Jim Benning's mid-season press conference

[PhillipBlunt]

1 hour ago, Drakrami said:

His draft is actually overrated a bit. It is very good, but no where near a homerun. 

Let's just look at 1st rounders only. 

2014 (#4) Virtanen (bust)

2014 (#24) Mccann (so-so; ended up being Pearson, lol) 

2015 (#23) Boeser (overachieving, very good)

2016 (#5) Juolevi (bust)

2017 (#5) Pettersson (very good for #5)

2018 (#7) Hughes (very good for #7)

 

That's 2 busts to cancel out the Pettersson + Hughes draft. You should have get some amazing players at #4 and #5. 

Neither Virtanen nor Juolevi are busts. They’re both legitimate NHL players. 

[Silky mitts]

Playoffs twice in seven years , and now we are told it’s a 9 year plan lol. We want a cup , we deserve to be fired up. 

[grimmjaw]

There is no easy fix. We have to wait the 2 years for those bad contracts to leave before we can contend. 
 

In the meantime, GM Jim should either be fired or banned from signing free agents.

[canuck73_3]

1 hour ago, 24K PureCool said:

In what world is Juolevi and Jake busts? Did you just wake up under a rock? 

 

Underwhelming, yes, bust, no.

Bust is clearly subjective to suit narratives. 

[Silky mitts]

21 minutes ago, PhillipBlunt said:

Neither Virtanen nor Juolevi are busts. They’re both legitimate NHL players. 

Extremely underwhelming for their selection spot . Are they not ? Especially with the picks around . 

[Patel Bure]

16 minutes ago, Silky mitts said:

Playoffs twice in seven years , and now we are told it’s a 9 year plan lol. We want a cup , we deserve to be fired up. 

“Playoffs twice in seven years”

 

Let me fill you in on a little secret kid.    ALL teams in the NHL go through this.  Go ahead.....look around.   
 

-Dallas, Colorado, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, Carolina, Florida, etc., etc., etc.    

 

-Go look at Tampa Bay’s history from 2004-2020.   

 

Progression is usually not a linear process.   Things take time.

[Patel Bure]

Just now, Silky mitts said:

Extremely underwhelming for their selection spot . Are they not ? Especially with the picks around . 

These things have a way of balancing out.   Boeser, Pettersson, and Hughes would be selected higher in a redraft.   So would Demko and Tryamkin.    

[Silky mitts]

6 minutes ago, DarkIndianRises said:

“Playoffs twice in seven years”

 

Let me fill you in on a little secret kid.    ALL teams in the NHL go through this.  Go ahead.....look around.   
 

-Dallas, Colorado, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, Carolina, Florida, etc., etc., etc.    

 

-Go look at Tampa Bay’s history from 2004-2020.   

 

Progression is usually not a linear process.   Things take time.

Lmaoooo alright bud

[Silky mitts]

6 minutes ago, DarkIndianRises said:

“Playoffs twice in seven years”

 

Let me fill you in on a little secret kid.    ALL teams in the NHL go through this.  Go ahead.....look around.   
 

-Dallas, Colorado, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto, Carolina, Florida, etc., etc., etc.    

 

-Go look at Tampa Bay’s history from 2004-2020.   

 

Progression is usually not a linear process.   Things take time.

What has progressed my friend ? He’s drafted good players sure , and now we regressed big time , terrible cap management , are back to the bottom of the league like most of his tenure here . Save the bull$&!# “kid”. 

[kacholu]

I don't get the JB fanboys. Can we give it a rest now? Some of you say 7 years isn't enough let's give it more time. Well JB wasted both of our superstars ELC's. Our team is a cap nightmare with lots of garbage dead weight. He will either sell the farm to get rid of them or lose a major piece or two. We can't even retain this buttom tier team. How do you guys expect to be contenders. Let's think without our JB Homer glasses on. We shouldn't reward incompetence with blind loyalty. 

[4petesake]

1 hour ago, Drakrami said:

His draft is actually overrated a bit. It is very good, but no where near a homerun. 

Let's just look at 1st rounders only. 

2014 (#4) Virtanen (bust)

2014 (#24) Mccann (so-so; ended up being Pearson, lol) 

2015 (#23) Boeser (overachieving, very good)

2016 (#5) Juolevi (bust)

2017 (#5) Pettersson (very good for #5)

2018 (#7) Hughes (very good for #7)

 

That's 2 busts to cancel out the Pettersson + Hughes draft. You should have get some amazing players at #4 and #5. 

Out of the 6 drafts you’ve listed: Hughes, Petterson & Boeser probably go higher in a re-draft. Let’s say McCann is a wash. Juolevi & Virtanen go later. Not to be picky but Virt was drafted 6 not 4. You can call both losses if you like but neither is a bust. It’s taken Juolevi longer than anticipated (injuries) but he may yet turn out to be at least a wash if not better. To me that leaves Virt as the only real fail at this point. That is a very impressive record.

 

One a side note yes you should get some good or amazing players in the top 10 but have a look at each year and you may find there are more duds than you realize.

[gameburn]

1 hour ago, 24K PureCool said:

Uhh Erickson on taxi squad save exactly the same amount in cap as we would if he is in Utica.

 

If we get hit with the injury bug probably better to have him slot in than have lind or Gadjovich sitting on the squad and not playing. 

Save the same money on taxi squad? Didn't know that.

Still, might be useful to have in Utica in the hopes he might consider tearing up the contract?  I know it's cruel, but...

[4petesake]

14 minutes ago, kacholu said:

I don't get the JB fanboys. Can we give it a rest now? Some of you say 7 years isn't enough let's give it more time. Well JB wasted both of our superstars ELC's. Our team is a cap nightmare with lots of garbage dead weight. He will either sell the farm to get rid of them or lose a major piece or two. We can't even retain this buttom tier team. How do you guys expect to be contenders. Let's think without our JB Homer glasses on. We shouldn't reward incompetence with blind loyalty. 

On the bright side we all want to get to the same destination. We’re just arguing over which one of us is the backseat driver. That’s not so bad.

[Ghostsof1915]

 

[DownUndaCanuck]

Not surprised with his comments, disappointed with his faith in Green.

 

The blame of our poor record seems to be going to our youth not dealing with the physicality of the division and playing every 2nd night, along with teams knowing our weaknesses and exposing them.

 

I agree it's probably harder for a young team, but look at Edmonton and Toronto - their top players aren't much older than ours. I don't think we're exactly much younger.

 

Exposing our weaknesses is exactly right though and those defensive weaknesses are because of our rubbish coaching.

 

I'm glad he's thinking of resigning Pearson, hopefully cheaply, because he does a lot for us but will be interesting to see what happens at the TD and really depends on our position at the point but I bet if we're struggling JB will start selling some fodder. Beagle, Sutter, JV and maybe even Edler and Pearson might be moved to a contender.

[RU SERIOUS]

1 hour ago, PhillipBlunt said:

Neither Virtanen nor Juolevi are busts. They’re both legitimate NHL players. 

I partially agree.   Juolevi should be given at least 2 years to prove himself (and I like what I've seen so far from him),   As for Lazy Jake, well what can I say.   He looked awesome against Toronto on Thursday night but that only happens once or twice a season.  The rest of the time he's floating around the ice looking like he he's trying to shake off a bad hangover and completely useless and uninvolved.   Let alone he's had a number of years to prove himself with marginal success.  At this point we should trade him for a third or 4th round pick or another player with any amount of promise and start fresh with someone more committed and willing to show up for at least >10-12% or more of the games.  That would be a big improvement over Jake - who needs a change of scenery.

[RU SERIOUS]

10 minutes ago, DownUndaCanuck said:

Not surprised with his comments, disappointed with his faith in Green.

 

The blame of our poor record seems to be going to our youth not dealing with the physicality of the division and playing every 2nd night, along with teams knowing our weaknesses and exposing them.

 

I agree it's probably harder for a young team, but look at Edmonton and Toronto - their top players aren't much older than ours. I don't think we're exactly much younger.

 

Exposing our weaknesses is exactly right though and those defensive weaknesses are because of our rubbish coaching.

 

I'm glad he's thinking of resigning Pearson, hopefully cheaply, because he does a lot for us but will be interesting to see what happens at the TD and really depends on our position at the point but I bet if we're struggling JB will start selling some fodder. Beagle, Sutter, JV and maybe even Edler and Pearson might be moved to a contender.

I like the last sentence you posted.   I'm salivating and frothing at the mouth thinking we'll finally get rid of the old, decrepit, slow deadwood on the team once and for all!  Can't wait until that whole bottom 6 is long gone (Lazy Jake included and especially that parasite - Erikkson).

[filthycanuck]

15 hours ago, BCNate said:

Ha?? he literally said they expected to play all the teams?  He is saying they planned to be in a division with 4 rebuilding teams, not a Canadian division with 5 average teams and 1 rebuilding one.  That gives you a little bit more leeway to make the moves that he did.  We would be in the mix for a wild card if the divisions were normal, much like last year, and much like I expect next year.  Pretty fair comment from JB.

His presser was a bunch of excuses but the one he mentioned on the division is far. Remember, we didn't even know that there was going to be a canadian division, or even be a regular season till like what , middle nov? Thats after the draft and opening UFA season. Its tough to gameplan on that, you basically went from facing the Kings, ducks, sharks who are in a full rebuild to facing montreal and TO in a condensed schedule. I'll give him a pass on that. But the rest was just BS

[ChuckNORRIS4Cup]

[DownUndaCanuck]

33 minutes ago, RU SERIOUS said:

I like the last sentence you posted.   I'm salivating and frothing at the mouth thinking we'll finally get rid of the old, decrepit, slow deadwood on the team once and for all!  Can't wait until that whole bottom 6 is long gone (Lazy Jake included and especially that parasite - Erikkson).

As great as it sounds to just shed all that weight, they do provide key services for this team.

 

Sutter - plays a good 15 minutes a night, 5-on-5 nothing exciting but he wins key faceoffs and is one of our best penalty killer. We'd need a 3rd line center to replace him and to play top PK minutes, not sure who's going to do that...

 

Beagle - as a 4C, he plays 12-15 minutes because again he's one of the best faceoff men in the league and plays hard PK minutes. Again, we don't have anyone in the organization to replace him.

Roussel - he can absolutely go, doesn't bring anything to this team, no grit really and while he's on the PK, just about anyone can do what he does, he's not fantastic defensively or skating-wise, I think Hoglander would do a brilliant job in his role but maybe even Jake or someone a bit more "expendable" who can skate well.

 

JV - tough one, I think JB is going to see what Virtanen brings over the next few games until the TD. If he scores more he'll stay, but if that 2 goal outing was a flash in the pan, I think he's gone to the Ducks and rightly so.

 

Pearson - tricky one again because he scores at a 15-goal, 40 point pace, plays 2nd unit PK minutes and occasionally PP minutes. Like Horvat he does it all, to a lesser extent. He fills a lot of this team's needs, fights hard along the boards and is a big veteran presence now for the younger guys (like a poor man's Miller). It's all well and good to say Podkolzin is going to come in next season and play 2nd line minutes, but can he defend as well, is he as strong along the boards and will he play 2nd unit PK minutes? I don't think so. Pearson brings a lot more to this team than just offence so will be another void to replace.

 

Eriksson - of course he brings nothing to the team but a big cap but I doubt JB will be able to move him yet again, he's tried for years.

 

Edler - I think the Canucks deserve it to Edler to do whatever he wants. If he wants to move to a contender, then trade him. If he wants to stay and retire a Canuck, re-sign him. Best defenceman this team has ever had, he's been through it all and is the Sedin-equivalent of a defenceman for this organization so they better do him right. Of course, we could get a juicy 1st round pick/decent prospect for him (maybe), and unlike the forwards, we have Juolevi waiting in the wings who could replace some of his minutes nicely, especially next season, but JB owes it to Edler to do whatever he wants.

 

So yes, it'd be lovely to free up some cap space and move Sutter, Pearson, Beagle, Roussel and maybe even Virtanen, but then that's our best faceoff men and penalty killers all gone in one fell swoop, and we have no good centers in our organization to replace the hard minutes Sutter and Beagle play. JB would have to look the UFAs to find someone and quite frankly there's not many great defensive centers out there.

 

If he's really smart, he'll trade Virtanen to someone (+/- a package) for a decent young 3rd line center. Tierny has come up time and time again as a perfect 3C for this team, and he might be impossible to pry, but someone like him would be a perfect replacement.

 

I'd be happy to keep one of Sutter or Pearson in that vein but really need to trade Roussel and Virtanen (if he continues to slump).