuilding and Benning being a “great drafter” it’s still disappointing how many picks he traded away, or let prospects with potential walk. Looking back I thought his 8 years were one step forward, 2 steps back. Draft a great prospect, signs some bad contracts. Make a good trade, have a bad draft and sign some bad contracts. Sign a good contract, make a bad trade. For every positive he had there were 2 negatives. I would give him a pass for some negatives but when average fans were saying his moves were bad and then they turn out as bad or worse then expected, that’s unforgivable. I think Benning made some good moves for sure, but I think this team is more of a result of sucking for 8 years and drafting high than Benning actually putting together a good team. I think without all the painfully obvious screw ups by Benning this team could have been competitive 2-3 years ago. I will give him credit for building a good foundation. Good young players. The best D-man in franchise history. A #1 G. Made some good trades to bring in supplementary talent. It took him a long time, longer than it needed to but there is the making of a great team here and that’s something a good GM and Rutherford can use to take this team to a Cup

Also isn’t Benning’s son an amateur scout for us without having any history of playing or scouting background? I don’t know if he’s good or not but it certainly sounds like a hire just because his Dad was the GM not because he actually deserves it.

Maybe you’re right. But he did play well last year under Green and I still feel the same. I don’t think you can blame everything on the coach but like you said I should wait until at least the trade deadline to see how he does

I think there are pieces to build off of, I’ll give Benning that much. 8 years of sucking and we actually have some good players. Horvat, Miller, Hoglander, Hughes, Demko and Podkolzin are all who I would keep. I’ve soured on Pettersson honestly. His comments in the off-season and his play this year have rubbed me the wrong way. And last year before his injury he wasn’t the player we saw in his rookie season either. He’s not a centre man in the NHL. I think he’s more of a RNH than a top tier player . and Boeser is too inconsistent to have as a 1st line RW.

I think Corey Hirsch said Benning and Weisbrod only bounced ideas off of each other and didn’t consult anyone else in regards to building the team so with them gone I think our pro level scouting will get a hell of a lot better.

More so Benning is gone that Green but I feel a spark of hope again

True Horvat and Hughes are good deals. Id say the Pettersson deal is debatable because he’s not playing anywhere close to that contract as is. And I agree about the Boeser contract as well

I didn’t expand on the bad either. Only thing I expanded on was the debatable section and why I think it could be debated one way or the other.

Positives: -Drafted 8 NHL level players: Elias Pettersson, Quinn Hughes, Brock Boeser, Nils Hoglander, Thatcher Demko, Vasili Podkolzin, Adam Gaudette, Jared McCann -Traded for JT Miller -Traded a 3rd for Derek Dorsett -Traded Bieksa for a 2nd -Traded Gudbranson for Pearson -Traded Shinkaruk for Granlund -Traded Carcone for Leivo -Signing Garland to a good contract -Signing Demko to a good contract -Signed and traded Vanek for Motte which has worked out well. -Signed Vrbata -Signed Miller Debatable: -Trading for OEL and Garland (Both are doing well but having to give up the 9th overall and a 2nd to get rid of the bad contracts JB signed is rough. OEL’s contract is tough to swallow, since imo he’s not living up to it. Good defensively but not putting up any offence) -Let Markstrom walk for nothing (Vezina calibre G. I understand that Demko showed he was ready to take over but Marky was MVP for 2 years in a row) -Traded for Toffoli (Big price to give up for 17 games, then didn’t even try and sign him when he fit so well with the team) -Traded a 2nd for Baertschi (Baer had a few good seasons then got injured. Then never given a chance to make it back on the team despite playing better than certain players like Virtanen and Player Name) -Ryan Kesler for Luca Sbisa, Nick Bonino, 1st + 3rd (I understand Kesler only allowed a trade to Anaheim, Chicago or Pittsburgh but the return was underwhelming regardless) -Traded Jason Garrison + for a 2nd (By itself that would be a good trade but what was used with the pick is negative) -Signed Travis Green as HC (Green has high regard around the league and honestly think he gets way too much hate) -Traded Hansen for Goldobin (I was ok with the trade itself but didn’t develop Goldy or even let him have a chance with the team) -Traded Burrows for Dahlen (Again I was good with the trade but didn’t develop him and traded him for a nothing) -Traded Lack for a 3rd Bad: -Missed on Juolevi, Virtanen and every other draft pick so far (Draft Guru lol) -Traded McCann AND a 2nd for Erik Gudbranson -Traded Nick Bonino, Clendening and a 2nd for Sutter and a 3rd -Traded a 2nd for Linden Vey -Traded a 3rd for Dickinson -Traded Gaudette for Highmore (This was a downgrade at the time. Gaudette came off a good season. Highmore is an AHL player) -Traded Kassian and a 5th for Prust -Traded a 3rd for Nate Schmidt then traded him for a 3rd -Traded Dahlen for Linus Karlsson -Let Tanev, Toffoli, Vrbata, Hamhuis, Edler, Stecher walk for nothing -Let Goldobin, Lind and Gadjovich go for nothing (Lind and Gadj are draft misses for JB) -Signed Willie D as a coach (He just wasn’t a good NHL coach from the start) -Signed Virtanen then bought him out after 1 season -Signed Jay Beagle -Signed Michael Ferland (He had concussion issues already) -Signed Tyler Myers -Signed Antoine Roussel -Signed Loui Player Name -Signed Braden Holtby then bought him out after 1 season -Signed Tucker Poolman -Signed Hamonic -Signed Sven Baertschi then put him in the minors after 1 season -Signed Gagner -Overpayed Tanner Pearson -Overpayed Brandon Sutter -Overpayed Erik Gudbranson There are other smaller moves that are either slightly negative or slightly positive. They don’t mean anything imo and come out to about even. Most of the Debatable points ultimately turned out negative for the team. Benning is a bad GM. I don’t see how you look at this list and say he was good after 8 seasons.