Promising? Could have fooled me.
Gustav Forsling Stats and News
Agreed that Gudbranson was the WRONG player to target, but we had absolutely ZERO on our right side D outside of Tanev. It was Tanev, and then a bunch of 6th and 7th dmen. So - yeah....the Canucks absolutely needed to trade for a young defenseman that could step into a top 4 role. Unfortunately, Gudbranson was NOT the correct answer and that’s on Benning and Pro Scouting. What was crazy at this time, was that posters on here were arguing that we trade Tanev since Tanev’s value was sky high.
that is not how a rebuild works.
Rebuilding entails protecting your prospects and young players just as much as it means acquiring picks and prospects.
Young players in our line-up at that time (if I recall correctly) were Horvat, Baertschi, Hutton, Stecher, and Markstrom (I might be wrong here....too lazy to look up). The point is this: IF you completely sabotage your depth (ie trade Tanev for a 1st, and don’t trade for a young RHD), then you risk putting your current young players into positions that they are far too green for. That’s how you damage young players. That’s how you ruin the confidence of young players.
So yeah - while not trading for Gudbranson + trading Chris Tanev would have resulted in more picks today, the fact of the matter is that guys like Hutton, Stecher, Markstrom, [young guy] would have been placed in positions to fail.
It would have been the classic case of trying to fill a leaking bucket with water.
For all the flack that Benning gets on here, one often overlooked fact is that many of our young guys on the team successfully grew their games and were salavaged......despite our multiple losing seasons (which is normal for a rebuilding process). Guys like Horvat, Markstrom, Stecher, Hutton, and Gaudette all have taken solid leaps in their games. Even guys like Baertschi and Virtanen have grown during their time here....maybe not to the extent that we want, but growth nonetheless. What more can I see about Pettersson and Boeser that hasn’t already been said? Leivo looks fairly decent as well.
A rebuild involves two things:
1) Draft pick accumulation (which all of you definitely understand).
2) protecting the current young players in your system and placing them into roles that will push them, but not over exert them (which for whatever reason, I believe is a concept that many people struggle with on here).
You can only do #1 if #2 isn’t effected.
And again - I hate to make this a “but Gillis!” argument, but IF the previous regime had even been remotely competent in assembling a prospect pool, then yes......I believe more vets would have been moved for picks because the young guys within the system would have been able to fill those roles at around 80-90% efficiency of said vet being replaced (which is what one part of rebuilding is about). Unfortunately, we didn’t have that.......and so this regime was forced to trade 2nd’s for 20-23 year old reclamation projects that could perhaps fill those shoes (while simultaneously trying to trade Bieksa, Burrows, Hansen, etc., for some kind of salvageable value).
I won’t deny that our Pro Scouting is terrible. It is. If Benning ends up getting fired, it will be because of moves like this.
Kassian is And was a nice guy but he had his demons. Unfortunately, you don’t want impressionable young players around these types of guys. It sounds cold, but it’s the truth.
Brendan Gaunce wasn’t quite ready for the NHL. If Gaunce at that time was around 85-90% ready, then his presence on the 4th line could have been justified, but he still needed time in the minors.
The Canucks also needed more toughness, and needed someone to take pressure off of Dorsett.
The motivation and thought process behind making this kind of trade was sound. I actually thought Prust would be a good fit here. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out. I’m not even sure If this was a gaffe by Pro Scouting. Up until his stint in Vancouver, Prust was known as a non selfish team first guy. Unfortunately, after his ankle injury here, he couldn’t get back on track......and he acted like a child when he was rightfully benched.
