Bennings biggest mistake so far: Signing Prust instead of Richardson

[Honky Cat]

1 hour ago, hookshott said:

BIGGEST mistake....taking Jake Virtanen at #6 and allowing Toronto to choose a creative centre....William Nylander who is leading the AHL in scoring, at #7..  Much harder to find a creative centre, than a "meat and potatoes" winger.....plus, since he was not playing in the CHL, he could have been sent to Utica right away to improve his game (as Toronto has done)....plus, since he is Swedish, he would have had great role models to help him along in his development....plus, teams do not get to pick that high very often, so I believe you have to utilize that for a skill pick....not, a "meat and potatoes" guy, as Benning calls Jake.  

I know many on here like to believe Jake will turn into a good player.....time will tell...however, I would be much happier having a skilled centre who is leading the AHL in scoring, likely ready to contribute very soon...as opposed to a player like Jake.  This is, in my mind, Benning's BIGGEST mistake (bigger than signing Miller to a ridiculous contract, signing Dorsett and Sbisa to contracts that are too high, trading for Sutter and resigning him before he has even played a game, trading Lack for very little,...and, of course, wasting ice time on Brandon Prust when a younger player should be playing) 

We are sort of off the thread topic here...I actually thought that the Canucks were going to draft Nylander,but we took Virtanen...After watching him play,he's a lot more than a 'meat and potatoes player' (he's no Brendan Gaunce)...Any guy that big,who skates that fast,and hits,. is a huge commodity...He's not showing it yet,but he will come around (In fact I'm predicting after this WJC..everybody is going to know who Jake is).

Nylander is a skilled player,and will be a good NHL player..(.Being great in the AHL does not automatically translate into the NHL btw)...They're both good,but I'm glad we picked Virtanen.

[afan]

2.5 million to sign Prust as a 31 year old 4th line guy who does nothing but takes penalties, is an absolute stupid move. The decision to keep a 6 million mediocre goalie instead of a fan favorite, much cheaper Lack and the acquisition of Baertschi and Vey shows the GM is not that good a scout after all. This coach does not help young players to develop either. The poor PK and PP game after game tells how bad the coach is. Until there is a GM and coach change, the Canucks only hope is to go for the top pick in the next draft.

[Baggins]

11 hours ago, CanadianRugby said:

Who said anything about guarantees?  With 30 teams in the league no matter how good your plan is there's only a 1/30 chance you win.  But yeah I'm 100% willing to be a bottom feeder to get good players.  Had to do it to get the Sedins.  There are no shortcuts. 

So we went the bottom feeder route before and won the cup? When did that happen?

Btw, we weren't a bottom feeder for years and it was players we traded for that led us out of the basement. The entire WCE line was acquired through trade. There's more than one way to get good players.

[Baggins]

5 hours ago, afan said:

2.5 million to sign Prust as a 31 year old 4th line guy who does nothing but takes penalties, is an absolute stupid move. The decision to keep a 6 million mediocre goalie instead of a fan favorite, much cheaper Lack and the acquisition of Baertschi and Vey shows the GM is not that good a scout after all. This coach does not help young players to develop either. The poor PK and PP game after game tells how bad the coach is. Until there is a GM and coach change, the Canucks only hope is to go for the top pick in the next draft.

Doomed! Even with a top pick we have a GM who is a bad scout and will pick the wrong guy and coach that's no good with young guys and will ruin him. 

Actually your post cracked me up.

[chickenman92]

Valid points throughout, but I think the biggest mistake Benning has made is not drafting more. We all know his best quality as a GM is his talent evaluation skills on the draft floor. Yet so far, he's traded second round picks in each of the past three drafts. If you just go by who's been picked in the Canucks spot, Vancouver could have drafted Roland McKeown and Rasmus Andersson.

Currently, they sit 1 & 4 in OHL scoring by a defenceman. As well, they are both RHD, who look to be future top-4 guys in the NHL. And, IMO, they would be No. 1 & No. 2 on defence in Vancouver's prospect pool. 

People always question why Vancouver can't draft a Subban or Weber in the 2nd round. The reason, they always trade their 2nd round picks away.

And that's not even counting the Ducks second rounder that he traded to get Sutter - getting a third rounder back in the deal. If I was guessing, that move will end up being something like the 40th pick for the 75th pick. 

Now I get what he was trying to do when he moved those picks - fill the void of 21-24yr old players - but let's hope he has realized NHL teams don't give up guys they think have a future in the NHL for second round picks. 

From now on, keep your picks Jim, and build through the draft. It might take a little longer, but fans trust you to do this...trading? not so much. 

[dura_mater]

On 14/12/2015 at 6:26 AM, sockeye said:

I completely disagree.  You win faceoffs, you win possession.  If you don't have the puck, you can't score.  Also, faceoffs can be critical whether in the offensive zone on the powerplay or in the defensive zone on a PK.  We need to get better at faceoffs or this team isn't going anywhere (this year or next year).  

 

On 14/12/2015 at 6:27 AM, Fred65 said:

Face off are essential IMO. If you want to play a possession gmae starting in possession is the opening gambit. Remember when AV used to roll out Mulhotra for almost every defensive FO and the start of every PK. It was a major part of Vcrs success. The game in Chaicago...the oppositite Chicago had the majority of the play because they always had the puck

 

On 14/12/2015 at 6:34 AM, Grape said:

http://www.nhl.com/stats/team?reportType=season&report=teamsummary&season=20142015&gameType=2&sort=faceoffWinPctg&aggregate=0

Team FO stats for 2014-2015. There's barely any correlation to FO's and winning. If you're too lazy to click I'll give you an overview (Y if team made playoffs,  N if they didn't, in the order of FO rankings) 

NYNYYNNNYYNYNNYYNYYNYYNYNYNYYN

Not much correlation eh

 

 

On 14/12/2015 at 7:46 AM, *Buzzsaw* said:

For those who don't think that face offs are important, look at our penalty kill percentage since Sutter went down.

Grape is right, this has been proven time and time again in other threads.  As counter intuitive as it is, FOW's are actually pretty overrated.  Someone else posted an excellent link showing the correlation, or lack thereof, in a thread ages ago.

[CanadianRugby]

7 hours ago, Baggins said:

So we went the bottom feeder route before and won the cup? When did that happen?

Btw, we weren't a bottom feeder for years and it was players we traded for that led us out of the basement. The entire WCE line was acquired through trade. There's more than one way to get good players.

Yeah, the WCE.  Maybe if we had made those great trades AND tanked to get a top end D or Goalie we would have made it past the 2nd round.

[westcoast]

Imo delaying the rebuild and losing draft assets to prop up a team on decline.