Management Thread

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

The 1995-2006 Mike Milbury-led Islanders were extremely stabile, and therefore there results must have been good.

He missed the playoffs in his first 6 years on the job..then made the playoffs for 3 consecutive years...

it must also be noted that he had to put together a team under a ridiculous austere budget from the owners ..Hence,a lot of the head scratching moves..

 

[Jay Cee]

We don’t know how many years he’s still going to be here. And so, the more we learn about his actual impact, the better.

How is something that has just been confirmed old and tired? It’s just come out. We didn’t know that he had minimal impact on picking the best drafted players.
The one part of his job that was going ok, perceptually, just got stripped away from him by the media. And the person actually responsible just left. How common is that around the NHL?

Arguments behind the scenes may be normal, sure, but the context here is that this manager is riding these picks to remain employed. Everything else he’s done is poor overall. Now, everything he’s done is poor overall.

The story about the Benning era Canucks just changed in a major way.

It's always the "who was the guy who drafted who" stuff that I just find really uninteresting. The results speak for themselves.

I agree with what you say about the move. I mean, it is pretty crazy we were doing better at scouting and we let our lead scout walk.

 

[MS]

Oilers..1 playoff appearance in 13 years
Sabres..8 years no playoffs and counting
Panthers..2 playoff appearances in 18 years

losing cultures...

Uh, yes. Just like our 1 playoff appearance in 7 years, complete with a 4-year stretch where we were the worst team in the NHL despite our GM trying to win and make the playoffs for most of that period.

 

[sting101]

Man now i know why i took an extended break from this place. Same story around here.

Since 2017 what are all these moves that make Benning look like he's a crackhead? Seriously MS go spend some time with your family. What a derogatory analogy. Are you part of Trumps media campaign or something? .....jeesus

This team is on the cusp of some special years. Every fukin GM in the history of the sport that inherited a shitty team got some high picks not as many as you think made them part of something really good.

This team assembled by Benning is lookin good and at the stage where he makes it a contender or he gets fired. If he handcuffs the situation with bad contracts and cant make moves to improve or cant draft well enough to keep a flow of cheap organizational talent flowing into the system....he will be fired.

Why is it so important to say i told you so when at this point he's defying what you all thought he was capable of in 2015? So far the "idiot" is making your predictions look like overreactions. Every GM makes bad moves and every GM has to have some luck regarding the moves you didn't make. It's astonishing that after the year we just watched with Hughes and JT Millers impact and the redemption/growth of Virtanen Pearson Markstrom and others that people would be so pissed off.

Linden and Brackett did whats best for them and in some ways it's best for the Canucks too. No one should be given autonomy in a situation that doesn't effect them the most. I get why Judd would want a better situation and someone he could work under that didn't have such strong convictions and opinions in his area of expertise. Must have been extremely frustrating in that regard to say nothing of all the picks that were traded away.

The heirarchy of Aquilini Benning and Weisbrod is frightening to me. They either seem really slimy or in Bennings case someone who doesn't have the competitiveness and attention to detail to make the key moves at the key times. i keep getting the feeling that they are going to make that devastating decision that blows up what has been assembled but even Gillis Burke and Quinn used to give me these feelings because i care and want to see a cup so badly. Probably less though because of all the small moves that have left me scratching my head so i will concede this

At the end of the day Francesco wants a cup and is privy to what is really going on. It's naive to think he is sitting by letting Benning and Weisbrod wreck his prized possession. Of course this narrative always gets the Aquilini is dumb or an idiot reaction but i'm not buying it. This is not quantum physics that he can't understand? You can bet your asses FA has had an influence on what is going on as well as he would fully understand the trades contracts player aquisitions and draft picks and who pushed for what within the organization. After all if you had to hand 36 million of your empire to Loui Eriksson do you think you wouldn't care watching from your box every game?

As the teams expectations rise so does the pressure to make key moves and avoid failure. The margin for error for JB is extremely small now. If he fails he will be gone soon.

 

[MS]

Find me one person who said this in 2015.


No. Not even close. What actually happened is that the Benning bots all told us how we couldn't rebuild with the Sedins around. Nobody in the CSE corporation would ever use the word rebuild for years after 2014. Every move the team made was consistent with competing for the present. The only transactions the Canucks ever made that were even consistent with rebuilding were the Hansen and Burrows trades, both of which have ended up yielding nothing. The management team has tried and failed to compete literally every year it's been here and the results are missing the playoffs four years in a row, while teetering on the brink of missing this year until the season was shut down.


Finish in the bottom and you get the high draft picks. That's how it works. All these amazing players you're hyping didn't come from some brilliant transactions or maneuvering at the draft to move up, they're just the rewards the NHL gives teams for being terrible. Eventually, give them enough cracks at high picks and even Benning can pick good players. I mean, by your standards the Oilers must be an amazingly well managed team for the last decade. Look at McDavid! Draisaitl! The Nuge! Nurse!


Did you actually watch the games at all? Oh wait...you get youtube highlight packages in China or wherever, don't you. If you'd been watching, you'd have noticed that the team's slide down the standings coincided with Markstrom getting hurt.

Here's a team that's missed the playoffs four years in a row and was just hanging on to the last wild card spot in the west by the skin of its teeth while spending to the cap with its two best players on ELCs. We're not excited because the people running the team are just doing the same thing they've always done really hard this year, and the best they can do is slightly better than they've always done. Half the payroll is dead weight locked up for years. And for all the amazing young talent you're slobbering all over...why isn't the team actually good? Why was it getting buried in its own zone night after night after night? Why couldn't it cope with the loss of its #1 goalie for a couple of weeks? Why do people keep leaving the management team acrimoniously and not being replaced? Or is that all just "the media"?



Just one more red herring. Brackett indisputably did well in his job, and now he's gone. The latest in a continuing purge of competence. One wonders what your standards are for well-run teams.

I'm continually amazed that this seems to confuse most of our fanbase.

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

Uh, yes. Just like our 1 playoff appearance in 7 years, complete with a 4-year stretch where we were the worst team in the NHL despite our GM trying to win and make the playoffs for most of that period.

Made the playoffs 5 years ago (and back in them this season)..

....and yes..worst team in the league over a 4 year stretch (precisely where they were supposed to be after having over a decade of having a competitive team)

 

[Bleach Clean]

It's always the "who was the guy who drafted who" stuff that I just find really uninteresting. The results speak for themselves.

I agree with what you say about the move. I mean, it is pretty crazy we were doing better at scouting and we let our lead scout walk.

Crazy. Beyond crazy. I know it was too shocking to believe, initially, but here we are.

Before this information came out, I too was uninterested in the "who drafted who" argument. Check my post history. I have always maintained that Benning owns all picks. There wasn't enough information to say otherwise. Now? The distinction has been made, so ascribing those picks to Benning is untenable.

This doesn't mean as much for what has happened, it's done, it's over, but it means a lot for projecting what is about to happen. Benning is now the franchise's lead scout... With everything that entails.

 

[xtra]

Made the playoffs 5 years ago (and back in them this season)..

....and yes..worst team in the league over a 4 year stretch (precisely where they were supposed to be after having over a decade of having a competitive team)

no we haven’t made the playoffs we were on pace to miss them again based on our play once markstrom Went down

 

[Horse McHindu]

Man now i know why i took an extended break from this place. Same story around here.

Since 2017 what are all these moves that make Benning look like he's a crackhead? Seriously MS go spend some time with your family. What a derogatory analogy. Are you part of Trumps media campaign or something? .....jeesus

This team is on the cusp of some special years. Every fukin GM in the history of the sport that inherited a shitty team got some high picks not as many as you think made them part of something really good.

This team assembled by Benning is lookin good and at the stage where he makes it a contender or he gets fired. If he handcuffs the situation with bad contracts and cant make moves to improve or cant draft well enough to keep a flow of cheap organizational talent flowing into the system....he will be fired.

Why is it so important to say i told you so when at this point he's defying what you all thought he was capable of in 2015? So far the "idiot" is making your predictions look like overreactions. Every GM makes bad moves and every GM has to have some luck regarding the moves you didn't make. It's astonishing that after the year we just watched with Hughes and JT Millers impact and the redemption/growth of Virtanen Pearson Markstrom and others that people would be so pissed off.

Linden and Brackett did whats best for them and in some ways it's best for the Canucks too. No one should be given autonomy in a situation that doesn't effect them the most. I get why Judd would want a better situation and someone he could work under that didn't have such strong convictions and opinions in his area of expertise. Must have been extremely frustrating in that regard to say nothing of all the picks that were traded away.

The heirarchy of Aquilini Benning and Weisbrod is frightening to me. They either seem really slimy or in Bennings case someone who doesn't have the competitiveness and attention to detail to make the key moves at the key times. i keep getting the feeling that they are going to make that devastating decision that blows up what has been assembled but even Gillis Burke and Quinn used to give me these feelings because i care and want to see a cup so badly. Probably less though because of all the small moves that have left me scratching my head so i will concede this

At the end of the day Francesco wants a cup and is privy to what is really going on. It's naive to think he is sitting by letting Benning and Weisbrod wreck his prized possession. Of course this narrative always gets the Aquilini is dumb or an idiot reaction but i'm not buying it. This is not quantum physics that he can't understand? You can bet your asses FA has had an influence on what is going on as well as he would fully understand the trades contracts player aquisitions and draft picks and who pushed for what within the organization. After all if you had to hand 36 million of your empire to Loui Eriksson do you think you wouldn't care watching from your box every game?

As the teams expectations rise so does the pressure to make key moves and avoid failure. The margin for error for JB is extremely small now. If he fails he will be gone soon.

 

[Fatass]

Crazy. Beyond crazy. I know it was too shocking to be believable initially, but here we are.

Before this information came out, I too was uninterested in the "who drafted who" argument. Check my post history. I have always maintained that Benning owns all picks. There wasn't enough information to say otherwise. Now? The distinction has been made, so ascribing those picks to Benning is untenable.

This doesn't mean as much for what has happened, it's done, it's over, but it means a lot for projecting what is about to happen. Benning is now the franchise's lead scout... With everything that entails.

And just how many hours is Benning going to be able to actually get “eyes on” potential draft picks? It’s terribly arrogant (hubris actually) for a GM to believe he can be the director of scouting while doing his GM duties.

 

[rypper]

And just how many hours is Benning going to be able to actually get “eyes on” potential draft picks? It’s terribly arrogant (hubris actually) for a GM to believe he can be the director of scouting while doing his GM duties.

We're gonna start drafting by whoever has the best WJC.

 

[Bleach Clean]

Isn't all this a good thing?

Linden is a better speaker more presentable popular etc....but he literally came back to hockey with zero training education and experience to be in charge of a extremely complex multi dimensional business. He may have been better 7-10yrs down the road but without Benning he would have been more confused and clueless then he already was.

Him having his feelings hurt after he decided he was getting bulldozed and no one was listening to him because (lets face it) he mostly was clueless is a good thing. Benning didn't fire him Trevor just didn't have the owners ear over Benning and he couldn't and didn't want to accept that. That's on him not JB.

I think what happened was good for both sides. Trevor got his life/image back and lost the stress and Aquilini and Benning have been able to streamline the decision making processes without another big ego in the room having his feelings hurt

Losing Brackett may prove to be a big loss but that's assuming he made that much of a difference to the outcomes of the scouts work and end selections? And will his impact be noticeable vs the next head scout?

Is it a good thing Linden is out of the organization? Yes, in absolute terms. And no, in relative terms. It's not good if Benning is still there left unchecked.

What has Benning's experience meant? What is the net benefit to what he knows? Linden decided against his knowledge for this team's most important pick. Linden was against his supplemental signings of Gagner, Roussel, Beagle etc... What have we heard about in terms of Benning making a good decision only to have it be railroaded by Linden? Anything?

You know, the recent chain of command comment by Benning had me laughing. If there is a message that is logical, and it requires the strength of a united management team to deliver it to a meddlesome owner, having your direct lieutenant subvert you when delivering that message is the height of breaking that chain of command. Benning is a complete hypocrite for saying this.

You're right though, the process is now streamlined regardless. It just cost them their head scout to do it. I'm sure Benning's ego didn't factor in there at all...

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

My tl:dr of this whole thing is that people are so deeply entrenched in defending Benning that they will invent elaborate conspiracy theories and unsubstantiated narratives to try and explain away the obvious rather than just looking at the evidence and assuming the most obvious conclusion is probably correct.

 

[Bleach Clean]

Man now i know why i took an extended break from this place. Same story around here.

Since 2017 what are all these moves that make Benning look like he's a crackhead? Seriously MS go spend some time with your family. What a derogatory analogy. Are you part of Trumps media campaign or something? .....jeesus

This team is on the cusp of some special years. Every fukin GM in the history of the sport that inherited a shitty team got some high picks not as many as you think made them part of something really good.

This team assembled by Benning is lookin good and at the stage where he makes it a contender or he gets fired. If he handcuffs the situation with bad contracts and cant make moves to improve or cant draft well enough to keep a flow of cheap organizational talent flowing into the system....he will be fired.

Why is it so important to say i told you so when at this point he's defying what you all thought he was capable of in 2015? So far the "idiot" is making your predictions look like overreactions. Every GM makes bad moves and every GM has to have some luck regarding the moves you didn't make. It's astonishing that after the year we just watched with Hughes and JT Millers impact and the redemption/growth of Virtanen Pearson Markstrom and others that people would be so pissed off.

Linden and Brackett did whats best for them and in some ways it's best for the Canucks too. No one should be given autonomy in a situation that doesn't effect them the most. I get why Judd would want a better situation and someone he could work under that didn't have such strong convictions and opinions in his area of expertise. Must have been extremely frustrating in that regard to say nothing of all the picks that were traded away.

The heirarchy of Aquilini Benning and Weisbrod is frightening to me. They either seem really slimy or in Bennings case someone who doesn't have the competitiveness and attention to detail to make the key moves at the key times. i keep getting the feeling that they are going to make that devastating decision that blows up what has been assembled but even Gillis Burke and Quinn used to give me these feelings because i care and want to see a cup so badly. Probably less though because of all the small moves that have left me scratching my head so i will concede this

At the end of the day Francesco wants a cup and is privy to what is really going on. It's naive to think he is sitting by letting Benning and Weisbrod wreck his prized possession. Of course this narrative always gets the Aquilini is dumb or an idiot reaction but i'm not buying it. This is not quantum physics that he can't understand? You can bet your asses FA has had an influence on what is going on as well as he would fully understand the trades contracts player aquisitions and draft picks and who pushed for what within the organization. After all if you had to hand 36 million of your empire to Loui Eriksson do you think you wouldn't care watching from your box every game?

As the teams expectations rise so does the pressure to make key moves and avoid failure. The margin for error for JB is extremely small now. If he fails he will be gone soon.

How did Benning defy what people thought he was capable of? The reactions to his work have been spot on. This team should be better than it is right now, and his actual impact is now known to be minimal. He didn't draft the best players, Brackett did. When taking that into account, Benning has actually held things back by being so poor at everything else.

Further, if Aquilini can watch Gillis operate for 6 years and not understand what is good management, or the impact of poor scouting upon good management, then he can't be trusted as a rational evaluator of competence. He doesn't need to be dumb, a trust fund baby, a meddler or whatever else for us to understand this. Aquilini is not the barometer to go by, period.

Sting, there's no reason for you to be frightened of Aquilini-Benning-Weisbrod. If you think the criticisms levied against this regime and ownership have been unjustified thus far, you should be confident in what this triumvirate will do. Let's see what happens.

 

[NoRaise4Brackett]

The GM is in charge of building a winning team. The scouts are there to gather info and give opinions. It's the GM's decision to listen to his scouts or not. Not much different than these boards really, we all read each others opinions, we all use mostly the same info, then we have our own "guy" that we want to draft. With the Pettersson pick, there were some here that were vocal in Petey's favour, yet many still preferred Vilardi or Glass or whoever. If you wouldn't have drafted Pettersson, it doesn't make you an idiot, nor does that (alone) make Benning an idiot. I actually bet he was like many here: not against the Pettersson pick, it just wasn't his first choice. Should he have listened to his scouts on this one? yep. But I believe it's important for the GM to have the power to make the choice. I'm not saying Benning is the right man for the job, I'm just sharing my issue with the power struggle.

Back to building a winner, the GM has the "vision" of how to go about that. Maybe they think size down the middle is key. Maybe they prefer mobile skilled dmen over big 2-way guys. Maybe they want a whole team of blue-collar hard workers, with no skilled perimeter types. Maybe they value character above all else. And so on. Now how many times do you hear that "you build through the draft"? Well I think the GM should be able to build THEIR team. If players are in the same draft range, and one player does or doesn't fit the GM's winning vision, then they should have the power to make that choice, even if some or most of his scouts prefer another. The team with the best individuals doesn't win, the best team does. And it's the GM's job to build that team.

Now with the Pettersson pick, word is that most (not necessarily all) of the scouts were really pushing for him. That should have probably made Benning heed their advice, but reading these boards, you'd get the impression that Benning went rogue, it was him against the world. But in reality, it was likely that he had Weisbrod and a few of the scouts backing him up as well. Now in this instance, it would have resulted in probably drafting Glass, but I still believe the final word should rest with the GM. Once again, I'm not saying Benning is the right guy for the job.

 

[VanillaCoke]

Made the playoffs 5 years ago (and back in them this season)..

....and yes..worst team in the league over a 4 year stretch (precisely where they were supposed to be after having over a decade of having a competitive team)

This is delusional, and theyre 50/50 at best to make the playoffs this year.

 

[MS]

Man now i know why i took an extended break from this place. Same story around here.

Since 2017 what are all these moves that make Benning look like he's a crackhead? Seriously MS go spend some time with your family. What a derogatory analogy. Are you part of Trumps media campaign or something? .....jeesus

This team is on the cusp of some special years. Every fukin GM in the history of the sport that inherited a shitty team got some high picks not as many as you think made them part of something really good.

This team assembled by Benning is lookin good and at the stage where he makes it a contender or he gets fired. If he handcuffs the situation with bad contracts and cant make moves to improve or cant draft well enough to keep a flow of cheap organizational talent flowing into the system....he will be fired.

Why is it so important to say i told you so when at this point he's defying what you all thought he was capable of in 2015? So far the "idiot" is making your predictions look like overreactions. Every GM makes bad moves and every GM has to have some luck regarding the moves you didn't make. It's astonishing that after the year we just watched with Hughes and JT Millers impact and the redemption/growth of Virtanen Pearson Markstrom and others that people would be so pissed off.

Oh, spare me the moral outrage. It's a construct to illustrate the point. Replace 'crackhead' with my cute Mittens the Cat analogy if that makes you feel better.

I've said repeatedly, all along, that eventually there would be a season where the team harvested enough talent from sucking and some things would go right and they'd make the playoffs. And that it means nothing, just like how the 2017 Oilers 'assembled by Tambellini and Chiarelli' making the playoffs wasn't a reflection of good management or the 2002-2004 Islanders teams assembled by Mike Milbury weren't a reflection of good management.

We should be at a point in our development as a team where he have tons of cap space and an ability to try and bring in more talent to push us over the top. Instead, we're in a position where the desire to win the Fake Stanley Cup of Playoff 2020 and the resulting mismanagement has left us in cap hell with a horde of brutal long-term contracts, no cap space, and the very real possibility that - instead of augmenting our talent - our superstar #1 goalie and top defensive defender could walk because we have no money for them.

If Jim Benning stays in charge, I fully expect our next 5 years to look something like the last 5 years from the Florida Panthers. 4 or 5 really nice pieces on a badly run team that maybe makes the playoffs but will never be a contender for anything until a real GM is hired.

 

[MS]

Made the playoffs 5 years ago (and back in them this season)..

....and yes..worst team in the league over a 4 year stretch (precisely where they were supposed to be after having over a decade of having a competitive team)

a) they aren't back in them this season, yet. The league has made it explicit that the play-in games are not playoff games. If the league always had 24-team playoffs, the three teams you listed would be making the playoffs a bunch through those stretches, too.

b) they were absolutely crashing and burning out of the playoffs with a 6-11 record in their last 17 games and 1 regulation win in their last 7 games before they were saved by a pandemic.

c) Per the bolded, if that's the case then the GM of that team who was continually trying to 'win now', chase high-priced free agents on terrible contracts, and repeatedly tried to trade #1 picks for established stars would be a complete idiot, right? That sort of botched planning and execution would be grounds for being fired, don't you think?

 

[MS]

View attachment 348643

Yeah, so my theory on this whole thing involves …. believing that a large group of people with no incentive to lie who are all saying the same thing are telling the truth, and that the media comments of Trevor Linden are taken at face value, and that this was a relatively simple case of a boss choosing the viewpoint of one of his employees over the other. There is nothing crazy or weird about anything there.

Your version of events involves a massive conspiracy where a multitude of people have lied for no apparent reason to frame Jim Benning (as if there wasn't enough actual ammo to use) and where you need to try and find a .0001% 'maybe if you ignore this and this and think about this this way' out where Linden wasn't meaning what he quite obviously meant.

Occam's Razor, a little.

 

[vanuck]

The GM is in charge of building a winning team. The scouts are there to gather info and give opinions. It's the GM's decision to listen to his scouts or not. Not much different than these boards really, we all read each others opinions, we all use mostly the same info, then we have our own "guy" that we want to draft. With the Pettersson pick, there were some here that were vocal in Petey's favour, yet many still preferred Vilardi or Glass or whoever. If you wouldn't have drafted Pettersson, it doesn't make you an idiot, nor does that (alone) make Benning an idiot. I actually bet he was like many here: not against the Pettersson pick, it just wasn't his first choice. Should he have listened to his scouts on this one? yep. But I believe it's important for the GM to have the power to make the choice. I'm not saying Benning is the right man for the job, I'm just sharing my issue with the power struggle.

Back to building a winner, the GM has the "vision" of how to go about that. Maybe they think size down the middle is key. Maybe they prefer mobile skilled dmen over big 2-way guys. Maybe they want a whole team of blue-collar hard workers, with no skilled perimeter types. Maybe they value character above all else. And so on. Now how many times do you hear that "you build through the draft"? Well I think the GM should be able to build THEIR team. If players are in the same draft range, and one player does or doesn't fit the GM's winning vision, then they should have the power to make that choice, even if some or most of his scouts prefer another. The team with the best individuals doesn't win, the best team does. And it's the GM's job to build that team.

Now with the Pettersson pick, word is that most (not necessarily all) of the scouts were really pushing for him. That should have probably made Benning heed their advice, but reading these boards, you'd get the impression that Benning went rogue, it was him against the world. But in reality, it was likely that he had Weisbrod and a few of the scouts backing him up as well. Now in this instance, it would have resulted in probably drafting Glass, but I still believe the final word should rest with the GM. Once again, I'm not saying Benning is the right guy for the job.

It's been confirmed that he really liked EP too but, as you said, at 5th OA he just wasn't his first choice.

As to drafting according to the GM's vision, this is an interesting concept because in theory, the way the scouts scout and build the master list should already incorporate the GM's vision and traits he wants in his players. Gillis for instance valued two-way play and intelligence (especially when drafting centres), but was hesitant to take Russian players. Benning likes forwards who are good skaters and have good shots, and didn't have his predecessor's qualms about Russians.

You're right that GM's should ultimately have the final say in deciding things (after all, they're hired to run the team) but ideally that should go hand in hand with the understanding that they're not always going to know more than their subordinates on everything. Which is... okay considering the nature of being a manager. You have to trust the people you delegate responsibility to, or you might as well do everything yourself.

This goes back to what Linden was referring to when he mentioned that GM's sometimes watch a prospect enough times to make them "dangerous" - they've seen them a few times (usually at major events like the WJC's) and now think they've got an equal or better handle on them than the scouts whose job it is to see these guys dozens of times. So it's not overly surprising when you hear about other GM's (even ones who come from scouting backgrounds like Kekalainen) usually placing their trust in their staff, thus leaving the drafting up to the director of amateur scouting.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

 

[Horse McHindu]

I would rather see the Canucks lose and be proven right about how I feel about this management group, as opposed to seeing the Canucks win and be proven wrong about this management group.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

I would rather see the Canucks lose and be proven right about how I feel about this management group, as opposed to seeing the Canucks win and be proven wrong about this management group.

Yeah, just sit there bashing away at that straw man. Not like you can do much else.

 

[ProstheticConscience]

Oilers..1 playoff appearance in 13 years
Sabres..8 years no playoffs and counting
Panthers..2 playoff appearances in 18 years

losing cultures...

Or just maybe that's what happens when teams are run by idiots.

And I have yet to hear any explanation for why such a losing culture is not and has not developed here by virtue of the team, you know, losing so much for the last half decade.

He missed the playoffs in his first 6 years on the job..then made the playoffs for 3 consecutive years...

it must also be noted that he had to put together a team under a ridiculous austere budget from the owners ..Hence,a lot of the head scratching moves..

And it's also been noted that if you made a list of worst NHL GMs ever, Milbury is the default #1. Look at the Islanders' drafting history under him. Didn't matter in the end because the fish rots from the head down. No amount of great drafting can overcome incompetence. As we've been finding out here.

View attachment 348643

Source? Where's your source for that? I missed it the first ten times. Go find it again so I can continue to ignore it.

And just how many hours is Benning going to be able to actually get “eyes on” potential draft picks? It’s terribly arrogant (hubris actually) for a GM to believe he can be the director of scouting while doing his GM duties.

He's going to be doing the GM job like he's always done it. He'll leave most of the work to Weisbrod, who won't actually do very much of anything. That's how. The brain drain continues.

 

[Bleach Clean]

Paterson: Future of Canucks, success or failure, falls 100% on Benning, Weisbrod now

Good summation by JPat.

 

[Jyrki21]

I don't really think there is that much of a "wait and see" aspect now with Benning and Weisbrod in full control. These are not unknown quantities. The reasons held by those of us who have no faith in them, i.e. past conduct and statements, don't suddenly get swept under the rug now. Given the choice I would absolutely have them leave now rather than "waiting and seeing".

On a separate note, we all know that Weisbrod is basically now the Director of Amateur Scouting, whether or not in name, but how ****ing hilarious would it be if the guy they choose to hold the title nominally is Brandon Benning. Oh how I would enjoy iMac squirming to explain how he's actually "quite underrated and quietly very effective", or how certain posters here would invent new theories about how he has been the brains behind the operation the entire time.