Management Thread: Weisileaks

[PM]

OOooof quite the sample size

That’s a great find. At least Ottawa’s owner refuses to spend to the cap. And I suppose Detroit earned some time to be f*** ups after being one of the most successful franchises between 1990-2010. That leaves the shameful shameful expansion twin franchises.

 

[PM]

I feel bad for the people arguing against the Benning supporters in yesterday's PG thread.

It's like beating your head against a brick wall. Not sure why they're wasting their time and energy.

It’s why I stopped posting on most Canucks platforms. Or talking hockey with Canucks fans at the office. Or even really caring that much about the Canucks these days. Glad I can enjoy other sports like football and basketball. Especially since both teams I follow have recently won a championship I my lifetime. Neither had an easy road too and basically went close to if not all in to win it (Seahawks, Raptors).

 

[opendoor]

It’s why I stopped posting on most Canucks platforms. Or talking hockey with Canucks fans at the office. Or even really caring that much about the Canucks these days. Glad I can enjoy other sports like football and basketball. Especially since both teams I follow have recently won a championship I my lifetime. Neither had an easy road too and basically went close to if not all in to win it (Seahawks, Raptors).

I feel the same way. I can watch a bad team (at least for a few years); that's the nature of sports. But at a certain point having the organization, the local media, and a portion of the fanbase try to gaslight everyone into believing that management is competent and things are going great just becomes too ridiculous to endure, to the point where it's not even worth the effort to engage in the whole thing. You can only listen to people insist the sky is green so many times before just losing interest. It's really just a natural byproduct of management and ownership insulting everyone's intelligence for the last 6-7 years.

 

[FutureQC]

It’s why I stopped posting on most Canucks platforms. Or talking hockey with Canucks fans at the office. Or even really caring that much about the Canucks these days. Glad I can enjoy other sports like football and basketball. Especially since both teams I follow have recently won a championship I my lifetime. Neither had an easy road too and basically went close to if not all in to win it (Seahawks, Raptors).

I know how you feel. I'm a huge raptors and jays fan. Both clubs have management leagues ahead of the Canucks. It just makes being a Canucks fan that more frustrating when you know that poor management is death to a professional sports franchise.

 

[tradervik]

I know how you feel. I'm a huge raptors and jays fan. Both clubs have management leagues ahead of the Canucks. It just makes being a Canucks fan that more frustrating when you know that poor management is death to a professional sports franchise.

Poor ownership is even worse.

 

[Wo Yorfat]

OOooof quite the sample size

At least Ottawa has an excuse. Always near the bottom of the league in payroll, 6 picks in the 1st 2 rounds last year. Vancouver in the top half of the league salary wise over the same period, didn't pick until round 3. It has all the losses and pain of a rebuild with none of those pesky draft picks.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

At least Ottawa has an excuse. Always near the bottom of the league in payroll, 6 picks in the 1st 2 rounds last year. Vancouver in the top half of the league salary wise over the same period, didn't pick until round 3. It has all the losses and pain of a rebuild with none of those pesky draft picks.

Yup. That's exactly the problem. Everyone complaining about how tanking would teach the kids to be okay with losing...since 2014, to avoid tanking the team's got the worst of both worlds. Losing culture, losing record, fan apathy but without the prospect pool or low budget flexibility.

 

[I am toxic]

That’s a great find. At least Ottawa’s owner refuses to spend to the cap. And I suppose Detroit earned some time to be f*** ups after being one of the most successful franchises between 1990-2010. That leaves the shameful shameful expansion twin franchises.

Both currently with meddling owners and no one as President, if I understand BUF's situation correctly.

Huh.

 

[Hodgy]

The funny thing with any debate regarding Benning’s UFA signings is that they are always focused on the terms of the contracts, which is obviously fair, but by doing so you actually lose sight of the fact that he has mostly just signed bad players. It’s remarkable the percentage of players that he signs that are just not very good, and that’s before considering contract status.

 

[Hit the post]

At least Ottawa has an excuse. Always near the bottom of the league in payroll, 6 picks in the 1st 2 rounds last year. Vancouver in the top half of the league salary wise over the same period, didn't pick until round 3. It has all the losses and pain of a rebuild with none of those pesky draft picks.

But they never had Gillis being a GM of the team who left such a mess behind!

 

[Izzy Goodenough]

The funny thing with any debate regarding Benning’s UFA signings is that they are always focused on the terms of the contracts, which is obviously fair, but by doing so you actually lose sight of the fact that he has mostly just signed bad players. It’s remarkable the percentage of players that he signs that are just not very good, and that’s before considering contract status.

FA's faves from scouting on TV in Hollywood?

 

[Izzy Goodenough]

Bowie does Benning:

 

[Hodgy]

Is Radim Vrbata the best player Benning has ever signed as a free agent over the past seven years!? Keep in mind that Radim actually wanted to come here to play with the Sedins, so perhaps Benning shouldn’t get full credit for this. But still, is Vrbata the best player ever signed by Benning? If so, is this the worst “best” player signed by a GM over a five plus year stretch? I’m not sure how Benning even managed this level of incompetence to be honest. It’s actually pretty in fathomable really, especially consider Benning spent to the cap each year.

I guess the closest honourable mention would be Ryan Miller....who also targeted Vancouver due to his wife’s career in California. So not really full marks there. Stetcher was a good signing too, but he also targeted Vancouver. Kind of a trend here.

 

[RandV]

Is Radim Vrbata the best player Benning has ever signed as a free agent over the past seven years!? Keep in mind that Radim actually wanted to come here to play with the Sedins, so perhaps Benning shouldn’t get full credit for this. But still, is Vrbata the best player ever signed by Benning? If so, is this the worst “best” player signed by a GM over a five plus year stretch? I’m not sure how Benning even managed this level of incompetence to be honest. It’s actually pretty in fathomable really, especially consider Benning spent to the cap each year.

I guess the closest honourable mention would be Ryan Miller....who also targeted Vancouver due to his wife’s career in California. So not really full marks there. Stetcher was a good signing too, but he also targeted Vancouver. Kind of a trend here.

If you want to grade Benning on the result that's fine but if you look at process it's a bit more iffy. We had cap space for a top six forward that summer and to be competitive desperately needed one of the 5 or so available. I'm pretty sure Vrbata wasn't first choice, but he was the last guy available and he picked Vancouver because he wanted to be here. The great term being only a 2 year deal was probably his decision as well, as has been demonstratively proven if an agent wants to clean Benning out he'll give them the keys. You also have to consider how poorly the team used him, and much like Troy Stecher while he wanted to be here so he got signed he was never really one of Benning's 'guys'.

That said, I think Thomas Vanek is a choice for best Benning signing. Remember we had him? Nice simply 1 year $2M deal, scored 40 points in 60 games, then flipped him at the deadline for Motte. Not a great trade deadline return but was at least something.

 

[Fatass]

Benning is scheduled for an interview on 650 tomorrow at 11. See if Rintoul will ask good questions.

 

[Hodgy]

If you want to grade Benning on the result that's fine but if you look at process it's a bit more iffy. We had cap space for a top six forward that summer and to be competitive desperately needed one of the 5 or so available. I'm pretty sure Vrbata wasn't first choice, but he was the last guy available and he picked Vancouver because he wanted to be here. The great term being only a 2 year deal was probably his decision as well, as has been demonstratively proven if an agent wants to clean Benning out he'll give them the keys. You also have to consider how poorly the team used him, and much like Troy Stecher while he wanted to be here so he got signed he was never really one of Benning's 'guys'.

That said, I think Thomas Vanek is a choice for best Benning signing. Remember we had him? Nice simply 1 year $2M deal, scored 40 points in 60 games, then flipped him at the deadline for Motte. Not a great trade deadline return but was at least something.

Yes, Vanek could be runner up. But I’m not talking contract terms, just quality of player, and I think Vrbata was better than Vanek in that respect. He scored 63 points in 79 games his first year including over 30 goals.

 

[Frankie Blueberries]

Benning is scheduled for an interview on 650 tomorrow at 11. See if Rintoul will ask good questions.

I’m expecting a lot of excuses such as the flat cap, and taking no responsibility for the issues. Unless he already knows he’s been fired, then we might finally see a more apologetic side of Jim.

 

[rypper]

Benning is scheduled for an interview on 650 tomorrow at 11. See if Rintoul will ask good questions.

Spoiler alert: He won't.

 

[m9]

Lets see if I can hit Benning's excuse list for tomorrow:

-Pandemic
-Flat Cap
-Hamonic, Motte injuries
-Slow start because Miller on the Covid list
-New players on the team, short training camp
-Short off-season after playoff run
-Schedule, played lots of games
-Haven't practiced much

Am I missing anything? And yes, pretty much all of these apply to the rest of the league as well.

Edit, additional add:
-A reference to how the team is "only" so many points out of the playoffs and ignoring the games played differential

 

[Fatass]

Spoiler alert: He won't.

Coaching change?

 

[I am toxic]

If you want to grade Benning on the result that's fine but if you look at process it's a bit more iffy. We had cap space for a top six forward that summer and to be competitive desperately needed one of the 5 or so available. I'm pretty sure Vrbata wasn't first choice, but he was the last guy available and he picked Vancouver because he wanted to be here. The great term being only a 2 year deal was probably his decision as well, as has been demonstratively proven if an agent wants to clean Benning out he'll give them the keys. You also have to consider how poorly the team used him, and much like Troy Stecher while he wanted to be here so he got signed he was never really one of Benning's 'guys'.

That said, I think Thomas Vanek is a choice for best Benning signing. Remember we had him? Nice simply 1 year $2M deal, scored 40 points in 60 games, then flipped him at the deadline for Motte. Not a great trade deadline return but was at least something.

Yeah, Vanek is the model - dollar, term, performance, flipped. Picture perfect.

 

[bandwagonesque]

Is Radim Vrbata the best player Benning has ever signed as a free agent over the past seven years!? Keep in mind that Radim actually wanted to come here to play with the Sedins, so perhaps Benning shouldn’t get full credit for this. But still, is Vrbata the best player ever signed by Benning? If so, is this the worst “best” player signed by a GM over a five plus year stretch? I’m not sure how Benning even managed this level of incompetence to be honest. It’s actually pretty in fathomable really, especially consider Benning spent to the cap each year.

I guess the closest honourable mention would be Ryan Miller....who also targeted Vancouver due to his wife’s career in California. So not really full marks there. Stetcher was a good signing too, but he also targeted Vancouver. Kind of a trend here.

If GMs only deserve credit for signing players who didn’t have reasons to want to play for their teams, then man, there’s a lot of bad GMs out there.

 

[Hodgy]

If GMs only deserve credit for signing players who didn’t have reasons to want to play for their teams, then man, there’s a lot of bad GMs out there.

This is a classic Bandy post because it’s both substantively and technically off point. It’s substantively off point because you’ve addressed a minor, passing remark which very clearly isn’t the crux of the issue I raised. And it’s technically off point because I very clearly never said that GMs only deserve credit for signing players who didn’t have reasons to want to play for their teams. Very clearly I was only point pointing out that Benning shouldn’t get full credit for signing players that wanted to sign here which is an obviously reasonable and fair point to make.

 

[Frankie Blueberries]

I seem to recall people discounting the Hamhuis signing because he was from BC and wanted to play here anyways.

 

[MarkMM]

Lets see if I can hit Benning's excuse list for tomorrow:

-Pandemic
-Flat Cap
-Hamonic, Motte injuries
-Slow start because Miller on the Covid list
-New players on the team, short training camp
-Short off-season after playoff run
-Schedule, played lots of games
-Haven't practiced much

Am I missing anything? And yes, pretty much all of these apply to the rest of the league as well.

Make a bingo game out of this.