I hate how much of it has to do with results of tiny sample sizes, like we're just throwing out 5 years of evidence.
Willes' speculation is based on the idea that changes might come if they collapse down the stretch. But what if they don't? Suddenly that means another Benning year is worthwhile? There appear to be a lot of really dumb people in hockey, so it's not surprising some think like this.
Secondly, the oft-repeated mantra "If he misses the playoffs next season, then he's gone." Again, why do 5 pitiful years get swept under the rug because the NHL draft system rewards incompetence? It just grants him the awful incentive to compromise everything for one year of middling achievement. Let's say he signs Simmonds and Myers to dumb contracts and the team squeaks in... now the team is ****ed in its contract structure for half a decade more, and Benning is also still your GM for accomplishing nothing.
Oh, absolutely. He should 100% have been fired last year and should have been getting torn to shreds here by media and fans for his godawful performance from Day 1.
But at this point I’ll take what I can get and this is progress.
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To me, this has always been like if Aquilini had hired his cat Mittens as GM, and nobody really seemed to bat an eye.
And then Mittens trades half the roster for catnip and fans and media are ‘Be patient, lets see how this turns out!’
And then Mittens allows his scouting staff to pick at top prospect with a high pick after plummeting to the bottom of the standings and fans and media are ‘Well, the whole catnip thing didn’t really turn out but look at that prospect! Man, can Mittens draft!’
And then Mittens spends a year sitting in the sun by a window and doesn’t trade for any catnip and everyone is ‘Hmmm, look how he’s learning and improving!’
And people are trying to rationalize moves made from an irrational situation where THE GM IS A f***ING CAT.
And it’s the same with Benning. It’s been comically evident to anyone with half a brain paying attention that this guy is just a complete moron who has no idea what he’s doing, no ability to evaluate talent, and no ability to implement and execute any sort of a plan. And not just a moron-relative-to-other GMs sort of moron, a real-world moron you wouldn’t trust with a cashout after a late shift at a 7-11. Someone who talks in a manner and with the content you’d expect of a child in grade 6.
And somehow after 5 years of total incompetence, we’re still debating whether Shinkaruk-Granlund was a good trade or whether some other GM might have made a worse move so might be the worst GM and not Benning. And not asking how the hell it came to be that this 80 IQ idiot has been destroying this team for 5 years.
It’s insanity and after 5 years I still can’t believe this has happened to my hockey team that I care about so much.
