And how has the "adding on defence" priority worked out so far?
Toffoli had expressed his desire to stay with us several times before FA signing period began. Benning put him on the back burner and stopped communicating, while trying to get OEL and negotiating with Markstrom. Then for the worst, Benning chose to resign Virtanen with a backloaded 2-year deal. Well now Virtanen is a 7-8 minute 4th liner, or a healthy scratch.
There was a possibility to be able to offer Toffoli a similar deal to what he got from MTL, by letting Jake walk and being a little more creative with cap room management. At the very least, the management could have extended the window simply by keeping a communication channel open with Toffoli's camp. They didn't bother, just like they didn't bother talking to Tanev and Stecher.
Benning didn't run out of time. He let the time run out himself.