Management Thread | Inconceivable Edition

[Fatass]

Is it possible that all these players signed with other teams during the off-season because they also were frustrated with the GM who created the roster?

Haven’t almost all the news stories around the guys who went elsewhere about how those players wanted badly to stay here though? It’s almost like Benning knew he wasn’t resigning these guys, and (maybe the players still here) forced them out, like he did with Bracket. Maybe that’s part of the Benning method? If he doesn’t intend to resign someone he makes them a terribly insulting offer, or simply no offer at all?

 

[mathonwy]

Case in point: Dwight Howard



Jim Benning and John Weisbrod apparently share the same brain.

Anyone that still bothers to listen to what comes out of Jimbo's piehole deserves what they get.

 

[infinitemile]

Jimmy Rutherford just retired. Looks like you can lose a GM mid-season and the sky isn't completely falling lol

 

[timw33]

The hyperbole gets to be a little much. Like, is Benning really the worst GM in NHL history? I still think guys like Mike Milbury, Doug MacLean or Don Waddell rate as being worse than Benning.

Jim Benning, without the help of a once in a century pandemic, would have joined the absolutely cursed company of the other GMs to go 5 seasons in a row out of the playoffs ands still have their jobs.

Waddell, Maclean, Milbury, Tambellini. You really don't want to be associated with those guys' names in any way or come close to their feats. At least with two of them they were overseeing expansion franchises under the old rules where you literally got garbage from every team.

 

[infinitemile]

Jimmy Rutherford just retired. Looks like you can lose a GM mid-season and the sky isn't completely falling lol

Wow so it appears you actually CAN replace your GM mid season! It's actually possible, this is remarkable! But we were made to feel so absurdly silly that that was ever possible!

 

[4Twenty]

I think the word hyperbole gets tossed around way too much in these parts.
It's not an exaggeration to point out the bad things,
it's not an exaggeration to say he didn't inherit the worst job in the league,
it's not an exaggeration to point out that smarter moves retooling would've been more successful in the short term,
it's not exaggeration to point out that each and every season we've had "better depth" and want to compete,
it's not exaggeration to point out the team has been capped out every season
it's not an exaggeration to point out his contracts have hamstrung the team incredibly, when most expected to be on some sort of ascent to relevance
it's not an exaggeration to think that the players on the team are equally shocked at how things have played out
it's not an exaggeration to think the players weren't expecting a reboot

 

[Burke's Evil Spirit]

Jim Benning, without the help of a once in a century pandemic, would have joined the absolutely cursed company of the other GMs to go 5 seasons in a row out of the playoffs ands still have their jobs.

I mean, he would have been fired if the Canucks had missed the playoffs. Of that I have no doubt.

 

[Frankie Blueberries]

Interjecting here with a question - what are peoples’ thoughts on Chris Gear? It was last year or the year before he was put in charge of our contracts/cap management, I think - does it seem like he’s helped improve the team’s work in that department?

I’m luke warm on him just based on the fact that he hasn’t had to do much, for better or worse. The flat cap and our cap situation going into this offseason wasn’t his fault so he didn’t have much to work with. I think he did reasonably well given the cards he was dealt with letting a bunch of players walk but picking up Schmidt, Holtby, and Hamonic. They haven’t played quite as well as hoped, but their contracts aren’t really the issue either (Schmidt’s was signed by Vegas so can’t fault Gear for that).

 

[Burke's Evil Spirit]

Rutherford's first few years in Penguins was some masterful work of managing a contender.

Hornqvist for Neal, Perron for a pick, Ian Cole for nothing, Kessel for Kapanen + 1st, Bonino for Sutter, Schultz for nothing.

Then things went off the rails.

 

[Peen]

Rutherford's first few years in Penguins was some masterful work of managing a contender.

Hornqvist for Neal, Perron for a pick, Ian Cole for nothing, Kessel for Kapanen + 1st, Bonino for Sutter, Schultz for nothing.

Then things went off the rails.

Hit on everything and then missed on everything

 

[Peen]

delete wrong thread

 

[I am toxic]

Interjecting here with a question - what are peoples’ thoughts on Chris Gear? It was last year or the year before he was put in charge of our contracts/cap management, I think - does it seem like he’s helped improve the team’s work in that department?

Holtby contract is bad.

Hamonic contract was fine, worth the risk given the amount.

Jake is excusable, I guess. Hard to tell how much they know about the situation.

What else was there? Motte?

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

I think the word hyperbole gets tossed around way too much in these parts.
It's not an exaggeration to point out the bad things,
it's not an exaggeration to say he didn't inherit the worst job in the league,
it's not an exaggeration to point out that smarter moves retooling would've been more successful in the short term,
it's not exaggeration to point out that each and every season we've had "better depth" and want to compete,
it's not exaggeration to point out the team has been capped out every season
it's not an exaggeration to point out his contracts have hamstrung the team incredibly, when most expected to be on some sort of ascent to relevance
it's not an exaggeration to think that the players on the team are equally shocked at how things have played out
it's not an exaggeration to think the players weren't expecting a reboot

ah the kind of nightmarish reality where satire and describing what's actually happening become indistinguishable

 

[Peen]

One of the canucks biggest avenues or opportunities towards improvement is their keeper slots.

They basically only have six skaters who you would lose sleep over not protecting.

I don’t think teams want to give seattle this boatload of good stuff after seeing what happened with VGK. Dumping an exposable contract to a team plus a minor future for a usable player that you want to keep can be a good avenue for us. We could add like 3-4 players via trade this way.

Someone could probably think of specific examples. Idk.

 

[timw33]

I mean, he would have been fired if the Canucks had missed the playoffs. Of that I have no doubt.

Oh I don't doubt that either, but it would have cemented him as one of the all-time worst GM's and likely prevented him from holding anything more than an AGM position elsewhere.

 

[MS]

One of the canucks biggest avenues or opportunities towards improvement is their keeper slots.

They basically only have six skaters who you would lose sleep over not protecting.

I don’t think teams want to give seattle this boatload of good stuff after seeing what happened with VGK. Dumping an exposable contract to a team plus a minor future for a usable player that you want to keep can be a good avenue for us. We could add like 3-4 players via trade this way.

Someone could probably think of specific examples. Idk.

I mean, yes. The exact same thing was true for the Vegas expansion, when we protected Granlund and Gudbranson.

If Benning is still GM, we're protecting Tyler Myers. Guaranteed.

 

[Burke's Evil Spirit]

One of the canucks biggest avenues or opportunities towards improvement is their keeper slots.

They basically only have six skaters who you would lose sleep over not protecting.

I don’t think teams want to give seattle this boatload of good stuff after seeing what happened with VGK. Dumping an exposable contract to a team plus a minor future for a usable player that you want to keep can be a good avenue for us. We could add like 3-4 players via trade this way.

Someone could probably think of specific examples. Idk.

Absolutely. There are about 25 dmen that could instantly improve this team that will be exposed in the expansion draft. That number will rise as some UFAs get extended throughout the season. This D can get retooled in a hurry ... *if* the right people are in charge.

 

[rypper]

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but don't we pretty much have to expose Myers to meet the requirements?

• under contract in 2021-22, AND
• played in 40 or more NHL games last season, OR
• played in 70 or more NHL games in the last two seasons

Barring any other moves.

 

[Sleepinghorse]

Uh they absolutely dominated among the toughest matchups in the entire NHL, I wouldn’t really expect someone with such a basic understanding of ice hockey works to comprehend their value so there’s really no point in my arguing with a paid shill.

Tanev over a 3 year stretch led the NHL in shot suppression relative to team by a wide margin. The Edler / Tanev pairing in 2014/2015 was probably the most effective pairing in the history of the Canucks franchise in terms of sheer results. But I understand people like you can’t grasp that.

Uh-huh. And 2 years later? Where were they in terms of that?

I've already said they were a good top-pairing, middle of the pack is good, it's not great, and don't kid yourself, neither of them would be on the top pairing of at least 10 of the teams that year.

If you're going to argue that they were an elite top-pairing for 6 seasons then I'll just assume that your comment regarding understanding of ice hockey was said into the mirror while you rehearsed your post over and over. I understand that's what people like you tend to do.

 

[Sleepinghorse]

31 Thoughts: How the Dubois-Laine trade finally came together

Confirmation that Benning would have traded the 5th overall pick in 2016 for PK Subban. Yikes.

Seems that pick was doomed no matter what happened.

Juolevi on one hand, Subban and a cap mess on the other.

Although I have to hope he was going to move out Sutter or someone to send cap the other way, which would have mitigated things. Wouldn't surprise me if he didn't though either.

 

[mriswith]

We owe Columbus a huge thank you, they really saved us there. While Joulevi is not a good pick at #5, having Subban for $9m cap hit for years is much much worse. Wasn't Horvat part of the package too? Even if it's just the pick alone it is catastrophic enough.
Edmonton on the other hand would've benefited huge had they got Sergachev instead.

I wish we did it. Benning would have been canned years ago if he'd made the trade.

Maybe we'd have someone in charge who can actually build towards a cup by now.

 

[vanuck]

Vatanen was apparently on the table and he chose Sbisa. Just choosing Vatanen would’ve solidified the group.

It also doesn’t mean you had to not trade Garrison or Bieksa or Hamhuis. Getting a 2nd for Garrison was fine.

year 1
Edler-Tanev
Hamhuis-Vatanen
Bieksa-Weber

year 2
Edler-Tanev
Hamhuis-Vatanen
Bieksa-Hutton

trade Hamhuis at deadline if retool isn’t working. still sign local boy freebie.

year 3
Edler-Tanev
?????-Vatanen
Hutton-Stecher

You can still use any and all of the wasted assets to get that top defensman you need. Just don’t target Gudbranson.

Benning took a team strength and played the hand about as bad as possible.

Another thing is that if Benning hadn't insisted on Bonino who the Ducks were loathe to give up considering the value he brought on a helluva sweet contract, we could've taken Perreault instead - they didn't plan to keep him anyway - and extracted more value elsewhere. So likely the D prospect could've been someone like Theodore as a result since he was a futures piece to them at the time.

 

[Reverend Mayhem]

I mean, yes. The exact same thing was true for the Vegas expansion, when we protected Granlund and Gudbranson.

If Benning is still GM, we're protecting Tyler Myers. Guaranteed.

A dark thought, but I'd be an idiot to bet against it.

 

[F A N]

I mean, yes. The exact same thing was true for the Vegas expansion, when we protected Granlund and Gudbranson.

If Benning is still GM, we're protecting Tyler Myers. Guaranteed.

That's not much of a guarantee. Do you think think Myers is ahead of Schmidt in the expansion draft exposure rankings? As it stands, whose "protection" slot is Myers taking if we were to protect 3 Dmen? Right now, the Canucks might actually need to re-sign Benn or acquire another Dman as they have nobody to expose.

 

[Burke's Evil Spirit]

Does anyone ever step back and think about how Benning commited $62M to Sbisa, Gudbranson, Del Zotto, and Myers?