The trust level was earned plying his trade in the AHL Working hard in practice, not complaining about all the snow and the bitter cold January winds in the Mohawk Valley for two years. The usual hockey coach stuff. Obviously Benning is completely hands off when it comes to developing young players.
You have the reclaimed Baertschi, the rescued from the scrap heap Markstrom, and the current revival of Jake that you are all demanding be in the lineup because many of you insist he has been the best forward on the ice in several of his starts despite the numbers being pout up by the Bs line, all precisely due to the hands on of Green with all 3 in Utica. In spite of all the anger at Boeser sitting the 1st 2 games he hasn't done so badly by him. You have your B sharps line that everyone cried for and they have received lots of PP time. You have Pouliot in the lineup, another Benning reclamation project. The Granlund (another) fans have seen him lead the team in ice time most games. Hutton has received a ton of ice and also gets PP time along with Pouliot. What other young players do the Canucks have for Cripe's sake?
If Benning hadn't signed dead wood like Gagner for 3 years, you'd have Goldobin in the lineup. Vanek will be tradeable at the TDL if he continues to quietly rack up points. Eriksson and Sutter are huge detriments to youth.
Benning moves will continue to be the Achilles heel to youth next year as well since you have more kids coming in Pettersson, Dahlen, Gaudette, Juolevi, Lind, Lockwood, etc. and vets in most of the slots they need to fill (some of these guys should end up in Utica, but top end kids haven't made it there yet and the swedes will have their NHL or bust back to Sweden outs) and they are not exactly high commodities on the trade block. Crazy, but he isn't done adding vets yet either. Look for the Kane acquisition to eat up another spot for eons. There are more out there he is licking his chops over as well and the current slide is bound to make him even more itchy to make a move and he might just use some of that youth to do it. After all this team has shown signs of definitely being a playoff team. Right?