Harold Drunken

Man, sometimes Garland blows me away with how unbelievably smooth and shifty he can be.

Hughes was highly, highly rated. They were both projected top 10 if I'm not mistaken. People like to think Pettersson was some unknown or dark horse...he wasn't....he was on pretty much every scouts and analysts draft board top 10 near the draft. They were good picks, but they weren't wizardry or off the board miracles.

I agree his stamp is definitely on the team, no GM has a perfect record at the end of the day.

That's much better 100%

Those Anaheim jerseys are God awful..one of the leagues worst

Let's not sit here ans act like Pettersson and Hughes were some diamond in the rough scouting wizardry...they were pretty obvious picks. Benning was the GM for 7 years, if all we can thank him for is 2 top 10 picks and a goalie its kinda just proving the original point. If you add up how many picks in his 7 year run are on the team its not impressive, at all.

Canucks in March 20 pts out of a playoff spot.....

Very good point, there are going to be some very intense competitive series out east. Colorado is going to get healthy...I would not bet against them again.

Longggggg time coming. This is huge for the franchise, they needed to start using more resources on developing young talent....been a giant hole in this franchise for as along as I can remember.

To be fair, in large part they have done most things they said they were going to do.... Acquire players 25 or younger - done Acquire RHD defenseman 25 or younger - done Aquire picks/prospects - Done - with a caveat of using them to acquire young RHD What they haven't done yet is create cap space - they did but then they acquired Hronek which achieved something they said they were going to do but also canceled out one of these thigs (cap space). The cap space will be on off season task i'm sure. It's really tough to do one thing in this league without sacrificing the other, acquiring young RHD while not giving away picks or blue chip prospects is pretty much impossible. We can't improve the blueline without giving anything up....some want to improve the blueline but also keep all our picks and young players....doesn't work that way.

OEL was bad in Arizona too, he was bad here and he still is that's 3 coaches. His game has fallen off, his underlying and obvious numbers are terrible and this blueline does not look worse without him....he has the worst +/- on the team.... That's my point. I don't know why it's so hard for some fans to admit he's just not anywhere near the player he used to be, and having a roster spot open for someone else to complete and play isn't a bad thing. You have to earn the spot, and if someone is playing better than him they should play, pure and simple. I do agree, having Demko back will help and seemingly better structure under Tocchet...but that's just masking the problem of him not playing well at all.

At what point do you choose the lesser of two evils though? There's con's to not buying him out too. If a more serviceable or effective player could take his roster spot for less money, then why keep him on the team. He's not playing anywhere near an $8m dollar player. Brisbois looks like a better player right now for christ sake lol. OEL underlying numbers are terrible too, so if someone else could take his spot why wouldn't you? You shouldn't force a player into a roster spot just because they are expensive. If they hurt the team, they shouldn't be on it. Our blueline has looked just fine without him.....ACTUALLY they've looked better.

IMO just because Benning couldn't do it doesn't mean JR/PA can't. Benning made a lot of poor trades and FA signings that handcuffed this team long term, when people compare what Benning did and say he tried it so it can't be done is a lack of logic. I have more faith that someone with Rutherford's resume can do it than Benning.

Why?

It's really not that complicated or difficult for them to get cap compliant next year. Making a mountain out of a molehill, they have many options.

Good on him, he's been pretty solid since being called up.

Demko back + new coach + our history = me not surprised the least bit

Oh 100% having Demko back is huge he's been the big reason same with last year he carried them.Silovs as well he's obviously better than Martin and Delia.

Classic.

When they changed coaches...we pretty much new the play would improve. I'm not shocked, but I do want as high a pick as possible. This is much funner to watch though.

Totally. The last 10 games or so he's really stood out to me. He's reached another level.

Aman may be the future 3rd line centre honestly

Brisbois is better than I thought he was. He doesn't look out of place at all.

Podkolzin is a much more confident player since he's been called up.

Man oh man...if Podz can take that next step and evolve into our future Power forward...that would sure help things.