[Signing] Jordie Benn signs with Canucks

[canucklehead44]

Vancouver heavily shelters offensive guys with zone starts and low quality of competition.

 

Throwing our Hughes and Myers with Boeser and Pettersson creates a high powered line that will be given a lot of opportunity to score. 

 

The only problem I have with sticking Benn and Tanev with Sutter & friends is the ability to exist the zone. So do you put Edler and Stecher there and deploy Benn/Tanev as a traditional bottom pairing ?

[aGENT]

9 hours ago, Smashian Kassian said:

I'm a little concerned b/c last year Ben Hutton was the guy to jump up when Edler went down, now that's going to be Quinn Hughes or Jordie Benn. I'm not sure if Hughes is going to be ready for that (atleast right away) considering he's only played 5 games. And Benn, as I said, is likely best in his role.

On a positive note, with a more balanced D core, maybe Edler is less burdened and hence less injured this year. Maybe.

 

And if he is injured, whoever moves up will at least hopefully be playing with another top 4 guy and not... Biega 

 

15 minutes ago, canucklehead44 said:

Vancouver heavily shelters offensive guys with zone starts and low quality of competition.

 

Throwing our Hughes and Myers with Boeser and Pettersson creates a high powered line that will be given a lot of opportunity to score. 

 

The only problem I have with sticking Benn and Tanev with Sutter & friends is the ability to exist the zone. So do you put Edler and Stecher there and deploy Benn/Tanev as a traditional bottom pairing ?

I'm sure we'll see movement depending on health, opponent, chemistry etc. But yes, it will be interesting to see what becomes the predominant pairings.

 

Do we see Benn and Tanev together as a pretty formidable, 18+/-minute, shut down/match up pair? Do we see Myers and Hughes together in a more sheltered o zone/PP/offensive pair or do we see Myers partnered with Edler? Or do we go with more balanced pairings? So many options...

 

As for sheltering offensive guys, I think as we see Pettersson continue to get stronger and with the likely addition of Miller to that line, perhaps they see less than the 70% oz starts that line had last year. Maybe closer to 60%?

 

As the lineup gains more balance, strength and experience, so does their deployment perhaps?

 

If true perhaps we start the year sheltering Hughes and Myers offensively and as Hughes gets acclimated perhaps the D partners and their usage also get 'balanced' out more over time?

 

I'm excited to watch it unfold 

[Jester13]

5 minutes ago, aGENT said:

On a positive note, with a more balanced D core, maybe Edler is less burdened and hence less injured this year. Maybe.

 

And if he is injured, whoever moves up will at least hopefully be playing with another top 4 guy and not... Biega 

 

I'm sure we'll see movement depending on health, opponent, chemistry etc. But yes, it will be interesting to see what becomes the predominant pairings.

 

Do we see Benn and Tanev together as a pretty formidable, 18+/-minute, shut down/match up pair? Do we see Myers and Hughes together in a more sheltered o zone/PP/offensive pair or do we see Myers partnered with Edler? Or do we go with more balanced pairings? So many options...

 

As for sheltering offensive guys, I think as we see Pettersson continue to get stronger and with the likely addition of Miller to that line, perhaps they see less than the 70% oz starts that line had last year. Maybe closer to 60%?

 

As the lineup gains more balance, strength and experience, so does their deployment perhaps?

 

If true perhaps we start the year sheltering Hughes and Myers offensively and as Hughes gets acclimated perhaps the D partners and their usage also get 'balanced' out more over time?

 

I'm excited to watch it unfold 

You make a very good point that hasn't really been mentioned much, in that the lines will/should finally start to balance out more, which will create more chemistry, consistency, and hopefully minimize injuries and goals against while increasing goals for.

 

This year will have so many fantastic storylines that I can't wait to watch unfold. 

[Crabcakes]

10 hours ago, Smashian Kassian said:

I like Benn. Seems like the perfect modern day 3rd pair DFD.

 

The one thing I've seen/heard he's great until he's overplayed. Canm perhaps take some extra minutes the odd game, but is better served staying in his role.

 

I'm a little concerned b/c last year Ben Hutton was the guy to jump up when Edler went down, now that's going to be Quinn Hughes or Jordie Benn. I'm not sure if Hughes is going to be ready for that (atleast right away) considering he's only played 5 games. And Benn, as I said, is likely best in his role.

 

I'm sure Quinn will grow into that over some time, but we shouldn't be putting too much expectation on him right out of the shoot. That's one reason I'm a bit skeptical this is a playoff defense right away next season, despite the signings. 

I heard that Benn can play up the line up without a drop off in performance.  There must be a time limit until he gets exposed though or else why would he be on the 3rd pair.  However, there are plenty of opinions out there......we'll see.....may depend on his partner.

 

Good signing.  I like how Vancouver is becoming an attractive place for players to play.  Having a Calder winner sure helps

[aGENT]

1 hour ago, Jester13 said:

You make a very good point that hasn't really been mentioned much, in that the lines will/should finally start to balance out more, which will create more chemistry, consistency, and hopefully minimize injuries and goals against while increasing goals for.

 

This year will have so many fantastic storylines that I can't wait to watch unfold. 

That balance also perhaps means eventually less need for two match up centres in Sutter and Beagle as Pettersson's line needs less and less sheltering. The next couple years should see a lot of interesting transformation.

[189lb enforcers?]

2 hours ago, canucklehead44 said:

Vancouver heavily shelters offensive guys with zone starts and low quality of competition.

 

Throwing our Hughes and Myers with Boeser and Pettersson creates a high powered line that will be given a lot of opportunity to score. 

 

The only problem I have with sticking Benn and Tanev with Sutter & friends is the ability to exist the zone. So do you put Edler and Stecher there and deploy Benn/Tanev as a traditional bottom pairing ?

Score or get pounded into the boards. 

Thats an average of 175lbs - after dinner - of a line up.

Best of luck to QH. I’m genuinely concerned for him. 

 

[189lb enforcers?]

2 hours ago, Jester13 said:

You make a very good point that hasn't really been mentioned much, in that the lines will/should finally start to balance out more, which will create more chemistry, consistency, and hopefully minimize injuries and goals against while increasing goals for.

 

This year will have so many fantastic storylines that I can't wait to watch unfold. 

I think it’s not ‘mentioned much’ because that an obvious trajectory for any rebuilding roster. It’s as predictable as Tanev’s pending IR status or EP’s shots beating goalies clean, IMO. 

[Rob_Zepp]

 

[JamesB]

It seems that there is no Jordie Benn thread yet, so I am posted this here. It is an excellent article by Thomas Williams at Canucks Army. (Canucks Army makes significant use of analytics to assess Canuck performance.)  A lot  of people on CDC are negative about Canucks Army, presumably because they are often critical of various aspects of the Canucks. But this article is positive.

 

.

What the Canucks have in Jordie Benn

July 3, 2019, 10:00 AM | Thomas Williams

 

On the first of July, mistakes are always made in the NHL. Teams want a certain player and poison their entire cap structure to get a middling player just because they don’t cost any future assets to acquire.

 

The Vancouver Canucks are certainly no stranger to those unfortunate mistakes made on that one particular day on the hockey calendar. Big-name free agents that are a shell of what they once were are now seen as anchors and future buyout candidates just several months after pen has been put to paper.

But luckily for them, a big man from Victoria wanted to come back to his home province and play for he team he grew up watching, and they got him on a fairly team-friendly deal.

 

Jordie Benn has been all over the league and was simply known as “the other Benn” throughout his time in the barren depths of the minors. Spending time in the Central Hockey League after graduating from the BCHL and going undrafted, Benn worked his way through the Dallas Stars system, signing there as a free agent presumptuously because of his brother Jamie.

 

Bouncing back and forth between the AHL and NHL until he found consistency at the age of 26, sticking with the Stars.  Then going to the Montreal Canadiens in a deadline day trade in 2017, he’s moved into the echelon of a regular, everyday NHL defenceman.

 

Signing with the Canucks on a two-year, $4-million deal was simple enough. At the age of 31 now, Benn is closer to the end of his career than the beginning, but he still has a lot of effectiveness left. Just last year he set his career-high in points on Montreal, while points doesn’t mean everything coming from a defenceman and it was only 22, it still shows that Benn was able to be a productive top-4 defenceman on a playoff bubble team — something that Vancouver might be next season.

But the Canucks didn’t sign the left-handed defenceman to be an offensive stalwart, it’s Benn’s defensive game that earned him the contract and what has kept him around in this league.

 

It’s not just some mysterious scouting report either, Benn has true defensive effects while he’s on the ice and had a significant impact on why the Canadiens were able to win as many games as the did. Ignoring the hyperbolic statement, but the fresh Canucks defenceman was able to play important minutes at even-strength and contribute to Montreal being ranked seventh in the league in expected goals against per hour.

While Benn was on the ice for the Habs this past season, they were simply a better defensive team.

 

Using Micah Blake McCurdy’s shot rate viz, it’s easy to see what a difference Montreal was with and without Benn. While he was playing, the Canadiens suppressed shots to seven per cent lower than league average — especially around the net, where they hardly gave up any shots.

 

Without Benn, Montreal was still a solid defensive team, but not at the same level. They still gave up some significant chances, enough to raise Micah’s threat level metric by five per cent.

 

Not only are the quality of chances lessened with the 31-year-old defenceman on the ice, but the quantity as well. Benn had an on-ice CA/60 of 53.55, while Montreal over the whole entire season and every minute accounted for, had a 55.61 CA/60. Lowering that number still holds a significant value to teams. Since in basic theory, the less the opponent is attempting shots, the less they have the puck, the less likely they are able to score goals to win the game — extremely simplified.

 

Considering that the whole margin of CA/60 between all 31 teams was only 14.34, lowering that by a couple ticks can be important to prevent some scoring. That number is also including the horrid 65.43 CA/60 of the 2018-19 Ottawa Senators. If that is forgotten, the range shrinks to only 9.17.

 

While Benn easily makes the Canucks defensive game much better, he shouldn’t be relied on to contribute much on the other side of the puck. Small point totals aside, even Benn doesn’t personally attempt shots that often — throughout his entire hockey career he has only passed the 10-goal mark once and that was with the Victoria Grizzlies in the BCHL, 11 years ago.

 

But what Benn has done really well this past season with Montreal is get the puck to skaters that are open to attempt a shot.

 

On the Habs, Benn had the highest rate of primary shot assists among defencemen. And significantly in the upper tier of defencemen across the entire league. While this could just be a result of Benn hardly shooting the puck when he has it on his stick in the offensive zone, he was still able to contribute more shot attempts than teammate Victor Mete.

 

If Benn is cemented into the Canucks’ group of top-four defencemen, then he will likely be playing with some highly-skilled forwards that would appreciate his ability to get them the puck in key areas of the ice just like he has done in the past.

 

It’s one of the small things that often go unnoticed, but if tracked, like Corey has done here, the improvement on offence overall can increase. It historically hasn’t for Benn, but if just a quick break of luck and the right goal-scoring threats are on the other end of those shot assist numbers, perhaps Benn’s assist totals can increase. With that, his overall value to the boxscore-lookers might rise and we can see some praise for smart business for getting him on such a cheap cap hit.

 

A lot would have to go right, but Benn could possibly, theoretically, set his career-high in points, two years in a row. It’s reaching, but the little things that lead to that production is there.

 

All of this at even-strength is great, but where Benn does a lot of his work is on the penalty kill.

 

With the Habs last year, Benn averaged 2:46 TOI shorthanded per game, second only to the 2:48 TOI of Shea Weber. They were Montreal’s primary PK partnership throughout all of last season and they did an above-average job at restricting opposing teams from scoring on their powerplays.

 

Using Micah’s viz again to demonstrate how effective Benn was on the penalty kill, it was clearly a major difference between having him out there and not. It could be the presence of Weber with him, but a total of 225 minutes should average out the individual impact.

 

Tallying up the last two seasons of Benn’s penalty kill ability, the estimated individual impact level is four percent below league average on Micah’s threat level metric. Taking away all of the teammate impact and focusing on the individual, Benn still has a positive effect on a team’s ability shorthanded.

 

All of this combined into one package presents a very unassuming and under-the-radar defenceman. Benn won’t necessarily have any particular burst onto the scene in Vancouver and won’t impress in any significant way. But he’ll just be there and able to hold off the opposition successfully enough, as he has done historically in this league.

At just two years and a cap hit of $2-million, he can provide some much-needed veteran value on this improved Canucks blueline. He’ll play his role and be competent at it.

Things sometimes change with a new environment –Montreal had a very structured defensive system under Claude Julien last season, but if Travis Green is up to the task of improving this team’s overall defence, they certainly acquired one defenceman that should be able to perform.

 

Especially with the first full season of Quinn Hughes approaching, the addition of Benn is an interesting case study on balance throughout the

group of defencemen. They both are left-handed shooters, so they will likely rarely see the ice together, but a Benn-Stecher pairing is certainly not out of the realm of possibility.

 

It’s natural to always want balance, so if a pairing involving Benn and one of the Canucks’ young offensive defencemen is a thing next season, it would be interesting to see what exactly the results are.

 

This signing should have an overall positive effect on the upcoming Canucks season as a whole. He has certainly shown that he is much better than any of the previous blueliners that were able to get a mountain of minutes for Vancouver last year, so for just a $4-million dollar commitment, it makes all the sense in the world.

[Jester13]

1 hour ago, aGENT said:

That balance also perhaps means eventually less need for two match up centres in Sutter and Beagle as Pettersson's line needs less and less sheltering. The next couple years should see a lot of interesting transformation.

Almost like watching a plan unfold? 

[PhillipBlunt]

3 hours ago, JamesB said:

It seems that there is no Jordie Benn thread yet, so I am posted this here. It is an excellent article by Thomas Williams at Canucks Army. (Canucks Army makes significant use of analytics to assess Canuck performance.)  A lot  of people on CDC are negative about Canucks Army, presumably because they are often critical of various aspects of the Canucks. But this article is positive.

Once JD Burke left, Canucks Army improved dramatically. Now the real headaches are the likes of Burke, Sas, and other Twitter weasels.

[Canuck Surfer]

On 7/1/2019 at 9:13 AM, NUCKER67 said:

So, I believe the media and others have reported the Canucks are interested in:

 

Panarin

Myers

Ja. Benn

Jo. Benn

Nemeth

Nyqvist

Barrie

Gardiner

Hoffman

Lucic

Zucker

Gostisbehere

Zaitsev

 

...among others I'm sure. Which one of these guys does Benning get? Or does he get any of them? Jordie Benn would be a decent addition, but only if they don't re-sign Hutton. Really curious what the D is going to look like in October.

 

Probably were interested in all of them.

 

Was CDC not, to some extent, interested in all of them along the journey?

[RRypien37]

5 hours ago, Rob_Zepp said:

 

He REALLY let off, could've been a massive hit that probably would've taken Nylander out of the game. I like it. Hard nosed but controlled. Would've definitely been a penalty it todays NoHitLeague if it was full impact. 

Edited July 3, 2019 by RRypien37

[Canuck Surfer]

5 hours ago, JamesB said:

It seems that there is no Jordie Benn thread yet, so I am posted this here. It is an excellent article by Thomas Williams at Canucks Army. (Canucks Army makes significant use of analytics to assess Canuck performance.)  A lot  of people on CDC are negative about Canucks Army, presumably because they are often critical of various aspects of the Canucks. But this article is positive.

 

.

What the Canucks have in Jordie Benn

July 3, 2019, 10:00 AM | Thomas Williams

 

On the first of July, mistakes are always made in the NHL. Teams want a certain player and poison their entire cap structure to get a middling player just because they don’t cost any future assets to acquire.

 

The Vancouver Canucks are certainly no stranger to those unfortunate mistakes made on that one particular day on the hockey calendar. Big-name free agents that are a shell of what they once were are now seen as anchors and future buyout candidates just several months after pen has been put to paper.

But luckily for them, a big man from Victoria wanted to come back to his home province and play for he team he grew up watching, and they got him on a fairly team-friendly deal.

 

Jordie Benn has been all over the league and was simply known as “the other Benn” throughout his time in the barren depths of the minors. Spending time in the Central Hockey League after graduating from the BCHL and going undrafted, Benn worked his way through the Dallas Stars system, signing there as a free agent presumptuously because of his brother Jamie.

 

Bouncing back and forth between the AHL and NHL until he found consistency at the age of 26, sticking with the Stars.  Then going to the Montreal Canadiens in a deadline day trade in 2017, he’s moved into the echelon of a regular, everyday NHL defenceman.

 

Signing with the Canucks on a two-year, $4-million deal was simple enough. At the age of 31 now, Benn is closer to the end of his career than the beginning, but he still has a lot of effectiveness left. Just last year he set his career-high in points on Montreal, while points doesn’t mean everything coming from a defenceman and it was only 22, it still shows that Benn was able to be a productive top-4 defenceman on a playoff bubble team — something that Vancouver might be next season.

But the Canucks didn’t sign the left-handed defenceman to be an offensive stalwart, it’s Benn’s defensive game that earned him the contract and what has kept him around in this league.

 

It’s not just some mysterious scouting report either, Benn has true defensive effects while he’s on the ice and had a significant impact on why the Canadiens were able to win as many games as the did. Ignoring the hyperbolic statement, but the fresh Canucks defenceman was able to play important minutes at even-strength and contribute to Montreal being ranked seventh in the league in expected goals against per hour.

While Benn was on the ice for the Habs this past season, they were simply a better defensive team.

 

Using Micah Blake McCurdy’s shot rate viz, it’s easy to see what a difference Montreal was with and without Benn. While he was playing, the Canadiens suppressed shots to seven per cent lower than league average — especially around the net, where they hardly gave up any shots.

 

Without Benn, Montreal was still a solid defensive team, but not at the same level. They still gave up some significant chances, enough to raise Micah’s threat level metric by five per cent.

 

Not only are the quality of chances lessened with the 31-year-old defenceman on the ice, but the quantity as well. Benn had an on-ice CA/60 of 53.55, while Montreal over the whole entire season and every minute accounted for, had a 55.61 CA/60. Lowering that number still holds a significant value to teams. Since in basic theory, the less the opponent is attempting shots, the less they have the puck, the less likely they are able to score goals to win the game — extremely simplified.

 

Considering that the whole margin of CA/60 between all 31 teams was only 14.34, lowering that by a couple ticks can be important to prevent some scoring. That number is also including the horrid 65.43 CA/60 of the 2018-19 Ottawa Senators. If that is forgotten, the range shrinks to only 9.17.

 

While Benn easily makes the Canucks defensive game much better, he shouldn’t be relied on to contribute much on the other side of the puck. Small point totals aside, even Benn doesn’t personally attempt shots that often — throughout his entire hockey career he has only passed the 10-goal mark once and that was with the Victoria Grizzlies in the BCHL, 11 years ago.

 

But what Benn has done really well this past season with Montreal is get the puck to skaters that are open to attempt a shot.

 

On the Habs, Benn had the highest rate of primary shot assists among defencemen. And significantly in the upper tier of defencemen across the entire league. While this could just be a result of Benn hardly shooting the puck when he has it on his stick in the offensive zone, he was still able to contribute more shot attempts than teammate Victor Mete.

 

If Benn is cemented into the Canucks’ group of top-four defencemen, then he will likely be playing with some highly-skilled forwards that would appreciate his ability to get them the puck in key areas of the ice just like he has done in the past.

 

It’s one of the small things that often go unnoticed, but if tracked, like Corey has done here, the improvement on offence overall can increase. It historically hasn’t for Benn, but if just a quick break of luck and the right goal-scoring threats are on the other end of those shot assist numbers, perhaps Benn’s assist totals can increase. With that, his overall value to the boxscore-lookers might rise and we can see some praise for smart business for getting him on such a cheap cap hit.

 

A lot would have to go right, but Benn could possibly, theoretically, set his career-high in points, two years in a row. It’s reaching, but the little things that lead to that production is there.

 

All of this at even-strength is great, but where Benn does a lot of his work is on the penalty kill.

 

With the Habs last year, Benn averaged 2:46 TOI shorthanded per game, second only to the 2:48 TOI of Shea Weber. They were Montreal’s primary PK partnership throughout all of last season and they did an above-average job at restricting opposing teams from scoring on their powerplays.

 

Using Micah’s viz again to demonstrate how effective Benn was on the penalty kill, it was clearly a major difference between having him out there and not. It could be the presence of Weber with him, but a total of 225 minutes should average out the individual impact.

 

Tallying up the last two seasons of Benn’s penalty kill ability, the estimated individual impact level is four percent below league average on Micah’s threat level metric. Taking away all of the teammate impact and focusing on the individual, Benn still has a positive effect on a team’s ability shorthanded.

 

All of this combined into one package presents a very unassuming and under-the-radar defenceman. Benn won’t necessarily have any particular burst onto the scene in Vancouver and won’t impress in any significant way. But he’ll just be there and able to hold off the opposition successfully enough, as he has done historically in this league.

At just two years and a cap hit of $2-million, he can provide some much-needed veteran value on this improved Canucks blueline. He’ll play his role and be competent at it.

Things sometimes change with a new environment –Montreal had a very structured defensive system under Claude Julien last season, but if Travis Green is up to the task of improving this team’s overall defence, they certainly acquired one defenceman that should be able to perform.

 

Especially with the first full season of Quinn Hughes approaching, the addition of Benn is an interesting case study on balance throughout the

group of defencemen. They both are left-handed shooters, so they will likely rarely see the ice together, but a Benn-Stecher pairing is certainly not out of the realm of possibility.

 

It’s natural to always want balance, so if a pairing involving Benn and one of the Canucks’ young offensive defencemen is a thing next season, it would be interesting to see what exactly the results are.

 

This signing should have an overall positive effect on the upcoming Canucks season as a whole. He has certainly shown that he is much better than any of the previous blueliners that were able to get a mountain of minutes for Vancouver last year, so for just a $4-million dollar commitment, it makes all the sense in the world.

What this tells me is?

 

>> We have a 2knd PK defenceman on the left side to supplemement Alex Edler.   

 

>> AV style, more importantly we have a deployment defensive specialist.  The defensive equivalent to Malhotra & more recently Sutter. 

 

The offensive stuff is overblown. Weber was out a lot of the season.  And I don't imagine we'll be sending Benn over the boards for offensive zone face off's when we have Hughes first, or Edler 2knd rested.  Those stats were just Montreal's lack of offensive depth. We also just broomed Hutton & Pouliot based on Hughes, potentially Juolevi, arriving. Nobody should get their hopes up for any offense from Jordie Benn.

 

It does hint, we may have a LHD version of Tanev? On a less expensive contract.  I don't believe he has the speed, to be a puck clearing machine that Tanev is. But does suggest he is otherwise just as good. Critically, one adding a D who can take care of the front of the net. Win corner battles and clear space. 

 

I suspect we will see a lot of Tanev & Benn together.

 

I suspect we'll see a whole lot of Tanev and Benn together, on defensive zone draws. 

[kloubek]

Great read, JamesB.  Thank you.  I was just going to ask just how sound defensively he actually was.  The part I particularly like is the belief he can get the pucks up to the forwards - which is something I feel we have been lacking.

[nucklehead]

On 6/30/2019 at 1:11 PM, LegionOfDoom said:

I mean we are in the up swing of things a great looking future and have the ability to add pieces why wouldn’t players be attracted to Vancouver right now?? Guarantee there is other talks with players we don’t even know about as well, the miller thing came out of nowhere 

Because Luongos contract sucks

[TheCerebral1]

Benn isn't a terrible addition.  However, is it really worth the continuity of Ben Hutton.  I'm sure someone in the near future signs him, as he's not a bad player.  I have no issues with the short term signing overall. 

[aGENT]

2 minutes ago, TheCerebral1 said:

Benn isn't a terrible addition.  However, is it really worth the continuity of Ben Hutton.  I'm sure someone in the near future signs him, as he's not a bad player.  I have no issues with the short term signing overall. 

He's a better D than Hutton in every way but age and perhaps the nebulous (and in Hutton's case, fading) 'potential'.

[Dazzle]

19 hours ago, RRypien37 said:

He REALLY let off, could've been a massive hit that probably would've taken Nylander out of the game. I like it. Hard nosed but controlled. Would've definitely been a penalty it todays NoHitLeague if it was full impact. 

Very clean hit indeed. This is the type of hitting that should be the standard for being effective - not this boarding nonsense that people are doing.

[Borvat]

2 hours ago, Dazzle said:

Very clean hit indeed. This is the type of hitting that should be the standard for being effective - not this boarding nonsense that people are doing.

Exactly, and as usual Kadri's response is to go out of his way for retribution and apply a shoulder to Benn's head when he isn't looking.  That is Kadri toughness in a nutshell.