CanadianRugby

One of his biggest moves was a non move. By being a very rare GM that kept the old coach instead of bringing in his own. AV was a key piece of the team's success. People seem to have short memories and also forget that the Twins almost left Vancouver in 2009. Gillis didn't run out of time like Benning, he flew to Sweden to meet with them and got a good deal done. He also surrounded himself with quality people, which enabled the Canucks to get maximum value for their players with low contract signings. As well as looked into any advantage the team could have, like sleep doctors. Half the quality players on your list would have walked away as free agents under Benning because of the bloated contracts he gives up to has beens. Also, Benning loyalists you need to get your story straight. Are these quality players or not? Because I keep hearing how Benning inherited nothing, while apparently Gillis had an embarrassment of riches. Did they all instantly lose value when a GM change was made? I seem to remember these guys having a very good season when Benning got hired. Maybe if he traded some of them for picks when he got hired, instead of letting them age out and walk away for nothing. Then this team wouldn't still be a bottom feeder after 7 years.

The plan the way I see it. 1. Make some big signings, go for another run with the Sedins. 2. OK, terrible season. Draft high, add expensive vets and get back to dominating. 3. OK another horrible season? Draft high, add overpriced vets, trade for more 23-25 year olds and sign more people. No way there's another bad season. Retool time. 4. OK so another high pick, just add more overpriced vets. No way it doesn't work again. You know what. Trade 1st and 2nd round pick to sneak into the playoffs. 5. OK retool again, well.. mostly just lose players because of expensive vets. 6. Going for it again! 7. OK another terrible season, don't have money to sign overpriced vets. 8. Wait 2 years for money to sign expensive vets.

Give it to Edler!

Bro I'm a Canucks fan. Glutton for punishment.

Yeah I was joking. I've been fighting the good fight on here since the Vrbata & Miller signings.

Too good to be true. I hear Roberto is only getting involved because of recent years damage to the brand. He's the business guy, Francesco is still the team chairman.

You must be new here.

In 2020 Canucks didn't have a 1st, 2nd or 3rd round pick. That's the opposite of rebuilding.

Glad I could bring some sunshine to another dreary season for you haha.

Sure. My first step would have been to trade any vet of value that waived their clauses and could fetch a decent return. That means try to trade Kesler, Bieksa, Higgins, Burrows, Hansen, Matthias, Hamhuis, Richardson and Tanev before they lost their value due to age. I think the Sedins wanted to stay and if you were to pick any vets to teach youngsters how to be pros, they were perfect for that job. So keep them, but tank. I would also not have traded any picks to "fill an age gap" which means Benning would have had a lot of 2nd.. 3rd round picks to work with. His track record in the 2nd and late 1st round is very good so I imagine our bottom 6 would have some good young players hitting their prime about now. As well as some D possibly. I wouldn't have spent big money on free agents unless it was on short term contracts. With the old vets traded away, there'd be cap room to (in the short term) bring in character guys to teach/protect prospects. As well as "weaponize" the cap by adding bad contracts for draft picks. If any of those vets really worked out then they too could be flipped for picks, thanks to them having short contracts. The Canucks were destined to be bad when Benning took over. So really the rebuild should have been embraced right away. The high picks might have been higher, and the cap situation would be a lot better because it would be drafted players instead of expensive past their prime vets on the bottom 6. The rebuild would also be complete faster because there'd be a bigger influx of talent coming in, and it coming in much sooner than it ultimately did. At the end of the day. I feel management tried to avoid a rebuild, even in the middle of multiple bottom feeder seasons. Instead of hoarding draft picks, they were traded to improve faster. This didn't work so there were no on ice results as well as any rebuild being hamstrung by lack of draft picks. In fact, this "rebuilding" team had one less draft pick than they started with over Benning's tenure. So while the Canucks have ended up with some good top end players due to being terrible. The supporting cast is straight up bad because of foolish contracts and the fact that more draft picks were traded away than brought in when the team should have been rebuilding. None of this is hindsight. Most media and "experts" were saying this would happen the whole time. Of course you need to do other things too. Win some trades, have some luck, develop well, hire good staff and so on. I'm not gonna get in a back and forth, we've done that enough over the years on this topic. But that would have been my plan.

The plan the way I see it. 1. Make some big signings, go for another run with the Sedins. 2. OK, terrible season. Draft high, add expensive vets and get back to dominating. 3. OK another horrible season? Draft high, add overpriced vets, trade for more 23-25 year olds and sign more people. No way there's another bad season. Retool time. 4. OK so another high pick, just add more overpriced vets. No way it doesn't work again. You know what. Trade 1st and 2nd round pick to sneak into the playoffs. 5. OK retool again, well.. mostly just lose players because of expensive vets. 6. Going for it again! 7. OK another terrible season, don't have money to sign overpriced vets. 8. Wait 2 years for money to sign expensive vets.

Being a Canuck fan 99% of the time:

If they traded their 1st and 2nd round picks away to make the playoffs for one year they might have too.

This team needs an owner that doesn't think he's a GM, and a GM that is less awful at his job. How many more lottery picks before this team is the new Sabres/Oilers?

The sad thing is this team never tanked, they just suck.

Good thing the team stood up for Edler or Motte. You either gotta be tough or skilled, this team is neither. The 9 year rebuild continues.

They have a new plan every year. At this point I think it's the Oilers plan of being a bottom feeder for 10 years, and ride your high picks to mediocrity while having no support cast.

8 -developed prospects very well -terrible lineup to work with, has them playing hard every game even though they're out of playoffs

@oldnews remember the epic arguments we used to have over this guy vs Nylander/Ehlers? Wish you were right.

Groundhog Day...er Year.

So are Canucks getting revenge too for the concussion or nah?

Funny even last season there were still people on CDC arguing Virtanen was a good draft pick over Nylander.

It ain't easy being a Canuck fan.

He'll only see minutes if there's an injury. Good value insurance trade.