189lb enforcers?

I know he comes across as a country bumpkin-type, but he’s been surrounded by progressive hockey management for decades now. He doesn’t strike me as old school, even though he looks like Elmer Fudd. Taking EP and QH over old school guys in the drafts were evidence enough of that. I actually like Benning, the man. He’d be welcome around my fire any time.

I can’t recall the org doing it’s very best (cap rosters) not to (build through the draft).

And somewhere our friend Alflives will be slurring his words and watching this death roll too. Cheers @Alflives

If... if this team can find chemistry during the playoffs, look the puck out. Spezza, Jumbo and Nick provide a ton of experience, leadership and all the tricks you can stuff into a bag big enough to for a Cup. I like the Jets too, but I don’t think they’re going to ever do anything over there, they’re cursed too or something.

Yes, but... the Canucks are notorious slump buster-material for rival teams. Notorious. The team is cursed. @IBatchknows and probably, other silver wings too.

7-1 Toronto Matthews

Lind. Gadjo too, but Lind could be one of those guys who just needs NHL talent to take his game to his ceiling, fast.

With cap teams... Manager of the year.

Yet, his aversion to acquiring draft capital. Bizarre. Picking at the top of each round is probably statistically verifiable to “produce talent”, which is where his cap teams have finished. I think it’s critical to remember why he was picking high, not what he did once he fell there.

All good, but we differ on the bolded. Happy to have a path, even if it was forged by blind man, ...there is a path from then to now. I will state though, that even though I love EP and QH, I’m not sure I’d build around them... I know, this will pin the eyebrows of readers to their hairlines... Playoff hockey and longevity in this sport are at odds with their body types and styles, IMO. Hate to say it, but a balanced playoff team could be built out of returns for one or both. This org isn’t really all that deep where it counts, but could be via trades like that, not that I’m foreseeing a GM ballsy enough to trade ONE, let alone two, franchise players... before they’re even out of their first contracts! IR mainstay EP and QH being brutalized in the playoffs is something I think is a high probability, once the team gets going. Remember you heard it here and the flack I’ll get for suggesting it’s likelihood.

Why? Because intent matters. What did JB intend to do with those cap teams? Did he intend it to buy lottery tickets? Because that was the result. It matters that he spent to the cap because without acknowledging how JB’s cap teams still failed and tanked hard, how is this an appropriate assessment of his tenure here as GM? God of the Gaps, stuff... I know the canned response to follow my own, much like the distraction you just deployed here in reminding us that it’s not our money, etc., that what comes next are the staple posts like “competitive environment, winning culture”, those PR-bent slogans, but there is no hiding from the result of those cap-intentions, and JB’s failure to deliver either slogan. Rather than hire Ruutu and other honest pros on PTOs during those Miller, Vrbrata, Gagme RE-thingy years, he sold the fans on the fixing of the PP and all kinds of strategy and budget logic as to his “plan”, but the results were exactly the opposite. This is fact. Let’s not forget his IR-mainstay roster too, classic Benning there. Then there was the whole age-gap replaceathon thing... what the heck was that? Again, PTOs and college kids could have solved most of that supposed gap, but instead he traded rebuild capital for ‘certain aged players’ to the NHL roster via trades. Why? Because they were a certain age... yeah, ‘real good’ move there, JB. Along with his miserable coaching experiments, suckcessess, that was founded on a fallacy anyways. It’s still as laughable as it is subjective. Again, there was a cost to that as well, cap-wise. If the plan was to finish within lotto contention, then that was the most expensive rebuild in NHL history. This ‘ plan’ can be spun to show how generous FA was for giving fans an expensive roster during those RE-thingy years, but that wouldn’t be a serious person’s deduction. Nor would it be honest, as any manager should know. Nobody has ever been handed a budget and told to go dump it over a cliff... well except for maybe the Liberal government. Bottom line for critical thought regarding his intentions of spending to the cap, is that he failed to execute; still landed at the bottom in spite of himself; and even while there, he still mismanaged draft capital, seemingly at every opportunity. To state that cap and roster cost is not a paramount consideration in an assessment of his results as GM is to have contempt for thought. Of course he must be measured on his intended VS the actual result, regarding cost. It is an exceedingly dishonest take to suggest, in print, that cost shouldn’t be factored into assessing his tenure here. Lastly, what did JB actually do during this tenure that was intentional, besides the actual draft selection from him unintentional draft position, all these years? Very few examples, I’m sure, compared to his intended results/Plan/Vision. The guy has rebuilt a team out of the silver linings of his mismanagement, hence why I’ve labeled it as an accidental rebuild. Imagine if he had succeeded with those cap teams? Where would the new core be then? This was the first season he should have been measured on intended results. I was hoping he’d be anyways, but nahhh, the virus swoops in like last year and he gets a few more excuses to be possibly kept around. Guy has a horseshoe up his ass, too bad it didn’t rub off on the team too.

Necessary

So, which player from the Canucks would you pick if you were Seattle? Does your choice impact how you view the move?

Meh, subjective exchanges are down this road for us. Respectfully, I don’t think there is value in comparing an NHL shift and AG’s medical issues to whatever you’re likely conflating yours with.

Big picture-wise, he didn’t trade the actual cap sea-anchors. Instead, he trades what was easy to. I could have done that. GM of the year. It was so minor compared to the contracts he’s sitting on and being hid all over the place. That’s a sad reality.

I’d like to think that most posters are aware of his awful defensive game, but these stats make it very clear. Nice one. Think Ron Francis is going to add his “character”?? Who doesn’t want someone like Bowie, posting crackhead-ish videos of himself, when assembling a culture from scratch? Quite the expansion draft-fodder gamble by JB here. Really, who would take this guy? Only us... and we traded to do it, rather than using the wire.

Draft God Emperor has no cloths. If CHI is surrendering young D right now, buyer beware.

True, as is the sad reality that he was forced to make those moves instead of those he can’t, like LE, etc. It feels better in the feelz to ponder the silver linings in his deals than the dismal reality of mismanagement, behind them.

I give him credit for playing at 172lbs with low energy levels. Anyone who plays sports should immediately understand how useless you feel when playing even just with the flu. The kid did ok in my books, considering. Don’t really mind/hate the trade as much as I do the return commodity, which is arguably the second most easily ascertained value out there, next to one-dimensional, smallish soft skill. I’d rather he was traded for toughness or something the organization lacks. I think JB just made a hole. All will need to go well to see AGs hole filled within. Sound like Canucks Luck??

Two Dmen Oompa Loompas on the same roster?

I guess they couldn’t have gotten this value in January or whatever... Why now? Had OJ, etc. in a taxi during a developmental year to ice a deep, competitive D corps. Same with AG. I get the deals, I’m just wondering if they couldn’t have been made before. I guess the playoffs are finally not JBs focus for once, well since dumping Burrows, etc. JB doesn’t ever make it easy on himself, does he; there’s always a reason to seriously question his management. Good luck to a fellow BC boy who was a great character player for us for what he was brought in to do. I suspect he will fill in nicely in WPG, and I hope he continues to prove he belongs in the league so he can get another contact.

Shhh, someone might hear you having an opinion... Whisper it to me, or it may cost you your career. The New Normal... insert sheep sounds for effect, or possibly an Orwell quote-prophecy.

Of all times or players for JB to acquire draft picks... WPG apparently values the guy for playoff hockey more than the Canucks do. I get it, one team are sellers, while the other are buyers, as is evident in the rebuilding efforts made by the Canucks. The seller-cellar Canucks have thrown in the towel on their season and playoff hopes by purging their least expensive, but redundant vets and depth players for... for... for... Classic Benning “Plan”.

Get off your sanctimonious pedestal with your preaching. As if masks prevent the transmission of the virus, which must be a baseline stance of any “anti mask” person or narrative. You may argue their effectiveness, sure, but that’s not your premise here, which is on several pages in here. You’re trying to publicly shame the Gawds for having an opinion, which is a variant cancel culture virus. I’d rather the brown coats put that mask-muzzle on you, but whatever... continue your slant as the surrogate NPC-voice of the outrage mob, in a hockey trade thread.