So what? Gillis never picked higher than 9th. So what if Benning never won the lottery? Like there's some huge, yawning chasm between 1st and 5th in the draft every year. You think franchise players are only available at 1st overall? Nope.
Also, so what? They weren't very bloody spot on with Juolevi or Virtanen, were they? You're still just hanging your hat on Benning being good due to his finally not ****ing up something that should be a slam dunk, especially for a guy who's somehow supposed to be good at drafting.
Oh, so the players Benning signed to contracts with NTCs can conveniently be traded (not that Benning's done that) but the guys he inherited had NTCs that were some crippling roadblock? Yeah, I'll believe Sutter and Beagle are movable when I see it. And check back to see how much cap space the team has after Pettersson and Boeser's ELCs run out and Edler gets re-signed. Know how much cap space the team will have then? Not bloody much. And we'll still be married to Eriksson, Sutter, Beagle, Roussel, and all the other various lesser lights who range from okay to just plain bad, not to mention whoever he throws stupid money at this coming offseason.