Can you explain how someone can be the worst pro scout in the league, absolutely incapable of assessing fully grown, matured and developed players with a large body of work in NHL games, but somehow be extremely talented at projecting what teenagers will play like 5 years from now in a league several tiers above where they currently play?
How can he not understand what he is currently watching on the ice, right now, but somehow be able to be a wizard regarding what a player will be like in 5 years?
I know this. First let’s assume he is a good amateur scout (snicker).
When looking at amateur players you are looking at incomplete players and you can look at the things they excel at, if there are major red flags and predict they can round out some other skills as they mature. You aren’t looking for a fit in your immediate organization (or you shouldn’t be because these are not immediate fit players).
As a pro-scout you need to look at their entire and established game as well as how they will fit on your current team. It’s a different set of criteria beyond basic raw ability and development. This is team building and we have ample evidence Benning doesn’t have an iota of ability in that department. That’s no longer in question. The only question that remains is if he has any amateur scouting ability as that’s the last battle Benning bros can fight.
It’s why I think the amateur draft is a crap shoot a lot of the times and highly dependent on organizational development. You are simply looking at raw skills that these kids excel at and the crossing your fingers those skills continue to improve to a NHL level and some others catch up as you develop the players. Or in the Canucks case as the players develop themselves. Probably wrong but that’s how I look at it.
That said what Benning does as a pro-scout is pull out his scouting reports on the players when they were 18 to remember the ones he liked, looks at what they have done in the NHL for 500 games and sets that as a baseline. He then ADDS into that the assumption that other areas of the game will improve significantly like they are still 18.
That’s how you get an appraisal on Brandon Sutter, with about 500 games experience at the time, as not the 25-30 point forward he was but as the foundational center with significant amounts of untapped offensive potential worthy of a long term deal and historic retroactive NTC.