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[Confirmed] Jim Benning signs as new Canucks GM

TheRussianRocket.

By TheRussianRocket.
in Canucks Talk

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Hedman Abbotsford Star

Hedman

Posted
Posted

Rinne hasn't shown up for 2 years?

Well considering he was injured for more than half the season this year, that would be pretty difficult for him.

The year before he put up average numbers in a lockout season after the team lost one of the biggest pieces on their team in Suter. Clearly there was going to be a drop off in defense, with none of their young D-men ready to step up and replace him. Acting like the team was no different without him is just silly though, and it's an argument you're not gonna win.

I was never a fan of Torts from the beginning. I said it would be like Keenan all over again, and I was right. I did give him credit for the run in December, thinking that maybe he had changed his ways. However, after the Calgary incident, I knew it was the same old Torts. A coach that can't even control his own emotions is not going to be stable enough to lead a team anywhere.

Hornqvist was a draft day steal? Or was he a decent player that was developed properly under good leadership? It's easy to say in hindsight he always would have become a good player. Credit always has to be given to coaches though, just like AV gets credit for helping develop guys like Burrows, Kesler, Edler, Raymond, and Hansen.

Regardless of injury, .902 2.77 are pretty damn bad numbers. Last year he had .910 which is also very average. Suter or not. Especially on such a defensive minded team. Does it matter if it's lock-out season or not? How? He could be a goalie that's declining. Who knows?

One thing i think is worth mentioning, is that new additions such as Santorelli, Stanton and Richardson had pretty much career years under Torts. Coincidence? Meanwhile, other players were stuck with AV's "slacker mentality". We went from a "slacker coach" to a coach of the complete opposite. That's a big change. Torts had 1 year to prove himself on this team. Trotz had plenty of more time in Nashville. It would be stupid to blame everything on Torts this season. Things takes time. I think Torts deserved at least 1 more year here.

When you draft a player, you will sometimes see them as draft steals right away. Improving a lot each season. Hornqvist is one of those cases. As i said, he had a very good year in the SHL at the age of 19.

But in that case, why doesn't you give any credit to Torts? Because according to you, he's a horrible coach, even though he developed far more good players under his short time in NY than, say, AV did in Vancouver. Torts is a reason why the Rangers are were they are right now, for sure.

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shiznak Canucks Star

shiznak

Posted
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Much rather have Mike Johnston than Trotz, if we're going into a mini-rebuild. Especially if we pull a trade with Pittsburgh for Pouliot.

This guy is a gold miner, when it comes to player's development.

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canucksnihilist Canucks Regular

canucksnihilist

Posted
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well... Trotz has not moulded players to his style - or has he? Are his defensive teams really a result of the personnel?

I think that the coach's philosophy plays a huge roll in how the team plays. Look at Crawford, the run-and-gun coach. He did it in Colorado and they certainly had the players to do it. And he did it here in Van and he didn't really have all the players necessary to do it - but it worked out both times. Because the players wanted to play like that.

No player wants to play defensive and tentative. One absolute in Hockey (although I don't believe in absolutes, so it isn't really an absolute - ok?): Here it is: If you can score goals (your team), you have confidence. And that is a self fulliling prophecy. a feedback loop. Score a bunch of goals in a set of games, and you will probably score in the next bunch (in fact it is likely). And the inverse is equally true: don't score for a bunch of games, you probably won't score in the next bunch of games either.

So bring me a coach who can teach offense. Teaching defense is easy - or at least it is a known entity. Get us someone who can teach offense and strategy, not just shut-down hockey. Trotz is not that coach, imho.

Who? I would love to have Gretzky, but I didn't really follow what he did in Phoenix so I don't know if that would really work. Oats maybe? Someone who can see the ice better than half of his players - on the offensive side.

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Smashian Kassian Canucks Hall-of-Famer

Smashian Kassian

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well... Trotz has not moulded players to his style - or has he? Are his defensive teams really a result of the personnel?

I think that the coach's philosophy plays a huge roll in how the team plays. Look at Crawford, the run-and-gun coach. He did it in Colorado and they certainly had the players to do it. And he did it here in Van and he didn't really have all the players necessary to do it - but it worked out both times. Because the players wanted to play like that.

No player wants to play defensive and tentative. One absolute in Hockey (although I don't believe in absolutes, so it isn't really an absolute - ok?): Here it is: If you can score goals (your team), you have confidence. And that is a self fulliling prophecy. a feedback loop. Score a bunch of goals in a set of games, and you will probably score in the next bunch (in fact it is likely). And the inverse is equally true: don't score for a bunch of games, you probably won't score in the next bunch of games either.

So bring me a coach who can teach offense. Teaching defense is easy - or at least it is a known entity. Get us someone who can teach offense and strategy, not just shut-down hockey. Trotz is not that coach, imho.

Who? I would love to have Gretzky, but I didn't really follow what he did in Phoenix so I don't know if that would really work. Oats maybe? Someone who can see the ice better than half of his players - on the offensive side.

When Nashville had the personnel to play an offensive style, under Trotz, they were a high offensive team. Tied with COL for highest scoring in the west.

I'm not buying that he can't play an offensive system.

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Karlsson`s Flo Canucks Prospect

Karlsson`s Flo

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When Nashville had the personnel to play an offensive style, under Trotz, they were a high offensive team. Tied with COL for highest scoring in the west.

I'm not buying that he can't play an offensive system.

Same here. I can imagine he's dying to have a team with a big payroll of guys to use. I can also see Trotz putting Sedins in offensive minded situations. Let them do what they do best and score rather take their offensive production away by making them do a 3rd-line's job.

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motzaburger Abbotsford Star

motzaburger

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Torts to Trotz hmmm...

I feel like ill be saying Trorts for a while.

Heres his coaching stats: http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=45881

He hasn’t been into the 3rd round in playoffs, a championship in the AHL with the Portland Pirates in 93/94, and a run to the finals with them in 95/96.

One 50+ win season with the Preds in 06/07.

15 seasons as the head coach of the Preds. I think change is a good thing after all that time.

As long as he can get the best out of all our players I really wouldn’t mind to see him standing on our bench. Nashville’s key was defence with a hard and fast forecheck. I think most players like him as a coach and I definitely can see him as the best candidate.

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TheRussianRocket. Canucks All-Star

TheRussianRocket.

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Neat little article by Sportsnet:

Benning a first step to solve Canucks’ problems

Hockey paved a wide-open highway for a 17-year-old defenceman from Edmonton’s north end back in 1981, when he racked up 111 assists and 139 points for the Portland Winterhawks. The Toronto Maple Leafs drafted Jim Benning sixth overall — ahead of blueliners like Chris Chelios, Al MacInnis and James Patrick — and, if memory serves, it was Leafs scout Floyd Smith who made that fateful comparison to Bobby Orr that Benning would never be able to live up to.

Benning was, perhaps, the right guy in the wrong place back then. Today? Quite the opposite. The blue-collar son of a firefighter named Elmer, who was the hockey director for a tiny Delwood community able to put 26 teams on the ice back in the day, and a nurse named Liz, looks to be the next general manager of the Vancouver Canucks.

“Jim’s paid his dues,” said little brother Brian, who played his NHL hockey in St. Louis, Los Angeles, Philly, Edmonton and Florida. “He’s been a student of the game. Lots of scouting, lots of time. It’s a long road, but you’ve got to travel it. You have to form a good network, and that’s how you do it.”

Jim Benning was a marvelous puck-handler whose skating was deemed average once he arrived in Toronto. Alas, he was the first of 10 consecutive top-10 draft picks for Toronto, a sign of an organization that was eating its young at an alarming rate, starting with Benning.

“We could argue if he was ready, I suppose,” mused Brian, who came up 42 games short of his big brother’s 610 NHL games played. “Jim was always so talented. He played above his age group every year. He was 15 years old in the (Junior A) Alberta Junior Hockey League. He was 16 in the WHL, and 17 when he scored 140 points for Portland.”

He was 18 and overmatched in Toronto. Today, Jim Benning is 51 and couldn’t be more prepared for his first manager’s gig.

He is exactly what the Canucks organization needs: A talent evaluator who has for his current team, the Boston Bruins, helped to collect a gritty, sizeable group fronted by men like Vancouver native Milan Lucic, who grew up and played his junior hockey right under the noses of the Canucks brass but was somehow overlooked by the Canucks back in 2006.

The Canucks haven’t drafted well, they need size and grit up front, and their pro talent evaluation has been questionable. Enter Benning, who is no superstar — just one of those high-in-the-corner hockey scouts who has lived the game for a half-century and is more than ready.

He began his post-hockey career as an Anaheim scout in 1993, moved to Buffalo the next year, and became the head of the Sabres amateur staff from 1998-2004. He’s been the assistant GM for Boston since 2006, but after plenty of interviews along the way, he appears to have secured his first GM job in Vancouver.

“He was in Buffalo for about 12 years, director of player personnel, in charge of scouting. He learned a ton there from Jack Bowman, Scotty’s brother, who is no longer with us,” Brian said. “When he got to Boston, they were in 26th place.”

The Bruins are getting calls on Benning, presumably also from Pittsburgh and Washington, two teams looking for GMs. They may also lose Don Sweeney, the other assistant GM to Pete Chiarelli in Boston, leaving a hole in Beantown’s front office.

“We have given permission for Jim to talk … to a couple different teams,” Bruins president Cam Neely told the Boston media at a wrap-up news conference on Tuesday. “That’s what happens when you have success. Teams look at other organizations that have success and start inquiring about your management group. It’s something that a lot of good organizations have had to deal with over time and we are dealing with that right now.”

Trevor Linden hopes to have that problem one day in Vancouver. Jim Benning is a good first step.

Said Brian: “He’s ready.”

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