Jim Benning Deserves Better!

[HockeyHarry]

Outside of BC all of Canadian sports media hates Vancouver and that will never change. 

 

Im a little disappointed in losing a 1rd pick but who wouldnt be. But I see JBs reasoning behind it. It’s too start the kickoff of making the playoffs every year now with this EP40 and the young core era.

 

I was team tank cuz the Canucks imo weren’t there and I was greedy wanting another core piece. We got that in Podkolzin and Hoglander this draft. Yes the D needs more but a UFA will full that void. 

 

Now iS the time for pushing for greater and better seasons with playoff games.

 

Go Canucks Gooo

 

 

[Fanuck]

He's not a bad GM, far from it imo.

Is he being run out of town,  far from it imo.

 

If anyone in this cast of characters deserved better it was Linden,  no question about it imo.  You don't treat, legends who gave you their blood sweat and tears like that.

[fanfor42]

JB is honest as the day is long. He's a good man. Whether you agree with his moves or not you have to respect the honesty he has brought to his position.

[AlwaysACanuckFan]

Would like to see Benning enjoy the fruits of his labor. 

[NewbieCanuckFan]

5 minutes ago, AlwaysACanuckFan said:

Would like to see Benning enjoy the fruits of his labor. 

That sounds so dirty (if you have a filthy mind like me that is ).

[Bo fan]

Yes he has made some questional moves - show me a GM hoe hasn't. When you look at what he inherited to where this team is at now  I think the man deserves some credit. Social media is great for negativity and sports media has never been friendly when it comes to anything Canuck related. I think we will be a better team at the start of the season then we were last spring. I think I can almost see the light at the end of the dismal tunnel

[King Heffy]

One thing people underestimate about Benning is his willingness to walk away from his mistakes.  He was also learning in the job his first year and has improved with experience.  Bottom line is the team is in a much better position then when he took over.

[18W-40C-6W]

58 minutes ago, CreamCheese said:

Off the top of my head here's why GMJB get's hate, i'm sure i'm missing some...

 

He signed Loui Erikkson to a 6x6 deal 

He signed Brandon 4th line Sutter to a 5 year deal at huge money

He Drafted Virtnanen over Nylander and Ehlers (both of who CDC basically unanimously wanted)

Traded away McCann for Erik Pylon Gudbranson 

Drafted Juolevi over Tkachuk (everybody wanted Tkachuk)

Signed Beagle and Roussell to 4 year deals to join the Sea of Granlunds

Signed Schaller.... Who?

Now he's traded away a potential lottery pick for a minor upgrade to Leivo. 

 

 

Am I missing anything? 

 

 

1. Louie Erickson - yep overpaid, didn't work out. BUT, we needed a top 6 winger to play with the twins, he had shown amazing chemistry in international play, and LE was a consistent 20-30 goal scorer coming off a 30 goal, 60+ point season. We could have had him or Lucic or Ladd, would that have been better? NO..

 

I also find the idea of people whining about salary hilarious. Are you paying it? Did we have cap issues? Did it prevent us from making moves? NO its a red herring BS argument, throw that nonsense in the trash where it belongs.

 

2. Sutter - yep overpaid - but see above. Did it hurt you? the cap? the team? No. Sutter had an effective number of years in Pittsburgh and when healthy has been effective here. He has certainly helped take pressure off Bo, and if you don't think so you don't understand hockey development. For whatever reason, he has been unable to stay injury free here, unlucky but not a bad player and again, cap hit and salary has had no bearing on anything

 

3. JV vs Ehlers and Nylander. Now this is HILARIOUS! Yep online fans wanted them both, in fact I wanted Ehlers, and 4 years into their careers, I am glad we have JV. Size, speed, a great shot, great defensively and getting better every year and wait for it, at a small cap hit. Meanwhile you have regular season dancers in Ehlers and Nylander who play houdini in the playoffs when it matters. Moreover they are paid 6 mil and 8 mil respectively to hide in the corner come playoff time. Both of those players are on the trading block for a reason and not 'rumours' as a fact....We don't need guys who put up 60 -70 pts in the reg season, get paid tons, only to disappear when it counts buddy

 

4. Yep McCann / Guddy didn't work out, but McCann wasn't working out here and we needed size on the back end, win some lose some

 

5. Doesn't matter what 'everyone wants'. The scouting staff is there for a reason, and you'll be thankful in 2 years when OJ is a top 4 dman, that we drafted him given our lack of high end D prospects. btw if we draft Tkachuk and Nylander we'd probably not have EP40 and QH and would be worse off, because we'd be scoring alot in the reg season and squeaking into the playoffs and doing nothing because of lack of talent anywhere else, and the fact Nylander/Ehlers are felines in the playoffs

 

6. Beagle has done nothing other that deliver great play for his role, leadership and grit, as Rousell has. How you can criticize those players given how they have played for us is absurd. They have played with intensity, heart and soul every night and are leaders and impactful in their respective roles. Anyone with any hockey knowledge can see they were full value

 

7. Schaller low cost depth, who cares. Again just something to complain about, low salary depth. Did we have cap issues? No

 

8. Lottery pick? If we're in the lottery in 2021 we have bigger issues. Small upgrade on Leivo? Really? a 50 pt player playing the third line is a small upgrade to Leivo? Wow

 

OH my

 

Edited June 25, 2019 by 18W-40C-6W

[Dixon Ward]

58 minutes ago, CreamCheese said:

Off the top of my head here's why GMJB get's hate, i'm sure i'm missing some...

 

He signed Loui Erikkson to a 6x6 deal 

He signed Brandon 4th line Sutter to a 5 year deal at huge money

He Drafted Virtnanen over Nylander and Ehlers (both of who CDC basically unanimously wanted)

Traded away McCann for Erik Pylon Gudbranson 

Drafted Juolevi over Tkachuk (everybody wanted Tkachuk)

Signed Beagle and Roussell to 4 year deals to join the Sea of Granlunds

Signed Schaller.... Who?

Now he's traded away a potential lottery pick for a minor upgrade to Leivo. 

 

 

Am I missing anything? 

 

 

Are you under the impression that other GMs picks and trades all work out to their advantage?  If so, then why don't all 30 of them have perfect teams? Why doesn't everybody get a Stanley cup every year?

[TheRussianRocket1994]

1 hour ago, Dixon Ward said:

Over the past few days I have been shocked at the local and national media and the fans for the negative pile-on of Jim Benning.

 

He has made some bad moves, yes.  He has made some bad trades, yes.

 

Name 1 GM who hasn't.  

 

He inherited a team that had Brendan Gaunce as it's only possible prospect who may ever make the NHL.  The drafting of the 10 years before him was the worst in the league.  He had aging superstars that he was not allowed to trade.  The owner stepped in when he did try to clear out some FA's for picks(Hamhuis).  Thanks to the stupid NHL lottery system he has fallen backwards in every draft he has picked in.  He had Bo Horvat and a bunch of old guys with NMC's.  

 

Under him we have done the following:

 

Brought along Horvat, Boeser, and Peterson into an enviable young core.  

Developed Markstrom into a number 1 and Demko to the point of challenging and Dipietro looking like a great future option.

Picked up Baertschi, Granlund, Leivo, Stecher, Goldobin to attempt to fill in the missing generation of Canuck draft picks.  

 

WE have a great prospect pool quickly moving to nhl readiness

 

Defence with realistice chance at NHL

Hughes(Top 2 D) this year

Juolevi(Top 3 D) later this year

Sautner (4-6 D) ready

Brisebois(4-6 D) ready

Woo (Top 4) 1-2 years

Tryamkin (Top 4) 1 year

Rafferty (4-6 D) close

Rathbone(2nd pair) 2 years

Utunen (5-7th D) 2-3 years

 

 

Forwards with realistic chance at NHL

Gaudette (top 9) now

Podkolzin (top 6) 2 years

Lind (2-3 Line) 1-2 years

Hoglander (2nd line) 1-2 years

Madden (2-3 line) 2 years

Gadjovich (3-4th line) 2 years

Lockwood (depth forward) 2 years

 

Goaltenders with a realistic chance at the NHL

Dipietro (Starter) 4 years

Kielly (backup) 2 years

 

He has now added JT Miller  who fits perfectly in our top 6.

 

So we have great long term depth in quality goaltenders.

We have 4-5 our our long term top 6 forwards.

We have some excellent bottom 6 forwards.

We have some quality Defensemen and are shopping for FA's.

 

From where he started and with the restrictions he has had, I think he deserves much better coverage.  Chiarelli started with McDavid, RNH and Draisatl and destroyed the team.  Shanaplan is now falling apart despite having much better luck in the lottery and having the top FA centre available for years fall in their laps.  They have terrible defence and are losing 2 of the ones they have.  They have 6 million in space to improve their blueline and signe 10mil+ Marner after losing out in the 1st round.  They are about to have 35$million committed to 3 forwards for the next 7 years.

 

Anyway, I know I will probably get skewered.  No I am not Jim Benning's biggest fan.  I think he has made some bad trades.  I just don't get the overwhelming $h!tstorm that the media and fans seem to want to inflict on him.

 

 

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Nice to see a well thought out, well written, balanced post. 

 

This sky is falling crap by the sports media / fans is getting exhausting!! 

 

I’ve said similar...even the best organizations, best gm’s, best coaches, best teams, best players aren’t perfect! There’s good, there’s bad!

 

It’s fine to have an opinion / criticize, but the constant negativity / everything’s they do is bad / wrong is asinine. Most of the shows on TSN 1040 have been unbearable the last few days and most of this forum. 

 

This team and Jim Benning can’t win no matter what they do. I don’t agree with everything they do, but I don’t turn everything they do into a negative either. I especially feel bad for Jim as he seems like a good, nice, genuine human being...and no one deserve to be treated like that or talked about like that. Disagree with things he does, fine! But things like “Dim Jim” aren’t neccessary!! 

 

It’s all about being realistic, balance, info & perspective! See the good and the bad and let’s see where this team takes us. 

 

Again, great post! A breath of fresh air this week. 

[Dixon Ward]

3 minutes ago, IRR said:

 

It’s fine to have an opinion / criticize, but the constant negativity / everything’s they do is bad / wrong is asinine. Most of the shows on TSN 1040 have been unbearable the last few days and most of this forum. 

Agreed.  I was driving alot Saturday morning when the Miller trade broke and Scott Rintoul couldn't say a sentence that didn't start with, "some fans in the community will be very unhappy and feel we overpaid, but..."

 

At that point he had just heard about it and he was already putting negative words in everybody's mouth.  It was ridiculous.  JT Miller is a great player and whomever we picked in the 3rd round has a small chance of playing in the league let alone the top line.  A pick in the middle of the first round in 2 years might play in 4 years and then take a bit to get up to speed.  Still very little certainty that player will play top line minutes. 

 

JT Miller should have been a great story on a great weekend when we got 2 steals in Podkolzin and Hoglander.  We should have been rejoicing instead of mourning the loss of a future draft pick.

[Sbriggs]

42 minutes ago, 18W-40C-6W said:

1. Louie Erickson - yep overpaid, didn't work out. BUT, we needed a top 6 winger to play with the twins, he had shown amazing chemistry in international play, and LE was a consistent 20-30 goal scorer coming off a 30 goal, 60+ point season. We could have had him or Lucic or Ladd, would that have been better? NO..

 

I also find the idea of people whining about salary hilarious. Are you paying it? Did we have cap issues? Did it prevent us from making moves? NO its a red herring BS argument, throw that nonsense in the trash where it belongs.

 

2. Sutter - yep overpaid - but see above. Did it hurt you? the cap? the team? No. Sutter had an effective number of years in Pittsburgh and when healthy has been effective here. He has certainly helped take pressure off Bo, and if you don't think so you don't understand hockey development. For whatever reason, he has been unable to stay injury free here, unlucky but not a bad player and again, cap hit and salary has had no bearing on anything

 

3. JV vs Ehlers and Nylander. Now this is HILARIOUS! Yep online fans wanted them both, in fact I wanted Ehlers, and 4 years into their careers, I am glad we have JV. Size, speed, a great shot, great defensively and getting better every year and wait for it, at a small cap hit. Meanwhile you have regular season dancers in Ehlers and Nylander who play houdini in the playoffs when it matters. Moreover they are paid 6 mil and 8 mil respectively to hide in the corner come playoff time. Both of those players are on the trading block for a reason and not 'rumours' as a fact....We don't need guys who put up 60 -70 pts in the reg season, get paid tons, only to disappear when it counts buddy

 

4. Yep McCann / Guddy didn't work out, but McCann wasn't working out here and we needed size on the back end, win some lose some

 

5. Doesn't matter what 'everyone wants'. The scouting staff is there for a reason, and you'll be thankful in 2 years when OJ is a top 4 dman, that we drafted him given our lack of high end D prospects. btw if we draft Tkachuk and Nylander we'd probably not have EP40 and QH and would be worse off, because we'd be scoring alot in the reg season and squeaking into the playoffs and doing nothing because of lack of talent anywhere else, and the fact Nylander/Ehlers are felines in the playoffs

 

6. Beagle has done nothing other that deliver great play for his role, leadership and grit, as Rousell has. How you can criticize those players given how they have played for us is absurd. They have played with intensity, heart and soul every night and are leaders and impactful in their respective roles. Anyone with any hockey knowledge can see they were full value

 

7. Schaller low cost depth, who cares. Again just something to complain about, low salary depth. Did we have cap issues? No

 

8. Lottery pick? If we're in the lottery in 2021 we have bigger issues. Small upgrade on Leivo? Really? a 50 pt player playing the third line is a small upgrade to Leivo? Wow

 

OH my

 

Thank you I was hoping someone would set this guy straight, glad it wasn't me I wouldn't have been so kind

[Dixon Ward]

1 hour ago, CreamCheese said:

Off the top of my head here's why GMJB get's hate, i'm sure i'm missing some...

 

He signed Loui Erikkson to a 6x6 deal 

He signed Brandon 4th line Sutter to a 5 year deal at huge money

He Drafted Virtnanen over Nylander and Ehlers (both of who CDC basically unanimously wanted)

Traded away McCann for Erik Pylon Gudbranson 

Drafted Juolevi over Tkachuk (everybody wanted Tkachuk)

Signed Beagle and Roussell to 4 year deals to join the Sea of Granlunds

Signed Schaller.... Who?

Now he's traded away a potential lottery pick for a minor upgrade to Leivo. 

 

 

Am I missing anything? 

 

 

Quick question...how can 2 players both be unanimously wanted?

[Tomatoes11]

1 hour ago, CreamCheese said:

Off the top of my head here's why GMJB get's hate, i'm sure i'm missing some...

 

He signed Loui Erikkson to a 6x6 deal 

He signed Brandon 4th line Sutter to a 5 year deal at huge money

He Drafted Virtnanen over Nylander and Ehlers (both of who CDC basically unanimously wanted)

Traded away McCann for Erik Pylon Gudbranson 

Drafted Juolevi over Tkachuk (everybody wanted Tkachuk)

Signed Beagle and Roussell to 4 year deals to join the Sea of Granlunds

Signed Schaller.... Who?

Now he's traded away a potential lottery pick for a minor upgrade to Leivo. 

 

 

Am I missing anything? 

 

 

You are missing a lot. Every move he has made was bad basically. Only two good trades at the time were Hansen for goldolbin and conditional 1st( a much better condition than our condition in the Miller trade by the way. Our condition is basically nothing at all) and Burrows for Dahlen. Other than that, every other trade was bad.

 

Oddly enough, both trades flopped in hindsight but those were the only two good trades at the time. 

[ilduce39]

1 hour ago, wildwood12 said:

The media calls Dubas in Toronto a genius GM. He gives away a number one pick in the draft because of Cap issues. He will have 3 players making over 33 million. And he doesn’t have enough money left in his cap to pay for a proper defence!

He is going to run out of number one picks to give away to sign players. Whose the dummy.

 

Honestly, a lot of fan perception is based around a few media-spun narratives and team success.

 

Dubas (and the TO guys) run a successful team that he mostly inherited. He’s traded for a bunch of picks which really haven’t moved the needle for their success (and has pissed away his share of assets and cap space in his own right) but the “pick stockpile” fit with media narrative or a “proper rebuild” so he’s the forward thinking GM you can win with. 

 

Gillis had a very successful run with a core (which included the best players and goalie this club has ever had) he mostly inherited and benefitted from signing guys who were willing to take discounts for NTCs because they liked the city and the chance to win a cup.  He  may as well have traded away all his picks because his drafting was atrocious (and Ron Delorme took a lot of the blame - but is still on board and credited with Pettersson.  Go figure.) He traded away the one blue chip youngster we had in Hodgson for a complete bust-a-roo in Kassian and left the team with zero prospects, a goalie controversy, a run down d core and a disgruntled Kesler.  But the guy hired sleep doctors and a “capologist” so he’s some forward thinking cult hero. 

 

The common thread for these two is that if your team is winning games, the media will bend over backwards to spin some stories as to why it happened while not mentioning the obvious - these teams had very good players who gelled under a good coach.  

 

JB, on the other hand, has presided over the worst Canucks team in decades and came by it honestly.  His biggest “mistake” was apparently trying to keep a competitive culture on the team and not holding a press conference telling fans to hold on, we’re going to have some rough seasons but it will get better.  With that branding you’d think back to back Calder kids plus a top 3 pool would have more people excited.  Instead, it’s open season on “misses” like Jake over Nylander/Ehlers or trading for a former 3OA pick coming off a great playoffs in Gudbranson that successful GMs make every season. 

 

I hope it doesn’t happen but I have a sinking suspicion some other GM is going to waltz in and take this core JB put together, move a few redundant pieces as the depth finally catches up to the NHL level, and he hailed as the mastermind for the team turning it around despite leaning on Pettersson, Brock, Hughes, Juolevi and Podkozlin. (Yes, Horvat too - good for you, Gillis.) 

Edited June 25, 2019 by ilduce39

[Tomatoes11]

1 hour ago, Johnny Torts said:

He doesn't deserve all the hate and negativity. He's doing great. What we have now, minus Bo, is all a product of him. This is his build and I hope he sees this through.

 

Doesn't get any credit. People forgot we just unloaded a pile of pucks for a 20 goal scorer in TP.

 

That being said, it is crucial that he adds 1 top 4, 1 top 6 D and a 27-35 goal scoring winger. Whether its trade or FA. They have to be hardworking character guys that will compete every night like this team does. 

Eh we had to give up Mcaan, 2nd, and 3rd for TP. And Mcaan alone is better than TP. 

[Tomatoes11]

1 hour ago, King Heffy said:

One thing people underestimate about Benning is his willingness to walk away from his mistakes.  He was also learning in the job his first year and has improved with experience.  Bottom line is the team is in a much better position then when he took over.

He hasn’t walked away from JV, Granlund, and Baerschit yet unfortunately. In fact, I think him and weisbrod are the opposite.

 

I mean force feeding minutes to his trades and not qualifying better value players. Rumour is they aren’t qualifying Hutton. 

 

Sounds like Ike he is stubborn and trying to force his bad trades into good trades to me.

[BlueDragon23]

7 minutes ago, Tomatoes11 said:

You are missing a lot. Every move he has made was bad basically. Only two good trades at the time were Hansen for goldolbin and conditional 1st( a much better condition than our condition in the Miller trade by the way. Our condition is basically nothing at all) and Burrows for Dahlen. Other than that, every other trade was bad.

 

Oddly enough, both trades flopped in hindsight but those were the only two good trades at the time. 

Oh look...  here comes the Grand Champion of the “Fire Benning” circus.

[TheRussianRocket1994]

30 minutes ago, Dixon Ward said:

Agreed.  I was driving alot Saturday morning when the Miller trade broke and Scott Rintoul couldn't say a sentence that didn't start with, "some fans in the community will be very unhappy and feel we overpaid, but..."

 

At that point he had just heard about it and he was already putting negative words in everybody's mouth.  It was ridiculous.  JT Miller is a great player and whomever we picked in the 3rd round has a small chance of playing in the league let alone the top line.  A pick in the middle of the first round in 2 years might play in 4 years and then take a bit to get up to speed.  Still very little certainty that player will play top line minutes. 

 

JT Miller should have been a great story on a great weekend when we got 2 steals in Podkolzin and Hoglander.  We should have been rejoicing instead of mourning the loss of a future draft pick.

100 Agree!! Couldn’t have said it better! 

[Tomatoes11]

1 hour ago, 18W-40C-6W said:

8. Lottery pick? If we're in the lottery in 2021 we have bigger issues. Small upgrade on Leivo? Really? a 50 pt player playing the third line is a small upgrade to Leivo? Wow

 

I am not going to reply to all of them because most of it is just poor excuses, but number 8 takes the cake. This is the most ridiculous justification I ever seen. Lol

 

Somehow losing a lottery pick is okay if we have bigger issues?! What?! If we have bigger issues in 2021, the last thing we would need is to lose a lottery pick.