canucklehead44

No I am judging the countless horrible trades and signings, bad contracts, net negative accumulation of picks. No 1st round picks and just one 2nd round pick over two draft years. Benning almost redeemed himself. All he had to do was resign Tanev & Toffoli. Instead he resigned Virtanen (who was awful in the bubble run), acquired Schmidt (who was a terrible fit with Hughes and Edler on the left side), and paid a struggling backup in Holtby 4.3 million. Then things got worse with the OEL trade. To trade a top 10 pick and 2nd rounder to get saddle with one of the worst contracts in the league is pure insanity

One thing some analysts pointed out when we signed Eriksson was his ability to get points off the PP from point shots. Boston was 1st in shots from the point, Vancovuer last. Age and speed were also concerns. The Eriksson deal was bad at the time but was far worse than it should have been. I kind of give Benning a pass for that mistake. Gudbranson was far worse. There was a leaked scouting list that had DeBrincat in the first round. Gudbranson couldn’t skate and he handled the puck like a grenade - awful pro scouting

Benning also left Allvin in a terrible position when you look at the picks leading up to and including his first draft. When you consider Benning took over a team that was a recent contender Vs Allvin taking over a team that had been one of the worst over the last stretch of years that is unacceptable 2012 - 1st, 2nd 2013 - 1st (9th overall), 1st 2014 - 1st (6th overall), 1sr, 2nd Vs 2020 - no top two rounds 2021 - 2nd 2022 - 1st (15th overall) Benning also had Garrison, Bieksa who he moved for 2nds. He fumbled moving Hamhuis. Hansen and Burrows also got pretty good return. Allvin had Hamonic who he moved for a 3rd, Tyler Motte for a 4th, and Horvat. I would have much rather taken over the team when Benning got it. Clear four year rebuild. Keep the Sedins as mentors, stockpile picks, and weaponize cap space. Allvin didn’t have that luxury. Hughes and EP are close to entering their primes, there are some horrible un-moveable contracts in the books, and the pipeline was empty. I don’t think a rebuild when Allvin took over would have made sense especially after nearly a decade of pain

It is actually insane. And we would have missed the playoffs the other year too if not for Covid so if anything Benning was actually lucky - that is how bad is was. The fact he gave a 27 year old with 107 nhl games coming off a 1 point season a contract worth 10 million dollars summarizes just how inept the man was. And he did crazy things like that over and over again. So far Allvin had done a very good job with the players he brought in - although the jury is out on Hronek. Still, Hronek is legit - his defensive metrics and PK numbers were exceptional to go with his offensive output - he was one of the top two way defenseman in the NHL last year. Gudbranson, OEL, Myers have had seasons where they were near the worst in the entire NHL - and the amount we gave up in picks and cap for those guys is extraordinary. I have a good feeling about next season and Allvin’s capabilities.

Why did you put Vey under Gillis? That was Benning. And Lmao Matthias when he was third on the team in goals and got hot down the stretch? Also Lack was a major reason we made the playoffs he played lights out when Miller went down during the push. How anyone can defend Benning is beyond me. Allvin so far has been a massive improvement - but I guess we will see if the on ice success follows

The GM actually has very little to do with drafting, outside of the top 10. Benning (although might be the fault of Aqua) went against the scounts pick of Larkin and picked Virtanen. He hated the McCann pick, to the point of throwing his scouts under the bus, and tosses McCann away for nothing and he becomes a 40 goal scorer. And who did he bring in that was so brilliant? Brackett was hired by Gillis, and the rest of the guys (Delorme, Gradin) have been around for a long time. 2015 Boeser was a good pick, but BPA was Konecny and mock drafts had us taking Carlo. I'd trade Boeser for either of those guys in a hearbeat. In 2016 we take Juolevi over Tkachuk. Very stupid at the time, aged even worse. 2017 Benning wants Cody Glass. Becomes a huge controvery - but thankfully Delorme saves the day and we select EP. 2018 Hughes was consensus 2019 - Podkolzin and Hoglander were BPA - no issue here. 2020 - Brackett is gone, Benning trades away picks and we have no pick in the top two rounds during a rebuild 2021 Only a 2nd round pick in the first four rounds. Creating a massive gap in the pipeline I think Benning gets way too much credit when it comes to drafting. I think we could have had a potato as a GM and our picks would have been as good if not better. I also believe player development is also a big part of a GM's role, and Mike Gillis made the brilliant move of orchestrating the purchase of an AHL team. The relationship with the Chicago Wolves was one reason why our player development took a hit. Also during Benning's tenure he was quick to dismiss or demote a lot of prospects. Jordan Schroeder for example was an infitenly better player than Linden Vey but we tossed aside Schroeder to pay a 2nd for Vey, gift him with premium minutes only to have him absolutely suck.

I remember that moment as well. I was so ready to celebrate and went from a massive high to a massive low. Olli Juolevi was the guy I didn't want us to draft. I didn't believe Tkachuk would fall to 5th, was happy with PLD, secretly wanted Chychrun and would have been fine with Sergachev. Thought Olli seemed so medicore compared to Chychrun & Sergachev and his stats were heavily boosted by the teams he played on. The other time was when Kopitar fell to 10th. If Michkov drops to #11 we better take him haha.

Boeser + 11th + 89 for Dubois + 18

This is true - most hockey writers and analysts blasted the Canucks for the signing. Boston fans said he was a 3rd line player. He picked up a tonne of points on the power play in front of the net with a team that lead the league in shots from the point - Vancouver was last in that category. Also his age, money, and length committed didn't make a tonne of sense. That said - Loui was waaaaaay worse than he should have been. He at the very least should have been around 20 goals, 0.5 points per game and a great penalty killer/defensive player. Instead he maxed out at 11 goals, never hit 30 points, and was a solid penalty killer but at the end of the day the player we got should have been like 3 years x 2 million. If Loui was the only really bad signing I would have given Benning a pass - but the list of terrible signings he made in addition to Loui makes me dizzy. If I were to give one mulligan during Benning's tenure it is Eriksson. For Gillis it is Ballard. For Nonis it is the Naslund signing. For Burke it is the Potvin trade. These deals all ended up a lot worse than they should have and were not necessariy terrible at the time.

Boeser & Myers for Johansen & Fabbro. Bring home the two BC boys!

On Ice Success: 3/10 Cap Management: 2/10 Vision: 3/10 Trades: 4/10 Signings: 2/10 Drafting: 5/10 Player Development: 2/10 AVERAGE: 3/10 What went well: I think he actually had a decent start. Picked up some 2nd round picks for Bieksa & Garrison. Even though the Kesler trade often appears on the "worst trades" list I think it was once of his better deals. Bonino was a cheaper and relatively decent stop gap and McCann developed into a 40 goal scorer. He got the team to the playoffs in the first season and Miller, Vrbata, and Bonino were a fairly big part of that success. He also seemed to turn things around a bit in 2019 - felt like he had good pieces in place after drafting EP, Quinn Hughes, acquired Miller, and Toffoli had a good stint with EP. That team had some success in the playoffs. Where he failed: Vision. Things always felt rushed, he made so many awful short sighted signings that really hampered us. It is unbelivable how he spent to the cap, managed to have one of the worst teams in the league over the stretch of his tenure, and still traded away and downgraded more picks than acquired. Two moments are pivotal in my mind: 2016 - Drafting Juolevi, signing Eriksson, and trading for Gudbranson. The 2nd round pick in the Gudbranson trade would have gotten us DeBrincat according to the leaked draft list. McCann has turned into a very good first line player - Gudbranson was a cap burden who was traded for Pearson who is now another cap burden. 2020 - We finally had a good team. And instead of signing Tanev, Toffoli, Leivo, Stecher, and Markstom (which I can understand), he acquired Schmidt, retained Virtanen, and signed Holtby. Tanev was the best partner for Hughes, Toffoli the best linemate for EP, and Leivo was fantastic in a depth role and Stecher was very solid his time here. He moved what worked for two guys who got bought out and one guy who got traded for a 3rd and didn't fit at all. If we kept Tanev and Toffoli at least I think we could have remained playoff contenders. Breaking down the indivual moves by our new management group and despite a lack of on ice success the trades and signigns so far have been mostly very good. The same can't be said for Benning. He made more bad moves, and the bad moves ended up being very detrimental. He also did a horrible job building up the pipeline, developing guys, and promoting from within. Not a single skater (IE non goalie) developed with the Comets and became an NHL regular. I think that is crucial for success and cap management. Either guys made the NHL right away or they were cast away forever. Gaunce is a good example of a player who was messed up with his developement - a young player with 89% defensive zone starts (leage leading), and only two forwards with a better +/- (and sparkling defensive stats - plus a decent 4 goals in 37 games) just tossed aside for expensive older players who were so much worse. We have already seen Allvin and CO utilize the Comets far better for actually develping players. Good Trades Garrison for 2nd 3rd for Dorsett Kesler for Bonino, Sbisa, McCann 2nd for Bieksa Burrows for Dahlen Vanek for Motte Carcone for Leivo Gudbranson for Pearson 1st & 3rd for Miller Good Signings (UFA) Markstrom 3 x 3.6 Hamonic 1x1.25 Vanek 1x2 Schenn 2x0.85 Burroughs 2x0.75 Bad Trades 2nd for Vey 3rd for Pedan Forsling for Clendening Kassian + 5th for Prust 2nd, Bonino, Clendening for Sutter, 3rd McCann, 2nd, 4th for Gudbranson + 5th Pedan + 4th for Pouliot 3rd for Dickinson OEL TRADE Bad Signings (UFA) Loui Eriksson 6x6 Tyler Myers 5x6 Sutter 5 x 4.4 Holtby 2 x 4.3 Gudbranson 3 x 4 Sbisa 3x3.6 Ferland 4 x 3.5 Baertschi 3 x 3.4 Pearson 3x3.25 Gagner 3 x3.125 Del Zotto 2x3 Beagle 4x3 Roussel 4x3 Hamonic 2x3 Nillsson 2x2.5 Poolman 4x2.5 Benn 2x2 Schaller 2x1.9 OK Trades 2nd for Baerschi Shinkaruk for Granlund 3rd & 7th for Lack Jensen + 6th for Etem 5th for Larsen Hansen for Goldobin + 4th Schaller, 2nd, 4th, Madden for Toffoli 3rd for Schmidt and Schmidt for 3rd Gaudette for Highmore Dahlen for Karlsson OK Signings (UFA) Miller 3x6 Vrbata 2x5 Dorsett 4x2.65 Weber 1x0.75

He was actually a very good 4th liner up until this past season, then his defensive metrics went from good to awful. I don't think he is an NHL player anymore. Maybe a PTO.

It is insane how over rated Juolevi became because of a WJC that was stacked. Sergachev was OHL defenseman of the year, bigger, more physical, and put up better numbers on a team that was nowhere near as good. Juolevi had 9 points in 7 WJC games where JP (17 points) Aho (14 points) and Laine (13 points) were 1,2,3 in scoring. The following year he had 2 points in 6 games. Sergachev and Chychrun didn't play. I remember when Hodgson lead the WJC in scoring with 16 points in 6 games and Schroeder was 4th with 11 in 6 - we thought we had legit superstars haha.

LMAO Kiefer Bellows and Kyle Burroughs basically the same thing

I agree. Schenn was productive offensively but a bit of a nightmare defensively - I think due to his lack of foot speed. I don't mind bringing him back for $900k because of his physicality and leadership. Burroughs doesn't have the size but I think he is a better depth dman, especially on the PK - so he might be the better option.

Same. He won’t play at an $8.3M level, but if he can play at say a $5M level we will be ok which is what he did his first season.

Yea that works as well. My thought was dropping Myers and adding Murphy instead of taking the later picks but I’d be happy with that. Using Garland/Boeser interchangeably (doesn’t matter who goes where) over two deals we could do something like: Out Boeser Garland 11OA In Johansson 19OA 35OA 46OA + late picks We replace the two wingers for $1.6 (AM & PDG?) and net out $2M in cap space, solve our centre issue, and gain two 2nd round picks and maybe a few more later ones. Nashville has a lot of guy we who can play centre and tonnes of picks as well.

If he can be as good as he was his first year here with a solid partner like Bear or Hronek I think he won't be such a burden. He does play tough minutes. With Bear his numbers were alright it was with Schenn and Myers he really struggled.

All of these players kinda suck.

Murphy is a very good defensive defenseman and brings size at 6'4 212 (160 hits) - he is worth more than AB/Boeser/Garland. And he isn't that old - just turned 30, with 3 years remaining. So it isn't like he is a cap dump - he makes our D better. Could be a great partner for Hughes or play on the right side of a shutdown pair.

Beauvillier (or Boeser) + Myers + 11OA for 19OA + Murphy. Chicago gets rid of a longer term contract on an aging player outside of their compete window, move up, and get two pending free agents they can flip at the deadline. Garland for Johansson + 46OA. Nashville gets a more productive player on a cheaper salary. Johansson comes home, gets a change of scenery - only two years remaining on contract. We get a good albeit overpriced 2nd line centre. These moves upgrade our right side D, centre, plus we backfill our missing 2nd round pick and save 2.6M in cap space. Cap out = 15M Cap in = 12.4M

He was the best out of the awful 2016 signings. Still a bad contract but at least he stuck around and averaged around a 40 point pace.

Worth retaining his rights - he wasn’t quite good enough to stick. Maybe give him one more shot if he has matured in Russia after two seasons.

I think because it is different groups. The GM is much more involved in pro scouting than in amateur scouting, so McCann and Forsling "weren't his guys". He actually got angry at the scouts for picking McCann. Even with Pettersson, Benning was very much against the pick. Judd Brackett was behind a lot of the picks (EP was pushed by Delorme and Forsling was a Gradin find). I think there was some power struggle and Brackett left, with 2019 being his last draft. I am not sure if 2020/2021/2022 will even produce a single NHL regular at this stage, especially 2020 & 2021 (I am still somewhat opitmistic on JL, DPetey, and KK). Benning seemed to have a disdain for guys who "weren't his" and would have had a lot of success leaving things alone a bit more. A good example is letting Schroeder walk and spending a 2nd on Vey. Sure Schroeder had some injury problems but he never really got a chance and was stuck on the 4th line. Vey was given 2nd line opporutnity, PP, with much worse results. We could have just kept Schroeder, who is the better player, and kept a 2nd rounder. There was also Nick Bonino and Brandon Sutter. Bonino was actually very good in his one season but even though Benning acquired him, it was more due to Kesler restricting where he wanted to go. Sutter was a pretty good player and unfortunately had a lot of injuries here but when you account for downgrading an other pick, using up way more cap, and getting into an ugly contract we would have been better keeping Bonino. We also lost Clendening - who we gave up Forsling for only a few months prior. I remember Zack Kassian's game coming along - he was actually playing well with the twins. There were off ice problems yes but when I heard "The Canucks trade Kassian for Brandon Prust and a 5th" I almost lost it. Then I found out the Canucks actually gave up the 5th which is more pissing away of picks. Don't forget Prust was also making a stupid amount of money, like 2.5M. Another example of bias toward guys who weren't his was the development of Brendan Gaunce. He led the league in defensive zone starts (87%) which is absolute absurd, especially for a young player. And he kept his head above water - his defensive game was very good. He got one more call up - 3 points in 3 games with a +3 and 67% in the faceoff dot and we never saw him again. Before we acquired Beagle I always thought that Gaunce could develop into the next Jay Beagle - instead we decided to acquire Jay Beagle, when he was old, and already sucking. And yes Gaunce was nothing to scream home about - but his defensive game was superb, he was still young, and most importantly he cost like $800k in cap. The list of disasterous signings is almost endless. But the biggest blunder of all after Benning finally put together a good team was letting Tanev & Toffoli walk in favour of Schmidt, Holtby & Virtanen. We would have been a playoff team if not for those moves. Toffoli was an amazing fit on EP's wing, and Tanev was a mainstay with Hughes (and a mentor for the young players). Schmidt was a fine player but an offensive left side D which was not at all what the team needed and Virtanen sucked. Total cap for Toffoli & Tanev = $8.8M Total cap for Holtby, Schmidt, Virtanen = $12.9 Not only that but we had to buy out Holtby and Virtanen, whereas Montreal traded Toffoli for a 1st, 5th, and recent 2nd round prospect. OEL and Myers need no explanation. The good news is Benning is gone and so far the management team has done a fantastic job acquiring good players at a low cost. I also like the fact they are properly devleping Hoglander and Podkolzin, not just shipping them out because they aren't producing at a high pace in the NHL.