[Article] Is Jim Benning the best GM in the NHL at the season's halfway mark?

[CanadianRugby]

On 1/27/2020 at 3:33 PM, -AJ- said:

Some interesting info in here, including the fact that Jim finished 4th in mid-season Jim Gregory (GM of the year) voting. I wonder how "Dim Jim"ers are handling all this. 

I remember Gillis won that award, he was gone soon after.  Things can change quickly in sports.  I called Jim dim, when he was doing dim things so I guess I'm a "Dim Jim"er.  So, how do I handle "this?"  Well, I'm stoked to finally be winning again! 

 

The #1 thing I argued was do you need high draft picks to rebuild.  So, with Hughes, Pettersson & Virtanen playing how they are how are Benning loyalists handling that?  I mean, is that how this works? 

 

 

[-AJ-]

2 hours ago, CanadianRugby said:

I remember Gillis won that award, he was gone soon after.  Things can change quickly in sports.  I called Jim dim, when he was doing dim things so I guess I'm a "Dim Jim"er.  So, how do I handle "this?"  Well, I'm stoked to finally be winning again! 

 

The #1 thing I argued was do you need high draft picks to rebuild.  So, with Hughes, Pettersson & Virtanen playing how they are how are Benning loyalists handling that?  I mean, is that how this works? 

 

 

The "Dim Jim" comment was more directed to those who still currently refer to him by the derogatory moniker (so presumably, not you). I think most reasonable fans have at least come accept Benning as okay, if not better than average.

[iceman64]

On 1/27/2020 at 3:33 PM, -AJ- said:

https://theprovince.com/sports/hockey/nhl/vancouver-canucks/ed-willes-is-canucks-jim-benning-the-best-gm-in-the-nhl-at-the-seasons-halfway-mark?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1579902220

 

Some interesting info in here, including the fact that Jim finished 4th in mid-season Jim Gregory (GM of the year) voting. I wonder how "Dim Jim"ers are handling all this. 

 

 

 I think 8th place overall as of tonight speaks for itself.. not bad JB!

Considering we were project to be between 20-30 ish so ummm JB haters.. (suck it up buttercup)

 And we're just getting started, Hogs n Pods, Train, etc entering the fold soon and not far off from when we need them, Gaudette more experienced, JV same, EP, Brock, Bo, Hi, will be just hitting their stride in a cpl of years more and then both Lou's will be off the books for another chunk of bling lost to the cap on top of a rebuild, doing it with that kind of handicap is pretty impressive, but that extra cap space might make more of a difference than we think but so far so good...

Edited January 30, 2020 by iceman64

[alt kilgore]

On 1/28/2020 at 5:45 PM, Alflives said:

There should be a rule against these completely complex and confusing posts.  What? 

You are right, there should be.  lol I got a little verbose. Somebody stop me!

 

Coles notes:

Benning's been good at stuff.  But one should also take into consideration past stuff that still affects the team in the present, and not ignore the future cap crunch he set himself up with to do it.

 

. when Benning finally took scouting reigns drafting got much better

. pitiful graph of our drafting history with chief Delorme

. sparking graph of achievements of Benning during that same time

. drafting here, his hits far outweigh his misses too.

. but on the free agent signings and trades he is below average

. he set himself up a cap crunch / expansion nightmare

. nonetheless, in Future Benning I believe.

. go canucks go

 

 

 

 

 

[CanadianRugby]

1 hour ago, -AJ- said:

The "Dim Jim" comment was more directed to those who still currently refer to him by the derogatory moniker (so presumably, not you). I think most reasonable fans have at least come accept Benning as okay, if not better than average.

With Benning I think...

Drafting - Good

Trades - OK

Contracts - Bad

Though situations change and with winning, Pettersson and the beauty of Vancouver it should be easier to attract free agents.  It's alarming the length & salary Benning likes to give to aging role players.  Though with all the young guys getting huge raises soon, he won't be able to sign lucrative bottom 6 contracts and I'm interested to see how he'll navigate that. 

 

Really, I'm just ready for some playoffs.  It would suck to miss AND lose that 1st round pick.  

 

That said, can you imagine being San Jose?  You're missing the playoffs, looking like you have to rebuild AND lose a lottery pick.  

[-AJ-]

1 minute ago, CanadianRugby said:

With Benning I think...

Drafting - Good

Trades - OK

Contracts - Bad

Though situations change and with winning, Pettersson and the beauty of Vancouver it should be easier to attract free agents.  It's alarming the length & salary Benning likes to give to aging role players.  Though with all the young guys getting huge raises soon, he won't be able to sign lucrative bottom 6 contracts and I'm interested to see how he'll navigate that. 

 

Really, I'm just ready for some playoffs.  It would suck to miss AND lose that 1st round pick.  

 

That said, can you imagine being San Jose?  You're missing the playoffs, looking like you have to rebuild AND lose a lottery pick.  

Yeah, San Jose is a nightmare. They have a team designed to go all in and win now and they're doing the exact opposite. Kind of feels like they have to just suffer for another few years before even starting the rebuild. They've got a long road ahead of them.

[The Lock]

23 hours ago, CanadianRugby said:

With Benning I think...

Drafting - Good

Trades - OK

Contracts - Bad

Though situations change and with winning, Pettersson and the beauty of Vancouver it should be easier to attract free agents.  It's alarming the length & salary Benning likes to give to aging role players.  Though with all the young guys getting huge raises soon, he won't be able to sign lucrative bottom 6 contracts and I'm interested to see how he'll navigate that. 

 

Really, I'm just ready for some playoffs.  It would suck to miss AND lose that 1st round pick.  

 

That said, can you imagine being San Jose?  You're missing the playoffs, looking like you have to rebuild AND lose a lottery pick.  

All I have to say is look at the Panarin and Bobrovsky contracts or look at Parise and Suter. It's not even about how they're playing now, it's what it took to sign them. Free agency creates tons of bad contracts league wide. We're by no means an oddity with contracts. In fact, we're better off than some other teams even (imagine Minnesota's situation. Ugh).

 

It seems to me that people want almost "perfection" out of free agency without realising there's now 31 teams vying to get players. The prices are going to be high and the terms are going to be longer. It's what happens when demand goes above supply.

 

Now I'm not defending contracts like Eriksson. That's not really my point. I'm just saying what generally happens in free agency.

Edited January 31, 2020 by The Lock

[apollo]

Calling Jim the best GM is an insult.

 

Jim is on another level. Jim should replace the queen of England.

 

Pfft... GM?!

 

He's the greatest whatever he wants to be!

 

Way too many glass half empty pessimistic comments here... not gonna waste my breath debating this. Almost shot myself reading some of the comments

 

 

Edited January 31, 2020 by apollo

[Rob_Zepp]

On 1/28/2020 at 6:40 AM, tas said:

the guy came in and said "I think we can turn things around quickly."

 

in spite of fans and media spending the first 4 years of his tenure shrieking about every little detail, how he said this but did THAT, yadda yadda yadda, all the guy did was:

 

-give the old core one last playoff shot

-do a complete teardown, including moving a bunch of immoveable contracts while having no high value assets

-do a complete rebuild through the draft

-supplement those picks with savvy trades for role players and complementary players without giving up anything of value

-create a new (should be) playoff team that leads their division at the end of January

 

in the span of six (6) seasons. 

 

someone find me a comparable scenario. 

 

His hands were tied by a President that was too loyal to some HOF aging superstars and it delayed things a bit but once the ramp was cleared, it has been pretty quick.   Compare the Canucks on-ice product today to 2016 and the prospect pool over the same period.   I would argue no other team in the league (Vegas for obvious reasons not included) that has had as much change in both the NHL product and the depth/prospect with both changing in the positive direction as the Vancouver Canucks.

[rekker]

2 hours ago, Rob_Zepp said:

His hands were tied by a President that was too loyal to some HOF aging superstars and it delayed things a bit but once the ramp was cleared, it has been pretty quick.   Compare the Canucks on-ice product today to 2016 and the prospect pool over the same period.   I would argue no other team in the league (Vegas for obvious reasons not included) that has had as much change in both the NHL product and the depth/prospect with both changing in the positive direction as the Vancouver Canucks.

Depth, depth, depth. Haven't been this deep in years. 

Edited February 1, 2020 by rekker

[Rob_Zepp]

7 minutes ago, rekker said:

Depth, depth, depth. Haven't been this deep in year. 

That's what she said.......

[TheNewGM]

I have been vocal about some bad FA signing from Jim ( too much too high ) but his drafting is second to none. He has built an extremely well balanced deep team.

Not without a bit of luck though. Quinn Hughes and Elias Peterson, Along with JT miller have transformed the team.. Without those three guys, the team would just not be as good. But when you can support young generational players with with the group we have. That is a very good recipee for a team to play well together. And the Canucks of late have changed their style a lot. Props to Green maybe reading the forums. I ranted about the dump chase style.. And what happened??? they stopped dumping it in. Its been amazing to watch the shift. Its like they all grew some swagger after watching Hughes Dangle so often... Now I also complained about our Dmen playing goalie.. ANd they stopped doing that also.. and now we are winning.. If our defense can tighten up a little more. We are going to the conference final.

 

What team In our conference will beat us ? Name one? .. I say colorado, and St. Louis .. Every other team I am confident nucks will win.

[ilduce39]

I’ve supported from the get go largely because I saw the team getting better on a macro scale.  People argue one way or another that he’s changed strategies and to a point I’m sure that’s true as he’s grown.. but the reality is he was never going to have success much earlier than this season given the barren prospect pool he inherited coupled with never winning a draft lottery.  
 

I see a few key elements to creating his current group:

 

-Overall great drafting and signing a college FA guy like Stecher. 
 

-Emphasis on development of drafted players, which included: 

 

-having veterans in place both for leadership and insulation

 

-good internal competition, even when the team was bad young players were not gifted spots.  

-JV and McCann being the exceptions here and JB learned from that misstep. 

 

-hiring coaches who are regarded as good communicators and teachers

 

-competitive attitude: always emphasized winning and wanting to make the playoffs even in bleak seasons

 

-didn’t neglect the bottom 6, 200 foot game or players who play “the right way” 

 

-not afraid to make a splash in FA or trade despite the LE flop early on

 

-great contracts for returning players seems to me he has created a place guys care about and has the respect of his locker room

 

It hasn’t been a perfect run by any stretch of the imagination but it’s no surprise that as our elite talent draft picks came in there was a core of a team JB kept hungry for them to push over the top.  
 

I said this offseason that pushing for the playoffs was JB’s biggest test to date and he needed a home run trade or signing to really break through... and the Miller deal sure seems to be the home run and Myers has been a solid double as well.  
 

Yeah, this season isn’t done and anything can still happen... but it looks pretty darn promising and a quick glance to the prospect section shows its likely only getting better. 

[Angry Goose]

Im hoping people will just relax and let JB do his job.  

 

Contextually, JB is managing a far different team now than when he inherited it.  I think that is big time difference people need to understand.  

 

 

Edited February 1, 2020 by SILLY GOOSE