A realistic analysis of Jim Benning's tenure so far

[10pavelbure96]

I've supported jimbo for years but I think his time is over.

 

As many have said the mistakes have caught up and I know the covid cap messed up his plans but he built the team with no safety net. Too many mistakes with no insurance.

 

We will thank him for our core the way we thank Burke for the Sedins.

 

But it's time for a  new GM. Wont happen this year though.

[IBatch]

2 hours ago, 10pavelbure96 said:

I've supported jimbo for years but I think his time is over.

 

As many have said the mistakes have caught up and I know the covid cap messed up his plans but he built the team with no safety net. Too many mistakes with no insurance.

 

We will thank him for our core the way we thank Burke for the Sedins.

 

But it's time for a  new GM. Wont happen this year though.

Maybe it's time we bring MG back?  lol ... no that's wrong.   First we need a Nonis to make a trade to bring in a Luongo type impact player - THEN we need to bring MG back (and to have one of the best drafts in history - and two of the worst ones)...

[24K PureCool]

JB biggest mistake this off season was d*cking around with Arizona and OEL instead of getting our own house in order first. That and keeping no show Jake over Toffoli. 

 

He can still recover from this and I personally ain't gonna cheer for him getting fired as the other side ain't always greener but I ain't gonna shed a tear if he gets the boot either. 

[Provost]

The only “realistic” metric for Benning at this point can be wins and losses.

 

It isn’t a “try” league.  Any other analysis isn’t realistic, it is subjective.

 

He has a below .500 record in his entire tenure.  We are still below .500 and are now in his 7th season.
 

He is one of the longest tenured GMs in the entire league.  There is no GM in the league with a longer tenure and a worse winning record, but a long shot.  Several teams have gone through more than one GM during his time here and have fired guys without better records.

 

It is hard to argue that his time has been a success, because it literally hasn’t.  Getting a couple elite talents in the draft doesn’t mean you become a winning team... look at Edmonton.

 

He has to win, or he should be fired.  That is the price to pay for being the boss... especially one who has drummed out other voices in the organization like Linden and Brackett.

 

If we are below .500 by the trade deadline he should be gone so a replacement can start on their new vision for the team.

Edited February 3, 2021 by Provost

[D-Money]

42 minutes ago, Provost said:

The only “realistic” metric for Benning at this point can be wins and losses.

 

It isn’t a “try” league.  Any other analysis isn’t realistic, it is subjective.

 

He has a below .500 record in his entire tenure.  We are still below .500 and are now in his 7th season.
 

He is one of the longest tenured GMs in the entire league.  There is no GM in the league with a longer tenure and a worse winning record, but a long shot.  Several teams have gone through more than one GM during his time here and have fired guys without better records.

 

It is hard to argue that his time has been a success, because it literally hasn’t.  Getting a couple elite talents in the draft doesn’t mean you become a winning team... look at Edmonton.

 

He has to win, or he should be fired.  That is the price to pay for being the boss... especially one who has drummed out other voices in the organization like Linden and Brackett.

 

If we are below .500 by the trade deadline he should be gone so a replacement can start on their new vision for the team.

I disagree with this. Losing is fine as a strategy - if anything, it might have benefited us to lose even more. The key is what do you do when you're losing, to set yourself up to pull out of it as a contender?

 

An interesting example of this is the team we just played. Marc Bergevin has made a lot of moves over the years, some of which were widely criticized. Even today, the Price contract looks questionable, and the Sergachev for Drouin trade terrible. But still, he also made some good moves, and used the time the team wasn't good to amass lots of assets, and didn't tie himself down to a bunch of overpriced veterans to fill out his roster. So when the time finally came to get good - this past offseason - he was in a great position to go after pretty much anything he wanted. And the results speak for themselves. The team is stacked, both on the NHL roster, and in the system.

 

In the 2018-2020 drafts, the Canadiens had 29 picks: 8 in the top-50, and 14 in the top-100. Canucks had 20 picks: 4 in the top-50 and 6 in the top-100. Also, the Canadiens still have SEVEN extra picks for the 2021 draft, in addition to their own (Canucks only have their own picks). So as good as the Habs already look, they are in a position where they could easily add additional pieces at the deadline, and/or use draft capital to dispose of a difficult contract (such as Paul Byron). When our team was in such bad straits, why were we not building up organizational depth and trade chips? Chips that could have been used to free up some cap space...

 

While Canucks were failing to add draft picks, they were also signing bad contract after bad contract. Eriksson, Sutter, Gagner, Myers, Beagle, Roussel... one or two can get a pass, but as a whole it has taken away any flexibility the team had. At least if they focused on short-term deals, they could fill out the roster, and trade some off as rentals at the deadline. But the presence of these contracts is directly responsible for us losing Toffoli, and not being able to take advantage of some of the other great deals that were available in free agency. So now, instead of being able to take advantage of the last year Pettersson and Hughes are on their ELCs, (not to mention the team not having to go through Vegas until the 3rd round), the team is floundering.

 

Benning doesn't deserve to be fired because of losing. He deserves to be fired because of what he did while they were losing.

 

[Provost]

44 minutes ago, D-Money said:

I disagree with this. Losing is fine as a strategy - if anything, it might have benefited us to lose even more. The key is what do you do when you're losing, to set yourself up to pull out of it as a contender?

 

Benning doesn't deserve to be fired because of losing. He deserves to be fired because of what he did while they were losing.

 

Sorry, nope.

In no NHL world does a GM get 7 plus years to rebuild a team without at least being a regular playoff team.  It just doesn't happen in actual reality, you can disagree all you want, but in the NHL world GMs get fired for performance reasons long before Benning has even been in the hotseat.

Bergevin is a bad example... his team has made the playoffs 5 of his 8 years and been in 1st place in his division for 3 of those years during the regular season.

The "we need to rebuild" excuse buys you 2-3 years... not 7.

Edited February 3, 2021 by Provost

[IBatch]

3 minutes ago, Provost said:

Sorry, nope.

In no NHL world does a GM get 7 plus years to rebuild a team without at least being a regular playoff team.  It just doesn't happen in actual reality, you can disagree all you want, but in the NHL world GMs get fired for performance reasons long before Benning has even been in the hotseat.

Bergevin is a bad example... his team has made the playoffs 5 of his 8 years and been in 1st place in his division for 3 of those years during the regular season.

The "we need to rebuild" excuse buys you 2-3 years... not 7.

How's Detroit doing anyways?   

[IBatch]

This is how i  feel about JB and the Canucks.   We were set for a major fall ... that was going to take 12 years to recover from.   On average.   Welcome to 30-32 teams.     If your not sure about that - then it's time to remove the rose coloured glasses.   And truly analyze things.   There's a reason why both TG and JB are considered above average or even good by their peers.   This fan base does include a good amount of folks that get it.   But a lot of other folks that don't.   And the trolls come out every loss, and the homers every win. 

Edited February 3, 2021 by IBatch

[CanadianRugby]

I don't think a Benning PR team could write a better fluff piece than the OP.  If Benning is ever looking for another GM position he should just copy what the OP said because apparently he's been flawless.  Even the Eriksson signing was good?  Jesus Canucks fans are just gluttons for punishment. 

[IBatch]

10 minutes ago, CanadianRugby said:

I don't think a Benning PR team could write a better fluff piece than the OP.  If Benning is ever looking for another GM position he should just copy what the OP said because apparently he's been flawless.  Even the Eriksson signing was good?  Jesus Canucks fans are just gluttons for punishment. 

The last sentence has been true for as long as i'm a fan.   Still am regardless.   I've seen a lot worse. 

[xereau]

34 minutes ago, IBatch said:

How's Detroit doing anyways?   

Canucks and Detroit are similar in that they ran on fumes for a decade trying to prop up an old core.. in fact, Detroit ran on fumes for 20+ years. It takes much longer for teams to reboot completely from such situations.

 

Benning's prospect pool was literally bare when he got here, nothing with which to work, and everyone prancing around on their bloody my little ponies had NTC's! This is a great team on paper, and I believe that Green's gotta go before Benning's canned, because there's the workings of something special here.. but half a team of creative players are being told to play like freaking plugs, and it disgusts me. This is the least entertaining hockey in the history of this franchise, and it's not even close. No puck pursuit in the D zone, and simply "clogging lanes" is not bloody hockey. The book is out on Green's D zone system, and if the other team simply whips it around the outside, they are gonna get a HQ one timer chance nearly every single entry. It's disgusting to see statistics metastasize out on the ice.

[Fred65]

33 minutes ago, xereau said:

Canucks and Detroit are similar in that they ran on fumes for a decade trying to prop up an old core.. in fact, Detroit ran on fumes for 20+ years. It takes much longer for teams to reboot completely from such situations.

 

Benning's prospect pool was literally bare when he got here, nothing with which to work, and everyone prancing around on their bloody my little ponies had NTC's! This is a great team on paper, and I believe that Green's gotta go before Benning's canned, because there's the workings of something special here.. but half a team of creative players are being told to play like freaking plugs, and it disgusts me. This is the least entertaining hockey in the history of this franchise, and it's not even close. No puck pursuit in the D zone, and simply "clogging lanes" is not bloody hockey. The book is out on Green's D zone system, and if the other team simply whips it around the outside, they are gonna get a HQ one timer chance nearly every single entry. It's disgusting to see statistics metastasize out on the ice.

How  can we uphold Bennings scouting success here's JB's first draft ( Virtanen and McCann ) there were so many better options, fact! Ditto 2016

 

2014 Draft Choices Round 1 - Vancouver Canucks - Team (nhl.com)

 

Secondly when it became apparent that JV is not the player  that was as advertized but they failed to recognize this and never reacted to the situation. Now we have an asset that's worth very little. Strangely enough McCann has actually done better than Virtanen, thank heavens we have a a great scouting guru, If Brackett hadn't taken over  ????

Edited February 3, 2021 by Fred65

[alt kilgore]

52 minutes ago, IBatch said:

How's Detroit doing anyways?   

They've not been in the playoffs for 4 years..  Just like us, before last season.

But Yzerman is in a much better position comiing into the next couple of years to shape his team.

 

Benning has hamstrung himself.  And will be until after Hughes and Petey are off their ELCs.  So no being able to use that advantage in that window. Its gone. We have to hope that the GM by that time (please not be JB, please not be JB) will be able to do what this GM couldn't do, find value contracts and FAs that can actually play NHL level hockey. 

 

Benning has set himself up with the double whammy of being in the negative as far as draft picks. I think this next draft is the first one in a while that we have all our picks. (so far).  And the other shoe to drop is in the process of shedding picks and prospects, he saddled the team with exorbitant untradable declining players, and penalties, and non playing contracts.  I think its a gut wrenching shame that Pettersson and Hughes on ELC, and Boeser with his bridge deal, with what they are being paid off the cap, we can't take advantage of that. Its a bit of a mirage.  Petey and Huggy ar e so good that they have masked the inherent problems that are killing the long or medium term expectations.

Here's how Detroit is doing,

https://nhl.nbcsports.com/2020/10/28/detroit-red-wings-have-opportunity-for-bold-moves-next-offseason-nhl-draft-nhl-free-agency/

 

"..the franchise has been completely stripped down to its most basic foundation over the past two seasons. The bad contracts that littered the roster have either been jettisoned, bought out, or expired. All of that has left the team in a situation where it has almost no long-term commitments to worry about, and a massive amount of salary cap space to work with in the future.

As of this moment there are only eight players under contract beyond this season. Only one of those players (Dylan Larkin) is signed for more than two seasons (his contract expires after the 2022-23 season).  It has given Yzerman and the Red Wings a clean slate to work with. Now they can finally start building back up.

How will he do it?"

............

They have one of the league’s best general managers, more salary cap flexibility than any team in the league, collected a bounty of draft picks over the past couple of years, have even more coming this year, and have three recent top-six picks (plus what almost certainly be another one in the 2021 draft) to hopefully build around.

.............

Next summer could be big

This offseason was about piecing together a short-term roster with cheap, short-term free agent signings that could turn into a trade deadline assets. Players like Bobby Ryan, Vladislav Namestnikov, Troy Stecher, and Jon Merrill. None of them figure to be long-term pieces, just like most of the current roster.

As of now, the Red Wings only have $29.9M in salary cap space committed to eight players for next season, per CapFriendly. You have to assume the youth movement continues into next season and some of those open spaces are filled with entry-level contracts and rookies, which would leave them a significant amount of salary cap space to fill out the roster.

That presents Yzerman and the Red Wings with a number of different options.,,,,,

 

Go big in free agency?

Next year’s potential UFA class looks fairly deep, even when taking into account some (or many) will ultimately re-sign with their current teams. There is always a risk in going big in the free agent market, but the Red Wings would have the salary cap space to make a run at quite literally any player (or multiple players) on the market to complement their prospect core.

Unlikely as it may be, the RFA market should also be an option.

The Red Wings have had so many draft picks over the past two years (23 to be exact) and already have nine for next season with the potential to add several more at the trade deadline. Given all of those recent picks, as well as their massive amount of cap space, they should be at least willing to explore the possibility of giving up future picks and putting the clamps on another team for a potential offer sheet.

 

and or,

 

Take advantage of teams that need salary cap relief

All of that salary cap space can be weaponized in their favor to take advantage of teams that need salary cap relief. They already did that this offseason with the Marc Staal trade (netting them an additional second-round pick) and will have plenty of opportunities to do it again next offseason.

With so much cap space, no long-term commitments, and the potential for what will still be a young, cheap roster the Red Wings would be in a position to take on more undesirable contracts and accepting a dumping fee in the form of a quality draft pick or prospect for doing so.

With a flat cap there will no doubt be teams desperate to dump contracts and to pay a price for doing so. They can — and should — use that to their advantage."

 

 

JB is way off on his timing at the very least. Trying to do a rebuild while saying the team is contending  for a playoff spot at the same time.....every fricken year since he's been here. Rarely will that ever work.  Its laughable how in a lot of ways, we are in a position that teams that have had a lot of success recently are in, and are finally ready for a rebuild, without the benefits of that success, Low number of picks, plus older vets you need to shed so you can get younger. 

 

Red Wings did a classic style rebuild.  Lets see in a couple of years how they look compared to us. When they have a stable of potential ELC rookies they can choose from, and a huge chunk of cap space to sign FAs. And a plethora of draft picks to also use in deals as well. We will still have Petey and Hughes, hopefully, but its also about the team around them, and the league is getting younger every year. 

"

[IBatch]

9 minutes ago, kilgore said:

They've not been in the playoffs for 4 years..  Just like us, before last season.

But Yzerman is in a much better position comiing into the next couple of years to shape his team.

 

Benning has hamstrung himself.  And will be until after Hughes and Petey are off their ELCs.  So no being able to use that advantage in that window. Its gone. We have to hope that the GM by that time (please not be JB, please not be JB) will be able to do what this GM couldn't do, find value contracts and FAs that can actually play NHL level hockey. 

 

Benning has set himself up with the double whammy of being in the negative as far as draft picks. I think this next draft is the first one in a while that we have all our picks. (so far).  And the other shoe to drop is in the process of shedding picks and prospects, he saddled the team with exorbitant untradable declining players, and penalties, and non playing contracts.  I think its a gut wrenching shame that Pettersson and Hughes on ELC, and Boeser with his bridge deal, with what they are being paid off the cap, we can't take advantage of that. Its a bit of a mirage.  Petey and Huggy ar e so good that they have masked the inherent problems that are killing the long or medium term expectations.

Here's how Detroit is doing,

https://nhl.nbcsports.com/2020/10/28/detroit-red-wings-have-opportunity-for-bold-moves-next-offseason-nhl-draft-nhl-free-agency/

 

"..the franchise has been completely stripped down to its most basic foundation over the past two seasons. The bad contracts that littered the roster have either been jettisoned, bought out, or expired. All of that has left the team in a situation where it has almost no long-term commitments to worry about, and a massive amount of salary cap space to work with in the future.

As of this moment there are only eight players under contract beyond this season. Only one of those players (Dylan Larkin) is signed for more than two seasons (his contract expires after the 2022-23 season).  It has given Yzerman and the Red Wings a clean slate to work with. Now they can finally start building back up.

How will he do it?"

............

They have one of the league’s best general managers, more salary cap flexibility than any team in the league, collected a bounty of draft picks over the past couple of years, have even more coming this year, and have three recent top-six picks (plus what almost certainly be another one in the 2021 draft) to hopefully build around.

.............

Next summer could be big

This offseason was about piecing together a short-term roster with cheap, short-term free agent signings that could turn into a trade deadline assets. Players like Bobby Ryan, Vladislav Namestnikov, Troy Stecher, and Jon Merrill. None of them figure to be long-term pieces, just like most of the current roster.

As of now, the Red Wings only have $29.9M in salary cap space committed to eight players for next season, per CapFriendly. You have to assume the youth movement continues into next season and some of those open spaces are filled with entry-level contracts and rookies, which would leave them a significant amount of salary cap space to fill out the roster.

That presents Yzerman and the Red Wings with a number of different options.,,,,,

 

Go big in free agency?

Next year’s potential UFA class looks fairly deep, even when taking into account some (or many) will ultimately re-sign with their current teams. There is always a risk in going big in the free agent market, but the Red Wings would have the salary cap space to make a run at quite literally any player (or multiple players) on the market to complement their prospect core.

Unlikely as it may be, the RFA market should also be an option.

The Red Wings have had so many draft picks over the past two years (23 to be exact) and already have nine for next season with the potential to add several more at the trade deadline. Given all of those recent picks, as well as their massive amount of cap space, they should be at least willing to explore the possibility of giving up future picks and putting the clamps on another team for a potential offer sheet.

 

and or,

 

Take advantage of teams that need salary cap relief

All of that salary cap space can be weaponized in their favor to take advantage of teams that need salary cap relief. They already did that this offseason with the Marc Staal trade (netting them an additional second-round pick) and will have plenty of opportunities to do it again next offseason.

With so much cap space, no long-term commitments, and the potential for what will still be a young, cheap roster the Red Wings would be in a position to take on more undesirable contracts and accepting a dumping fee in the form of a quality draft pick or prospect for doing so.

With a flat cap there will no doubt be teams desperate to dump contracts and to pay a price for doing so. They can — and should — use that to their advantage."

 

 

JB is way off on his timing at the very least. Trying to do a rebuild while saying the team is contending  for a playoff spot at the same time.....every fricken year since he's been here. Rarely will that ever work.  Its laughable how in a lot of ways, we are in a position that teams that have had a lot of success recently are in, and are finally ready for a rebuild, without the benefits of that success, Low number of picks, plus older vets you need to shed so you can get younger. 

 

Red Wings did a classic style rebuild.  Lets see in a couple of years how they look compared to us. When they have a stable of potential ELC rookies they can choose from, and a huge chunk of cap space to sign FAs. And a plethora of draft picks to also use in deals as well. We will still have Petey and Hughes, hopefully, but its also about the team around them, and the league is getting younger every year. 

"

So do you think Detroit is in a better position in their rebuild then Vancouver is?  Larkin and Horvat were drafted around the same time and all...

 

In case i have to actually spell it out  - lol will do it again anyways.   Only Vancouver, SJ and Detroit won as much as they did for 14 years - spanning the WCE and peak Sedin era.   SJ somehow managed to last longer - well not really because Detroit was good since 1993...and were considered the cream of the crop under Holland's tutelage for a very long time.   SJ looks a lot like the Sedin post 2012 aging core right now doesn't it.   They will get there too. 

 

IMO - and please educate me if i'm wrong, Vancouver's best comparable is Detroit and SJ.   Of the three who right now has the better team?   Even a monkey could figure that out (not saying you are a monkey - but some folks seem like monkeys' on this site)....

 

If you don't think that works, then maybe we could look at EDM, who's being rebuilding since the early 90's,  with one miracle run thanks to Pronger.   Or Buffalo - or ARI, or CAR or even CLB, who had more to work with under the old rules of expansion then we did.    JB saved his job as a result of very good drafting.   That's it. Plus some unusually good trades - Miller and Schmidt - and a good signing in Myers (despite all the crap he gets - basically all of Edlers old crap, which was also undeserved).   

 

Im not a homer - i'm a realist.   Never felt we had much of a chance with the core after the Sedins, and at best MAYBE we could contend with parts of it and the next one - which is right on cue with both our history - and a little ahead of the fact we are competing with 30-32 other GMs.   
 

Do i like it?  Not at all.   I'm all for league contraction, back to at least 6 teams per division of not 5.   Because the talent level is much higher.   Even with  the 40 or so enforcers back then. 

Edited February 3, 2021 by IBatch

[appleboy]

12 minutes ago, IBatch said:

So do you think Detroit is in a better position in their rebuild then Vancouver is?  Larkin and Horvat were drafted around the same time and all...

Look at how small the window is. They have waisted cap space that can't be used to put a winning team on the ice this year and next. They regressed this year. They will spend most of the free cap next year to sign Petey and Hughes.  Players won't wait for ever to win. You have this year and two more with Horvat and Miller and then they are UFA's. thank god they have no clauses in their deals but will this team have the balls to move them if they won't resign early. 

You could see us back into a rebuild in two years.  This should have been the year to load up not two years from now. Huge mistake for this management.

[Provost]

2 hours ago, IBatch said:

How's Detroit doing anyways?   

They replaced one of the winningest GMs in league history who brought them multiple Cups, won several President’s trophies, and had the most playoff games of any team... just because they missed the playoffs for 3 years after an unprecedented run of consecutive playoff appearances. 

 

Another example that proves my point, quite startlingly so.  Benning hasn’t had any of the success Holland has, but has been given a way longer leash than even a hall of famer like that got.

 

Yzerman has been on the job for one full season as the replacement.

 

Also, unlike the Canucks, they aren’t a cap team while they are losing.  They have the space to add when they get enough prospects.

Edited February 3, 2021 by Provost

[24K PureCool]

Say we fire JB. Who is out there to replace him with?

Rutherford? Not sure if he even wants to come here. 

[Timråfan]

Well, the strange expensive contracts is strange due to Bennings father. 

Bennings should be able to make shrewd contracts all the time. 

I don't think Benning is good in psychology wich means he loose out on trust, loyalty and so on.  I got Dahlen, Eriksson, Markström, Tanev, Toffoli, Leivo, Stecher and Fantenberg as proof. All of them were treated in a way that can affect team morale. 

 

He signs a slow coloss that force his team mates to cover for him. Wich means his team mates that shurely is better in offence miss a lot of chances. 

He signs a player with a lot of concussions. And on top of that bad signing, the player gets into fights instantly wich leads to concussion symptoms. Insane... 

Then he let Marky go. Ok, because Demko is an up and coming goalie and Marky wanted an NMC. 

But then he signs a back up goalie for over 4 mill. Insane again. That money was needed elsewhere. 

He should have signed another goalie for max 2 mil.

 

[alt kilgore]

44 minutes ago, IBatch said:

So do you think Detroit is in a better position in their rebuild then Vancouver is?  Larkin and Horvat were drafted around the same time and all...

 

In case i have to actually spell it out  - lol will do it again anyways.   Only Vancouver, SJ and Detroit won as much as they did for 14 years - spanning the WCE and peak Sedin era.   SJ somehow managed to last longer - well not really because Detroit was good since 1993...and were considered the cream of the crop under Holland's tutelage for a very long time.   SJ looks a lot like the Sedin post 2012 aging core right now doesn't it.   They will get there too. 

 

IMO - and please educate me if i'm wrong, Vancouver's best comparable is Detroit and SJ.   Of the three who right now has the better team?   Even a monkey could figure that out (not saying you are a monkey - but some folks seem like monkeys' on this site)....

 

If you don't think that works, then maybe we could look at EDM, who's being rebuilding since the early 90's,  with one miracle run thanks to Pronger.   Or Buffalo - or ARI, or CAR or even CLB, who had more to work with under the old rules of expansion then we did.    JB saved his job as a result of very good drafting.   That's it. Plus some unusually good trades - Miller and Schmidt - and a good signing in Myers (despite all the crap he gets - basically all of Edlers old crap, which was also undeserved).   

 

Im not a homer - i'm a realist.   Never felt we had much of a chance with the core after the Sedins, and at best MAYBE we could contend with parts of it and the next one - which is right on cue with both our history - and a little ahead of the fact we are competing with 30-32 other GMs.   
 

Do i like it?  Not at all.   I'm all for league contraction, back to at least 6 teams per division of not 5.   Because the talent level is much higher.   Even with  the 40 or so enforcers back then. 

Just imagine for a second that we did not pick Pettersson or Hughes.  But taken good, but maybe not as elite level players.  Cody Glass for Elias.  Glass is still developing, and may yet be a superstar, but compared to Elias since...140 pts, in 152 games,  to Cody...14 pts, in 42 games.  Same can be said about Hughes draft. If we'd taken a good, but not as much potential, with a pick like a Dobson or Bouchard rated around the same pick number.  

 

We would not be doing any better in the standings. Probably worse. And then compare that team to Detroit's position they have put themselves in compared to how we would look minus our two young stars.  They would be light years ahead of us.  I shudder to think of our team in the same cap problem, without those players.

 

But we won't even be able to take advantage of Petey and Hughes until we get our house in order to add other pieces.. With Detroit more in a position to develop more good players from within with all their picks.  By the time we get out of our mess, and find enough cap to build a compete level team, if we can find the exact right pieces,, Detroit may just be ready to compete as well, only with a much more sustainable roster, near the same ages, for their next dynasty.

 

And I don't trust JB to get out of the mess he's made. His personal evaluation of players does not have a great track record, Not FAs and with the two picks he insisted on, Virtanen and Joulevi being the least developed of #1 picks in his tenure.  And at the same time he got rid of a talented scouting director that they had groomed for 12 years in the organization learning the scouting ropes, and given them three Calder contenders.   Dum dum dum dum.

[DSVII]

1 hour ago, 24K PureCool said:

Say we fire JB. Who is out there to replace him with?

Rutherford? Not sure if he even wants to come here. 

Not sure if anyone wants to report to Aqualini but...

 

Dean Lombardi

Mike Futa

Ron Hextall

Mike Gillis (haha)

Lawrence Gilman

Joe Nieuwendyk

Chris MacFarland (avs asst gm)

 

 

 

 

Edited February 3, 2021 by DSVII