Grape

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It's 2021. Are people really still rejecting analytics? I guess it makes sense because hockey is by far the least analytically progressive of the "Big 4" sport leagues in North America. I wouldn't be surprised if the NHL has more former players in management positions than all three of the other league's combined. Other sports seem to have realized that it's not necessary to have played an outdated form of the sport 20 years ago to become a successful GM, while hockey still holds on to those who "know and breathe and live hockey." That's going to change in a hurry as better analytic tools start getting developed, and you'll see more of these "dweebs" in high end positions.

I got the impression that he was trying to exaggerate things and make it seem like the team could fall apart, but that rumor has been flying around everywhere, and it makes sense given what has and has not been said by the higher-ups. JT certainly wouldn't have had to speak up if there was more leadership from above.

Sekeres said that JB and Aqua were on the league's side here and that the players weren't too pleased about it

I'm pretty sure Virtanen is worth less than nothing because of his contract, which means he has negative value like Eriksson for example. Don't think many teams want that contract even for free.

I doubt you know EP or QH more than any of us do. From afar, both of them definitely seem like confident (perhaps arrogant to other fanbases) young men who know their worth to the team, so I'm not sure I agree with your assessment. It seems more like an accurate assessment of the Sedins rather than our new wave of talent.

Curious - where does this come from?

Personally, I don't think the regression guys like Roussel and Beagle have gone through are anything out of the ordinary. Roussel was what, a 28 year old coming off of a 17 point season? It was a probably a good bet that by the time he turned 31, he wouldn't have any trade value left. Same thing with Beagle, except he was producing at a slightly higher rate at a much higher age. In fact, I would say that Roussel and Beagle have probably declined at slower rate than most players. Eriksson's decline was definitely unusually fast, but even if he was producing like he was about 3 years ago, he'd still have negative value because of his contract. If you are right, and these signings were designed as such, then I think it was misplaced optimism to think that these guys could still be trade assets a few years down the road with those contracts and at those ages. Hopefully Myers can be an anomaly and still have positive value as he enters his mid-30s at a high cap hit.

You think the reason people complain about Benning has to do more with how they're depressive and negative and not gratified that they're alive, rather than just not believing that he's a competent GM? Sounds a bit smug to me but maybe I misunderstood.

I understand where you're coming from, but I don't think it's a parallel comparison to compare regular businesses to those whose dealings are out in the public. I would say there's a lot less leeway for straight up lying in professional sports management, where a lot of things can be publicly fact checked and backfire on you. There is a lot more incentive to lie etc... when you work for a corporation that won't doesn't have its movements monitored by hundreds of thousands of fans. I think there is a point where people go from being too innocent and oblivious with the shady actions of higher-ups, to becoming conspiracy theorists that don't believe in a word that anyone says. Not at all accusing you of the latter AT ALL, but I think that in sports, fans tend to gravitate towards believing that things are deeper than they actually are. I don't blame them because there are very prominent sports scandals out there. But that furthers my thinking that unless absolutely necessary, pro-sports teams will tell the truth or hide the truth by refraining from commenting, rather than straight up lie. In fact, a lot of the scandals I can think of right now are born out of hiding rather than lying. That's why I think there's little reason to not believe the team physician in this case. Edit: I should mention that I'm not referring to lying in regards to, for example, trades; I wouldn't completely believe the team even if they came out and said that the Gaudette trade had NOTHING to do with how his teammates perhaps soured on him. I was referring to important PR announcements such as the aforementioned quote by the team physician.

They wouldn't come out and say that, but I highly doubt they would lie. Teams around sports who have had irresponsible decision makers have generally just declined to comment. The trade isn't THAT bad, but it seems like a "sell low" trade for a player that Benning had his eyes on a long time ago, both of which we've seen before.

I mean... someone who believes that people who contract COVID are at fault simply because they contracted COVID shouldn't be in high-end decision making position. It's a failure of simple logical thinking. I'm not out here arguing what qualifications are need to be a GM and who fits those qualifications lol It's just a very backwards line of thinking that I doubt any GM, including Benning, would go by.

95% chance that this deal is forgotten in a few years. But that's not the point. If for some reason during the draft, your GM were to say, "we don't need this seventh round pick, whoever is next you can go on and pick," in all likelihood it won't matter. However, it's a sign of incompetence. Obviously this trade isn't THAT bad, but there isn't much rationale behind it and could indicate incompetence, specifically because we sold Gaudette when his value was near its lowest. Also, contrary to what some people are saying, people who are around the Blackhawks have been saying that Highmore doesn't really kill penalties and "isn't a great defensive forward." There's just very little upside with him and at this moment in time, not really a reason to believe he's better than Gaudette, who is generating chances at a high level. This is quite different from Motte, who looked to be a good NHL penalty killer when we traded for him.

Joking aside, it does seem like Benning keys in on the guys he's had his "eyes on" like years ago. If there's a guy he liked from the 2008 draft, you know he'll be trying to sign him this off-season.

It holds no more weight than the average fan's opinions. But he's one of the popular Canucks fans on Twitter so people gravitate towards his opinion. Same with Mr. Booth. Every relevant fanbase in sports has some of these guys.

The Canucks have already officially refuted that the infected individual did anything wrong, so if any part of ownership/management's decision to trade Gaudette had to do with turning sour on him because he contracted COVID, they aren't rational or competent thinkers and shouldn't be in their positions. As much as people dislike Benning, I don't think that's the case.

Where are these stories? Here was what the team physician said: "We know the individual had gone to a place within the guidelines. That place was subsequently found to have cases of COVID... we've made it clear within our group there's no culprit here aside form the (virus) itself." If the owners are blaming Gaudette for getting the virus, I don't think they're intelligent enough to be owners of an NHL franchise. So I don't think that's the case.

Hmm I've never heard of this before. Do you have a video link? But if that's what you mean by "grounds," then there's also grounds to believe the two examples I gave: that Virtanen might be an alcoholic and EP could be too arrogant for some people's likings. Doesn't mean it's right to assume straight away, especially calling the guy a cancer to the team.

Of course, but why are you going there and making that assumption? You could do that with any player we trade away. *Fails to re-sign EP* "He was becoming an arrogant locker room distraction who let the fame get in his head" *Makes a bad trade to get Virtanen's contract off the book* "Jake probably became an alcoholic." Are we just going to character assassinate now with no grounds to do so? You could be right, but there's nothing to suggest that Gaudette is a cancer so to call him that is quite harsh I would say.

Ahh yes let's just make unsubstantiated claims about a player's character and call them a cancer so that we can feel better about our management group.

Drafting is more of a crapshoot than anything any GM does. The key is to accumulate a volume of picks and high picks. Benning won't be drafting 3 consecutive Calder nominees or anything close to that consistently throughout his tenure, that's entirely unsustainable. What might be sustainable unfortunately is his inability to run the team in almost all other aspects other than drafting. Being bad at FA signings, trades, roster construction, cap management etc... are not things you can chalk up to chance as much as drafting.

We have the worst record in the league since like 2015 I'm pretty sure. Habs were calling for their coach's head after being fairly successful to start the season, while some Canucks fans still coddle Benning after 5 bottom dwelling years. I really don't think we "complain" too much about winning. In fact, I would argue that we're complacent with losing, seeing how CDC, HFCanucks, and Canucks Reddit have all grown substantially over these miserable years.

Really disappointed in Hughes on the second goal. Just stood there and watched while a man was right behind him. He's had way too many defensive lapses this season that have nothing to do wit his size but everything to do with concentration and effort. I remember there was one post-game in his last season at Michigan where he stepped up in the locker room and took accountability for a loss to PSU. I want to see that same accountability show up in his play, because he plays right now as if he thinks defense is optional and that our struggles have nothing to do with him.

Boeser AINEC Credit to Hoglander though for being probably the only guy who hasn't disappointed in any given game so far IMO. By far our most electric player and he'd be putting up points if he was on PP1

I agree with the general sentiment. Canucks fans coddle their young stars too much, especially here on CDC. EP has been subpar this year, and despite the stats, I think QH has arguably been worse. But you're going too far in the opposite direction. Hughes' poor play so far this year does not mean he didn't have one of the best season for a Canucks defenseman last year, if not the best. Why are you even using that as an argument? If Hughes wasn't a #1 defenseman last year it terms of impact, then this franchise hasn't ever come close to having a #1 defenseman. I also find it ignorant that you're blaming him for staying on for too long without knowing the context. I generally defend coaches like Newell Brown like you are because it's ultimately players like Hughes, EP, JT that are responsible, for being too passive, but to blame him on the ice for 2+ minutes at a time as if you know it was his choice, is quite shallow. The argument against guys like Sutter and Beagle isn't that they aren't useful - if they aren't useful then they wouldn't be playing. The argument against them is that they've taken so much of the cap and they aren't players you win the cup with on the third and fourth line due to their age. When you have two young franchise players in their rookie contracts, you don't waste their years by having 25 million tied up to your bottom six players. I think it's hypocritical to bring up how much we need those guys, but then lament why we didn't sign Tanev - we couldn't. In an ideal world, we wouldn't have wasted a year of QH's rookie contract, wouldn't have overpaid for replaceable third/fourth liners, and we would have used that available cap space for guys like Tanev, and similar players that have significant positive impact. But as it stands right now, we aren't contenders, and I believe signing Tanev would have been simply a short term fix that may raise our playoff probabilities this year, but would have horrible long term implications given that Tanev is on the wrong side of thirty and we're not ready to complete yet. We need to be patient with our young guys, but that also means being patient with our roster, and not signing guys like Tanev to long term contract when you're not ready to compete yet - that's exactly how we ended up with the Eriksson, Beagle, Roussel, and Sutter's.