Just start where you did all the other five thousand times we've done this over the last four years.
[MOD] Ive got about a hundred posts here. I dont waste much time posting here because this place is an echo chamber where people with opposing views are dog piled on and implicitly insulted by some individuals who have an inflated perception of their own intelligence (not saying you, I actually think you are one of the more decent posters even with your drama and unrealistic expectations). Out of all the major Canuck related message boards out there this is the only one where the management team and the players that they have acquired are mocked, ridiculed, and ripped apart to the extent that they are. Of course the thousands of fans on the other boards dont know the truth like the 20 or so regulars that run the asylum here.
Oh, Pouliot "could" make a decent bottom pairing dman? He hasn't so far. Of bloody course he's cheap, he sucks. He's no damn good. I do know bottom pair dmen aren't expensive because duh. They suck. Oh, he's a 5, 6, 7 guy?
He is a 5,6,7 guy who was put in over his head with the number of injuries the team had. You think he sucks, thats fine, I think you dont know how to assess players in terms of their role on the team in light of what the cost was to obtain the particular player.
Explain to me why Benning keeps getting 5, 6, 7 guys. Are they going to win games?
uhhhhh, because top 4 guys come at a cost that this team can not afford? He could go down the trade route, but his (non core) roster players arent exactly the type of guys that will get you legit top 4 dmen. Up till about now he didnt have enough prospects to trade. He could go down the UFA route, but that would require a massive over payment...and - despite what some in here think - obtaining ufa players is not like picking produce at a grocery store...the other guy actually has to want to come here.
It was a reasonable calculated risk...which failed.
It was a great calculated risk that cost very little. He has not failed. If the top 4 stays healthy, and his role is reduced , he can be a valuable contributor. The fact that you expect 40 points and need to be pleased immediately is on you.
You do realize 4th round picks can yield NHL players, right? You ever heard of Kevin Bieksa? Somehow he was a top 4 dman here for a good number of years. Ever heard of Jannik Hansen? 9th round pick, and somehow he managed a 20 goal season riding shotgun with the Sedins. Somehow Adam Gaudette's name is popular around here...where was he drafted?
Let me slow this down for you because you seem to have a problem grasping the concept. For every 4th rounder you name that made an impact, i can probably name 25 that failed. It was a calculated risk to give up a 4th for a guy that was a high draft pick who still had a chance of being revived by his former coach. The chances of Pouliot panning out are higher than the 4th panning out.
Here's a list of dmen Benning has signed since 2014: Bartkowski, Weber, Larsen, Holm, Biega, Stecher, Chatfield, Gudbranson, Sbisa, Wiercioch, Sautner...sorry, where are the high calibre dmen there?
My statement "if he obtains a high calibre d man" was hypothetical. But connect the dots here...all the d men you list, outside of Guddy, came at a low cost. Filler fodder while the team develops their prospects. The fact that you thought they were brought in to make a meteoric rise in the standings is on you.
Not seeing any. Awwwww...the "same characters"...yeah sure. This is right up there with: "If Trump cured cancer, people would still complain!!!11!1!!" Uh-huh. Yeah, just go ahead and cure cancer anytime, Trump. We're waiting. Well?
[MOD] Not sure what you are talking about here, and right about now im starting to think im wasting even more time that i should not have been wasting.
We're complaining because the team's crap.
You are complaining because you had the unrealistic expectation that this team could be some sort of playoff challenger by now. In 2013 this team had arguably the worst prospect pool in the NHL and was mired with horrible NT/NM contracts. They had a prima donna player - who had some value - but destroyed any leverage they had in dealing him by demanding a trade to one of two teams. If you expected something other than crap in less than 5 years thats on you.
Remember that? It's been quoted enough times, you should recognize it by now. Do Linden and Benning have any hockey knowledge? Well, based on their work, I'd have to say no, they don't.
What the hell else do you expect them to say? We are going to be horrible for the next half decade or so, but hang in there? In my mind the initial direction of this team, and subsequent announcements by the team regarding direction they were taking, was hampered by a meddling owner. He had just agreed to dedicate 14 million a year to two players. Do you really think he wanted to tear it down at that point?
...a bunch of rabbling snipped, not sure what you were talking about..
Our great prospect pool is a whopping big two players deep on defense, and that's with one guy coming off back surgery.
JB has had a few years to build the d in the prospect pool. There were so many holes that no matter what he did the pool would be incomplete. He has acquired Juolevi, Hughes, Tryamkin( i wont mention that muffin he drafted and the traded to Chicago..that gets some people too riled up). It would have helped a bit if the glorious leader of the previous regime didnt leave him with only CRUMBS in the cupboard.
All these guys just waiting to pop up next year or two years or three years down the road? We're still waiting. All those names just keep shifting every year. The magical threshold where Benning's vaunted prospect pool will become a good NHL team somehow keeps on being pushed back every offseason around here...or maybe you didn't notice that.
Nothing abnormal about guys picked a couple years ago needing 2-3 years to develop. I realize that you might think that you are entitled to instant gratification, but thats on you.
JFC, do you really want me to post a list of NHLers taken with 2nd round picks? Lucic? O'Reilly (who I believe has been mentioned here recently)? Maybe we go back a bit and say Don Beaupre? Steve Konroyd?
Really, you have to go back to 1980 to make your point. lol. Whats next 1971? My point still stands. The odds of a second rounder working out to be a Baertschi calibre player are lower than the player busting.
Which also applies to Granlund who for about the 8 billionth bloody time is not a good player. I know he's the darling of the Benning brigade because he's walking proof a better player can come back than go out...but he still didn't make the team better. He's the poster boy for missing the point.
He has made the team better than Shinkaruk would have...you do know that Shinkaruk rides an AHL bus to work right? The coaches and management realized that Shinkaruk's cream puff AHL goals would not translate well in the NHL and they traded him for a serviceable NHL player that managed to get 19 goals. I know you expect a first liner with 60 points every trade, but you do not have normal expectations.
That "mass" of nice young players is short about a dozen names if we're really supposed to think the Canucks will change in any meaningful way this next season. Here's reality knocking at your door: the Sedins just retired leaving a 100 point gap in production. Even if...say...Pettersson and Dahlen make the team and hit 50 points each next year, that just makes up what was lost. That puts the team exactly where it was last year.
Where's that mass, exactly?
I hate to break this to you but this team will probably be bad for another year. while your [MOD], ill be happy knowing that we have Pettersson, Dahlen, Gaudette, Hughes, Juolevi, Brock ready to take the next steps in their career. Hell, we might even get the other Hughes brother. Ive been watching this team since the 70s and i dont recall a wave of young players like this before. But go ahead, carry on wasting your energy complaining about the Pouliots and the Gagners...lol...