Jim Benning's mid-season press conference

[Rick_theRyper]

19 hours ago, DSVII said:

I'd love for JB to prove me wrong, but I do get the feeling Pearson is gonna walk for nothing

God I wish he’d just cash in for once... seems to never trade ufa guys

[CanucksJay]

11 minutes ago, Josepho said:

What about Ferland makes you think he'd be "chipping in goals"? He literally had 0 goals in his last 24 games in Carolina and 1 in his last 38 if you extend that to his time here, this was absolutely an asset trending in the wrong direction and he looked very sluggish here.

 

And yes, Ferland's concussion issues were well-documented before he signed here.

 

I don't actually hate Myers as much as a lot of the fanbase, but he's overpaid and the contract will only continue to age worse. Most players do decline significantly before they turn 34 (which is when his contract ends).

 

Being "smarter with contracts" isn't the only issue here, targeting the correct players is also the problem here.

Ferland put up 4 pts in 14 games with the Canucks. 

The problem with stats is that it can be manipulated to say whatever you want. 

Those 14 games are a really small size. What if I was to drill down further to tell you that 3 out of those 4 pts came in his final 3 games where his last game was only 1:19 TOI before leaving the game. (so more like 3 pts in final 2 games) 

What if in those games, he was flying out there and being an impact player after finally adjusting to a new team after his first 11 games?

We don't really know what the final 68 games would have looked like. 

I do agree though in regards to contracts. Maybe we need to hire someone else to do the contract negotiations. 

I do like the players he's targeted more recently like Miller, Hamonic, Myers even Holtby (although I was initially against it). Holtby is a team player and signed on a short term to give Demko breathing space. I personally didn't think he needed it but when we look at how Demko started the season, maybe he did need Holtby. 

If we had signed Markstrom and Tanev to those contracts that Cgy gave out, you would say the same thing about him not learning his lesson and

repeating the same mistakes. 

You complain about Myers age when contract expires. Tanev is the same except he plays a style that is harder on the body (resulting in numerous injuries every season). 

We effectively replaced him with Hamonic on a 1 year term. 

And did you want to keep Markstrom for the next 6 years at a high cap hit when we have Demko emerging? 

The only pain felt this year was Toffoli but I see that more as Toffoli wanting to go to Mtl than us not having capspace for him. 

Why else would Toffoli jump so early in FA to sign a discount contract rather than giving other teams a chance? If his contract was the best that his agent could get, the agent should be fired

[Junkyard Dog]

1 hour ago, Josepho said:

Juolevi is playing OKAY with extremely sheltered minutes and he turns 23 this season -- he very likely will top out as a bottom pairer at best.

5 goals against averaging 13:12(12:17 at even-strength) a game in 5 games. And he’s been on the ice for 8 goals for making him a +3. 

 

2nd in blocks per 60 behind Edler. So far he’s yet to take a penalty. 

 

When OJ’s on the ice goalies have a 95% save percentage at even-strength. That happens to be best on the team and much much greater than the 28th place team average of 90.8%. 
 

I would say stating he’s been okay and very likely to pan out as a bottom 6 guy, when the fact of the matter is this is his rookie season, he’s already performing as a good bottom pair guy out of the gate and when his numbers prove otherwise, is a little short-sighted with all due respect.
 

Especially when he’s done this while most of the team has been garbage around him for a lot of it. 

 

With that sort of logic are we gonna right off Lind and Gadjovich who’ve taken big steps just because they 23 this year? Or the 1st year pro Lockwood who’s also turning 23 this year?

 

The fact that he is not playing is baffling.  Unless they are showcasing Benn then the logic behind this sort of decision making is worrisome and isn’t the way to go. 
 

Young players should be seeing more ice-time. Last game was a start but it needs to show more consistently. 

 

Not even a big Benning supporter and you don’t have to be to like some of these guys. 

Edited March 6, 2021 by Junkyard Dog

[JM_]

1 hour ago, Josepho said:

Juolevi is playing OKAY with extremely sheltered minutes and he turns 23 this season -- he very likely will top out as a bottom pairer at best.

So you've got me curious... whats your definition of sheltered minutes? 

[appleboy]

13 hours ago, kilgore said:

Great.

 

If this was what we were getting  from JB in 2016, that would work.  Fans here were ready for it. And would have given Jim a long rope, fans would have accepted being bottom feeders. Turns out we were bottom feeders anyways, despite abandoning the "build through the draft" approach. Management gave the Sedins another run in 2015, and we got smoked by Calgary.  This after trying and not winning a playoff round since our magical run in '11.   It should have been clear a year after that performance in 2015, that we had to start rebuilding and as you say, "not looking to find a quick fix", and "build through the draft". But  Benning consistently had even less picks than allotted each draft, because of trading them away, in part, for washed up vets that he predicted to be the foundational pieces to take us to the next level.

 

You are ecstatic for JB to go with that line of thinking in the present? ...with a young elite core coming off their ELCs?   Hate to break it to you but JB has already moved on from there, or more accurately, never was there.  Not long ago he traded a first for Miller, (and a goalie prospect + a third),  then a second rounder and Madden for Toffoli (even though we lost him).  Does that sound like he has much interest in collecting draft picks now?  That ship has sailed.

 

JB has never adhered to that philosophy, based on his history here.  He only got Hughes a Pettersson because his prediction of being a playoff team every off season failed miserably, and his team ended up with a high picking spot.  He accidentally had a rebuild despite banning the word in the office. And TBH, the quality of picks was mostly Judd Brackett.  Sure JB gave his stamp of approval, even though he had doubts about Pettersson. But the work was done by Brackett and his team. A team that Benning insisted HE get to hire and fire, if Brackett wanted a new contract. An easy way to rid himself of someone who was outshining him. But an awful decision for the team's amateur scouting dept. going forward. We teach and groom him for nine years and the Wild are now the beneficiaries. And yes, they even let him hire his own staff.

.

.

I agree with all of that and I was blowing that trumpet with you back then. I can't live in the past. No matter how we landed the youth we have now the fact is that they need to fill the holes around them. The fact is that we have a cap mess for next  season and then they get back to normal.

I see this covid mess as the control mechanism to force them into submission. Most of the good that has happened here came about because of incompetency. This year is also forced on them because no one could add. LOL      ( The owners are pulling the puppet strings)

This has forced this organization into drafting higher . It is the hockey gods at work.  One more season of high picks will help nicely. Jim did talk about building from with in, building through the draft. Maybe the owners are catching on and allow it to be done that way. You have to think that the influx of young talent has opened their minds. 

 

As far as Bracket I think there has been others who have stepped up and filled his role. Maybe things went to Juds head. We will soon see.

[Smashian Kassian]

Some of these articles/comments in the wake are so bad.

 

Drance "forget...looking ahead to the future with a calculated plan, according to Benning."

 

What part of Benning saying; 'We (Aqua) had a plan in the offseason & we have a plan now' did he not understand?

 

I get people are out for blood, hell I've said it's time to move on myself, but atleast be honest with what was said.

 

Edited March 6, 2021 by Smashian Kassian

[KirkSave]

9 hours ago, Silky mitts said:

Seven years. Seven years.

It's getting Biblical!

[KirkSave]

36 minutes ago, Junkyard Dog said:

Young players should be seeing more ice-time. Last game was a start but it needs to show more consistently

100 percent agree. 

[Smashian Kassian]

I don't understand the outrage over the 2 year comment..

 

Was anyone expecting this team to compete for a cup this season???

 

When the Sedins retired - and the team was looking at Baertschi, Virtanen, Stecher & Hutton as building blocks of the future - were fans expecting us to be a cup contender in 3 years? 

 

In that quote he's saying compete for a cup, would people not agree striving to be an elite team in 2 years is not an acceptable aim?

 

It's Hughes second year & he's regressed defensively, its Demkos first as a starter. Should we be a playoff team right now if assets (cap included) were managed better? Yes. But even if they had Toffoli, Tanev & Markstrom instead of the deadweight we aren't competing for a cup this year.

[Boudrias]

4 minutes ago, Smashian Kassian said:

I don't understand the outrage over the 2 year comment..

 

Was anyone expecting this team to compete for a cup this season???

 

When the Sedins retired - and the team was looking at Baertschi, Virtanen, Stecher & Hutton as building blocks of the future - were fans expecting us to be a cup contender in 3 years? 

 

In that quote he's saying compete for a cup, would people not agree striving to be an elite team in 2 years is not an acceptable aim?

 

It's Hughes second year & he's regressed defensively, its Demkos first as a starter. Should we be a playoff team right now if assets (cap included) were managed better? Yes. But even if they had Toffoli, Tanev & Markstrom instead of the deadweight we aren't competing for a cup this year.

I think a healthy exercise might be going back 6 years and looking at the roster of that day and then digging deeper into the prospect pool. It was a wasteland! Sure JB has made some questionable deals but that conclusion has hindsight benefit. He had limited option and had to build by the draft. Then he had to deal with the lottery bumping him down the pick ladder regularly. The COVID generated CAP freeze then screws his signing flexibility. He probably lost $4 mil in space. 
 

My biggest critic of JB is the lack of assets coming back on vets leaving the org. Part of that he had no control but I feel he has buckled to an extent by fans callling for faster win/loss gains than should be expected.

 

Overall I think JB has done a decent job. Willing to give him two more years.

[flat land fish]

17 hours ago, CanadianRugby said:

What the hell you talking about!?!?

 

Linden wanted the long term rebuild and got fired for it.  Benning's been taking short cuts from the start.  Age gap experiment.  Trading picks away to go for the playoffs every year.  Give me a break. 

So the first year in office we made the playoffs.  The rebuild didn’t start then.  If anything the plan was to build on that given our franchise players weren’t going anywhere.  We were also needing to begin rebuilding a prospect pipeline which was completely bare.  Unfortunately but maybe not surprising the Sedins decline kicked in.  The Erickson signing was a bust and history will tell us even if we had gone with a different winger that summer the result would have been about the same.

If on day 1 of the benning era the Canucks had sold vets the only ones that might have brought an A prospect or first round pick would have been the twins.  The only area I agree with the mob on is the overpayment of term on depth players which has impacted our Cap.  If we are being real though until Petey and Hughes are grown ass men we are not a serious threat for the cup.  Adding another top10 top15 pick on an elc will only improve the team.

[JM_]

well.... like him or not Jim sure gets a reaction out of this market 

 

I might be off in the rhubarb on this but I don't mind his style. He does this stuff unfiltered and it isn't like the pablum the Leafs market gets when Dubas agrees to speak to that market. 

 

[Patel Bure]

7 hours ago, Silky mitts said:

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”. 

He drafted good players AND he developed them well.   Notice how many of our drafted prospects have either successfully transitioned to the big club or are knocking on the door?

 

A major reason for this is because the kids in the system were never “rushed” into any roles that were beyond their levels.   The kids drafted and/or brought into our system via trade (Motte) were placed in roles that were suitable to their level.........and the big reason why the Canucks were able to do this WAS because of the overpaid/transitional contracts that were brought in (Eriksson, Sutter, Myers, Beagle, Roussel, etc.)

 

-Without Eriksson, Virtanen inappropriately plays on the top 6 despite not being ready.

-without Prust, Brendan Gaunce inappropriately makes team and plays in a role that he’s not ready for.

-Without Ryan Miller, Jacob Markstrom inappropriately becomes the back-up and doesn’t get to go to the minors where he can work on his game.  Eddie Lack risks being hung out to dry as well.

-Without Beagle and Roussel, guys like Gaudette and MacEwen are rushed into the NHL despite not being ready.

-If you trade Tanev in 2016 when his value was highest, it not only impacts the development of the other young defensemen on our team (ie thrusting them into roles too advanced for their games), but this then also negatively impacts your goalie that you’re trying to develop (Markstrom).  

-By not making a strong push for the playoffs when the opportunity presents itself and getting the kids on the team some valuable playoff experience (like last season), you risk breaking the spirit of the young core.

-How did that Vanek for Motte deal work out by the way?

 

I’m not saying that I agree with everything Benning has done.  The Ryan Spooner and Sam Gagner deals made zero sense to me at the time.   I was also not in favor of bringing in Prust and was hoping that we could have adopted Carolina’s approach in accepting other teams’ bad contracts for picks (ie  Bryan Bickel with a 1st as a sweetener).   All I’m saying is that this management and ownership group has done MUCH better than many people give credit.

 

When Benning took over in 2014, the core was aging and in decline AND the cupboards were bare.    

 

 

[gameburn]

5 hours ago, DownUndaCanuck said:

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).

I think we got a bit of a hint with Michaelis the last game that most of our bottom 6 is expendable, Beagle included. An almost unknown mid-20s player is as good as Roussel and most of the bottom 6.  Hawryluk was pretty good too.  If you look at the teams that have winning records against us they all have much better 3rd and 4th lines -- and generally much younger.  Beagle is useless.  I'm sorry but a forward who scores 10 points a year and is getting 12 to 15 minutes a night is not good enough -- and his faceoff success is under 60%, we're not talking Doug Jarvis here.  Also, pk doesn't matter: teams give up fewer penalties every year, and increasingly the best teams kill those penalties with guys who have offensive skills (Marner?)  If your team takes less than 3 penalties a game on average, you don't need pk specialists who can't play the rest of the game.  You can't afford to keep them, is what I mean.  Just like you can't afford to keep an enforcer when neither fighting nor unaccountability of players is an issue anymore.  

 

Edler: Edler, not a fan of his game at all.  He would not be in the top 5 of most teams, and wouldn't be here if we'd been a little better at keeping/managing/drafting D here.  And like the above bunch, he is wildly over-paid. The penalties he takes are unforgivable and they come directly from his inability to keep up with the play. He doesn't have it anymore.  It was a mistake to re-sign him 2 years back and would be even more outrageous if re-signed again.  Every team seems to have a guy that evades accountability, they just look like franchise guys.  But they aren't.  I have no idea why he doesn't get benched or sat after his goofs and poor play.

Letting him retire in place like the Sedins: another waste of an asset, another abuse of the no-trade clause.  He is not now, and has not been a part of this core for a long time.  No idea why he gets the pass that he does.

 

Virtanen and Pearson: we need scoring and players with flexibility, both have this.  Good deals for the money, especially compared to Roussel, Beagle, Sutter etc.

 

Eriksson should have received the Higgins treatment last year, probably be off in Europe by now.  "But this would send the wrong message", I hear people say.  What message does it send to Horvat, Pettersson, Hughes and Boeser when a guy like Eriksson is humored while guys like Tanev, Stecher and Toffoli can't seem to be re-signed?  Says that you don't really want to win, that you don't think the core group is worth supporting.  Why do you think team morale was so poor to start the year?  A quarter of the team was allowed to walk because they couldn't seem to figure out how to deal with contracts, money and the Eriksson debacle. Throw in Luongo and Baertschi and you have a sense of doom/failure all around. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Patel Bure]

7 hours ago, Silky mitts said:

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”. 

1) “and now we regressed big time.”

-You DO realize that Benning could have kept all of Markstrom, Toffoli and Tanev had he truly wanted to right? (Ie packaging sweeteners to get rid of bad contracts)   So why didn’t he?  

2) These bad/transitional contracts that Benning signed......what impact did it have on the kids in our system?   Did the presence of these bad contracts allow for kids to develop their games with lesser roles?   
 

3) Is progression always linear?

 

4) Name me one team that HASN”T struggled for 5-7 years during a developmental period.  Look at the rest of the teams in our division.  What has their journeys been like the past 20 years?   What about the top teams in the league right now?  What has their journeys been like over the past 20 years?   

[Patel Bure]

47 minutes ago, gameburn said:

I think we got a bit of a hint with Michaelis the last game that most of our bottom 6 is expendable, Beagle included. An almost unknown mid-20s player is as good as Roussel and most of the bottom 6.  Hawryluk was pretty good too.  If you look at the teams that have winning records against us they all have much better 3rd and 4th lines -- and generally much younger.  Beagle is useless.  I'm sorry but a forward who scores 10 points a year and is getting 12 to 15 minutes a night is not good enough -- and his faceoff success is under 60%, we're not talking Doug Jarvis here.  Also, pk doesn't matter: teams give up fewer penalties every year, and increasingly the best teams kill those penalties with guys who have offensive skills (Marner?)  If your team takes less than 3 penalties a game on average, you don't need pk specialists who can't play the rest of the game.  You can't afford to keep them, is what I mean.  Just like you can't afford to keep an enforcer when neither fighting nor unaccountability of players is an issue anymore.  

 

Edler: Edler, not a fan of his game at all.  He would not be in the top 5 of most teams, and wouldn't be here if we'd been a little better at keeping/managing/drafting D here.  And like the above bunch, he is wildly over-paid. The penalties he takes are unforgivable and they come directly from his inability to keep up with the play. He doesn't have it anymore.  It was a mistake to re-sign him 2 years back and would be even more outrageous if re-signed again.  Every team seems to have a guy that evades accountability, they just look like franchise guys.  But they aren't.  I have no idea why he doesn't get benched or sat after his goofs and poor play.

Letting him retire in place like the Sedins: another waste of an asset, another abuse of the no-trade clause.  He is not now, and has not been a part of this core for a long time.  No idea why he gets the pass that he does.

 

Virtanen and Pearson: we need scoring and players with flexibility, both have this.  Good deals for the money, especially compared to Roussel, Beagle, Sutter etc.

 

Eriksson should have received the Higgins treatment last year, probably be off in Europe by now.  "But this would send the wrong message", I hear people say.  What message does it send to Horvat, Pettersson, Hughes and Boeser when a guy like Eriksson is humored while guys like Tanev, Stecher and Toffoli can't seem to be re-signed?  Says that you don't really want to win, that you don't think the core group is worth supporting.  Why do you think team morale was so poor to start the year?  A quarter of the team was allowed to walk because they couldn't seem to figure out how to deal with contracts, money and the Eriksson debacle. Throw in Luongo and Baertschi and you have a sense of doom/failure all around. 

 

 

 

 

 

Think two years from now.

 

-Eriksson, Baertschi, etc. will be off the books

-Guys like Markstrom and Tanev’s contracts will possibly turn into liabilities between now and then given their age and ailing bodies

-The Canucks have young defensemen in their system (Juolevi, etc.) that are ready to take the place of guys like Stecher

-Edler will be gone after this season.

Edited March 6, 2021 by DarkIndianRises

[Gawdzukes]

1 hour ago, CanucksJay said:

Ferland put up 4 pts in 14 games with the Canucks. 

The problem with stats is that it can be manipulated to say whatever you want. 

Those 14 games are a really small size. What if I was to drill down further to tell you that 3 out of those 4 pts came in his final 3 games where his last game was only 1:19 TOI before leaving the game. (so more like 3 pts in final 2 games) 

What if in those games, he was flying out there and being an impact player after finally adjusting to a new team after his first 11 games?

We don't really know what the final 68 games would have looked like. 

I do agree though in regards to contracts. Maybe we need to hire someone else to do the contract negotiations. 

I do like the players he's targeted more recently like Miller, Hamonic, Myers even Holtby (although I was initially against it). Holtby is a team player and signed on a short term to give Demko breathing space. I personally didn't think he needed it but when we look at how Demko started the season, maybe he did need Holtby. 

If we had signed Markstrom and Tanev to those contracts that Cgy gave out, you would say the same thing about him not learning his lesson and

repeating the same mistakes. 

You complain about Myers age when contract expires. Tanev is the same except he plays a style that is harder on the body (resulting in numerous injuries every season). 

We effectively replaced him with Hamonic on a 1 year term. 

And did you want to keep Markstrom for the next 6 years at a high cap hit when we have Demko emerging? 

The only pain felt this year was Toffoli but I see that more as Toffoli wanting to go to Mtl than us not having capspace for him. 

Why else would Toffoli jump so early in FA to sign a discount contract rather than giving other teams a chance? If his contract was the best that his agent could get, the agent should be fired

Some people just love to complain no matter what. the funny thing is most of them couldn't fight their own way out of a wet paper bag but they can insult people with 7 figure paychecks who have 40 years of experience in a field where they have none. And these people yell and proclaim this self genius at the top of their lungs. This situation has made me see how really low level it's gotten around here.

[Josepho]

2 hours ago, CanucksJay said:

Ferland put up 4 pts in 14 games with the Canucks. 

The problem with stats is that it can be manipulated to say whatever you want. 

Those 14 games are a really small size. What if I was to drill down further to tell you that 3 out of those 4 pts came in his final 3 games where his last game was only 1:19 TOI before leaving the game. (so more like 3 pts in final 2 games) 

What if in those games, he was flying out there and being an impact player after finally adjusting to a new team after his first 11 games?

We don't really know what the final 68 games would have looked like. 

I do agree though in regards to contracts. Maybe we need to hire someone else to do the contract negotiations. 

I do like the players he's targeted more recently like Miller, Hamonic, Myers even Holtby (although I was initially against it). Holtby is a team player and signed on a short term to give Demko breathing space. I personally didn't think he needed it but when we look at how Demko started the season, maybe he did need Holtby. 

If we had signed Markstrom and Tanev to those contracts that Cgy gave out, you would say the same thing about him not learning his lesson and

repeating the same mistakes. 

You complain about Myers age when contract expires. Tanev is the same except he plays a style that is harder on the body (resulting in numerous injuries every season). 

We effectively replaced him with Hamonic on a 1 year term. 

And did you want to keep Markstrom for the next 6 years at a high cap hit when we have Demko emerging? 

The only pain felt this year was Toffoli but I see that more as Toffoli wanting to go to Mtl than us not having capspace for him. 

Why else would Toffoli jump so early in FA to sign a discount contract rather than giving other teams a chance? If his contract was the best that his agent could get, the agent should be fired

You're referring to 14 games being a small sample size, but you simultaneously are saying he could've performed well based on a 3 game stretch, while ignoring the 38 game sample size that I provided.

 

I don't know if it takes someone 11 games to adjust to a new team. Miller and Schmidt did it pretty seamlessly. We technically don't know what those final 68 games could've looked like, but it's overwhelmingly a continuation of his time in Carolina and the end of his tenure here.

 

Personally, in this specific situation, I would not have been thrilled if Benning signed Markstrom and especially Tanev, that is correct. We can't really afford to have any more rough contracts. However, if we managed our cap space smartly over the years, I'd be more than willing to have him hand out a similar contract (likely less than what Calgary offered) to a top 5 goalie to help this team out in what should be contending years. Handing out contracts to good players is FAR more excusable.

 

Once again, don't really have a complaint with Tanev leaving, but Hamonic is nearing the bottom of the team in GF%, xGF%, SF%, etc. He hasn't been a good replacement at all and he's one of factors in why Hughes' defensive metrics are so godawful this season. Hamonic isn't a replacement for Tanev, he's a (much worse) replacement for Stecher. It's situations like these where I severely question Benning's ability to actually evaluate NHL level talent.

 

I never said I wanted Benning to re-sign Markstrom or Tanev. But, from all reports we know, Benning definitely DID want to bring back Markstrom. There are a few moves now (Nyquist, Toffoli, Markstrom) where Benning clearly hasn't been able to get a player he wanted due to his awful previous decisions blocking him -- that was my point, whether or not I agreed with signing those players is irrelevant. It's irrefutable that his cap allocation has prevented him from attempting to improve the team.

 

Toffoli didn't jump "so early" in UFA. He clearly wanted to stay here, and after the fact stated/implied how frustrated he was with how negotiations were handled and how he was going to come back. He waited multiple days.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 6, 2021 by Josepho

[Patel Bure]

7 hours 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. 

1) How many teams that won cups in the last eleven years won with their top star players on ELC contracts?   How many teams won cups with their top star players on post ELC contracts at relatively cap friendly deals....with some very good players on ELC’s? (Not best player on team but among the best).

 

2) Our team cap is only a nightmare for this season and next, and had been designed this way while our kids developed on the team and on the farm.  When these bad contracts come off the books, the original kids will become the leading vets (ie Horvat, Boeser, Pettersson, etc.)

 

3) If Benning really wanted to get rid of the farm, he would have done so already.  He would have used many of the players as sweeteners to trade away bad contracts so that guys like Markstrom, Tanev, and Toffoli could have been signed.  

 

 

[gameburn]

22 minutes ago, DarkIndianRises said:

Think two years from now.

 

-Eriksson, Baertschi, etc. will be off the books

-Guys like Markstrom and Tanev’s contracts will possibly turn into liabilities between now and then given their age and ailing bodies

-The Canucks have young defensemen in their system (Juolevi, etc.) that are ready to take the place of guys like Stecher

We didn't have to wait 2 years.  Better planning would have allowed us to build on last year's playoff run, not fall off a cliff.

I agree that Markstrom and Tanev were probably impossible or at least unwise to re-sign.  That's not my complaint.  My complaint is with not dealing with the Eriksson mess (Higgins was dealt with, and he was a stalwart guy) and with overpaying Beagle.  And with signing free agents in general.  Teams who are rebuilding generally don't do that, and they don't do it I think because they are building, giving opportunity, getting draft picks (something Benning didn't do well), making money available for the rare find that really could be picked up.  Not 3rd and 4th line fringe players who "will create a winning culture", or "provide support to our young players," (where support means killing penalties, taking defensive zone faceoffs and allowing the stars a rest.)  3rd and 4th line players can contribute to the driving of play, to actually scoring.  Not taking penalties lol, nor just being time fillers until the real hockey players get on the ice.  The truth is: there has been a huge upswing in the talent level of players available in the last 4 or 5 years and this team has not been able to take advantage of it because of old contracts and old thinking. 

 

Stecher was not old, and would have been easy to keep.  Certainly a better guy for the future than Edler or for that matter Benn, lol.

Edited March 6, 2021 by gameburn