Kesler Trade
The value was debatable at first, but I would say that to this point, it was a good hockey trade. Bonino has undiputedly helped us get where we are, and McCann looks like a solid prospect. We also got Sbisa...
Garrison Trade
The reason behind it was understandable, and the value seemed comparable to some other trades, but it was still disappointing that a top-4 dman only got us a 2nd round pick. We did clear a lot of cap space, though, and it helped create the team we have now that is in the play-offs and exceeded expectations.
Vey Trade
It looks bad when you look at it as Garrison for Vey, but it looks less bad when you look at it as a 2nd for Vey... for some reason... at any rate, the reasoning behind trading a second for Vey makes sense, and there were some who were optimistic. One season later, and it looks to most that having that 2nd would probably be preferable...
Smaller Trades
Pedan appears to have been a great acquisition as his progress in Utica has been outstanding.
Clendining is more or less a further-along Forsling from a team whose depth was clogging. However, his showing at the NHL level left something to be desired.
Baertschi's acquisition is similar to trading for Vey, Pedan, and Clendinging. The same philosophy was applied - trying to accelerate the youth movement by bridging the age gap. So far it looks good.
Dorsett
This is a case where the team and the organization seem very pleased with themselves, and the fan base is less optimistic about it. His intangibles are widely touted. Perhaps they are intangible to us, and it is the reason why us fans don't like the situation. Trading a 3rd for him looks bad to us, but to management it looked and still looks like good value, and this contract implies much the same. This contract is a reward for something that, to us, is apparently intangible. We're all stuck hoping he's right, whether we react positively or negatively.
Sbisa
Well, here's a situation where a player has been evaluated solely on upside, and it would seem again that both management and the coaching staff feel differently about him than almost every single person who follows the team. To us, it seems so blatantly obvious that Sbisa was replaceable, and replacement level - on par with Stanton and Weber, and soon to be passed over by Corrado and Clendinging, and now Pedan as well. But then he gets this contract, which seems to indicate that management likes him, supporting the favored ice time he's been getting.
Vrbata Signing
Well, Benning hit a home run here - I wish the term was higher though.
Miller Signing
A necessary evil at the time, but the term was simply wrong, and other options seemed unexplored - but what do we know? Well, at the time and in hindsight, we knew Miller wasn't worth 6m, shouldn't have gotten 3 yrs, and was likely to be replaced by Eddie Lack.
The Current Situation Is...
We fans sit here worried, because Benning has been happy with his acquisitions when us fans aren't, necessarily. We've seen Dorsett and Sbisa favored undeservedly (in our eyes). We now worry that Miller will be favored over Lack, and Vey will be favored over guys like Richardson and Matthias.
Our brand new cap restrictions now result in the likely loss of superior, cheaper depth players like Richardson and Weber. To mitigate this, we'll have to bring prospects along, and we fans are stuck worrying that Benning will again favor his acquisitions: will Virtanen get Kenins' spot, or Clendining or even Pedan Corrado's?
We also look back on the year and see things like (even if they weren't the actual transactions, these are the role replacements):
Garrison Out - Sbisa and Vey In.
Kesler and Santorelli Out - Vrbata, Bonino, and Dorsett In
The fact is, Benning came here with a lot of room to make his stamp, and that stamp includes giving out 3 lofty contracts and squandering all the room he had.
This post is going to disagree with Benning enough to appear I dislike him as GM more than is the case. Sometimes setting good goals and sticking to those goals is more important than most of the individual moves. I like JB's goals and the way he's stuck to the direction he's taken but disagree with many of the individual moves.
Kesler trade-always thought it was ok-it never seemed doubtful to me.
Garrison trade-hated it at the time, hate it now. Little return, the pp struggled and he had a bounce back year as should have been expected. Garrison >>> Sbisa.
Vey trade-as you say, looks bad as Garrison for Vey. It looks even worse as Garrison and Santorelli for Vey. I thought this a mistake at the time and it's hard to think Vey's potential is going to be enough that he couldn't have been replaced by Santorelli this season and next and others now in the system in the future. I hope Vey strengthens up over the summer and comes back an improved player, but don't think the moves that led to him coming to the Canucks made sense.
otoh, to be fair, once Garrison was gone, this was JB exercising his judgment on developing players. Perhaps it should be lumped into the next group, in which case it no longer looks bad.
Dorsett, Pedan, Clendening, Baertschi trades all look solid to me. They might not all work out, but neither will players selected with 2-2nd round and 2-3rd round picks.
Tanev being signed to a 1 year $2 million contract in 2014 seemed bad to me at the time and looks even worse now that he's signed for an AAV of $4.45 million over the next 5 years. How much could the team have saved signing him for a reasonable amount last summer? It would have cost more this season, but less for the next four after this one.
What makes the whole Tanev situation difficult for me to consider is that JB has been inconsistent in his comments. In the summer of 2014 he said he needed to see a larger body of work from Tanev (which struck me as nonsensical at the time.) When the extension was signed in 2015 he said Tanev had agreed to take less last year on the assurance the team would take care of him this year. Obviously that's inconsistent with the earlier comments, but is consistent with last year's contract being too low and for short term and this year's extension being too high.
Vrbata signing-as you said, a home run
Miller signing-you called this a necessary evil. I always thought it was a bad signing. It never made sense to me. I thought Lack was mishandled last season (and that he was again this season, but that's for another time and thread) and that Lack would come back to be the guy we saw early in the 2013-14 season. I also believed Melanson when he said Markstrom would be ready.
Tanev extension for 5 years starting next season-ok, I suppose. I expected the amount to be a little lower (I'd expected AAV of about $4.2 million) but my main issue here is Tanev's last extension, not this one. If it was intended as makeup for doing the team a favour taking less last year, then it's not bad.
Dorsett extension: It's hard for me to know what Dorsett is worth to the Canucks, who don't have many guys who will fight to act as a deterrent on a regular basis. (Most of their players will do it on rare occasions, but only Dorsett and Bieksa regularly, with Kassian also acting as a deterrent at times.)
I did expect a lower number than $2.65 AAV, which seems much too high for a 4th line winger. In addition, Dorsett is at an age where forwards generally start to fall off, though he's having his best scoring season. He's also somebody whose style of play brings more wear on the body (and head) than the play of those who are less physical and fight less, so one has to wonder about giving him a four year term. I knew he wanted it but hoped Benning wouldn't give it. Now we have to hope his play doesn't fall off for 4 seasons, which imo is a lot to hope for.
Sbisa extension-there is disagreement on this. I'm among those that thought Sbisa worth much, much less than he was making before, in fact approximately equal in effectiveness to the bottom d-men on the roster this season. I actually hoped against hope that he'd be allowed to walk this summer, thinking Edler, Tanev, Hamhuis and Bieksa clearly better, Weber also better and important to the power play, and Stanton, Clendening and Corrado of the same range of play as Sbisa at much less cost (and in the case of Clendening and Corrado, younger with more time to develop.) It will follow that I consider the amount of money being paid Sbisa on this extension a major mistake.
I will, of course, spend the next 3 seasons rooting for Sbisa and hoping he proves JB right and the critics, myself included, wrong.
All of that means I'm disagreeing with a lot of JB's moves.
otoh, he does have a clear direction and has made moves consistent with that direction. He's tried-and succeeded, at least so far-in keeping the team competitive. He's made moves to provide players to fill in dry Canuck draft years and he's refused to trade young players and prospects for veterans. I like the direction and the fact that he's stuck to it will bring at least some success. I'm sure everyone would agree the Canucks organization has had a successful year on hthe ice, regardless of how the rest of the season goes for the Canucks, Comets, K-Wings and the jr prospects who are still playing.
