My comprehensive Benning criticism

Edge27

Registered User
Apr 19, 2019
3
12
Why do people want to see benning gone or at least....supervised? This is my take for what it’s worth.

Hindsight is 20/20. No one bats a thousand. That is certainly true and the defenders of this management will tell you that and are quick to point out the faults of previous regimes or others around the league.

On his trade record, it’s true that there have been wins: Shinkaruk for Granlund, Gudbranson for Pearson, Carcone for Leivo, Hansen for Goldobin and a 4th, Burrows for Dahlen. They are undoubtedly trades that Benning won, but how impactful have those moves been when Dahlen has since been moved while Goldobin and Granlund may be on their way out? Leivo and Pearson do appear to be reasonable middle 6 winger options going forward. Meanwhile here are the list of Benning’s trade transgressions:

2nd round pick (2014) for Linden Vey
Gustav Forsling for Adam Clendening
2nd round pick (2015) for Sven Baertschi
Nicklas Jensen, 6th round pick (2017) for Emerson Etem
5th round pick (2017) for Philip Larsen
Jared McCann, 2nd round pick (2017), 4th round pick (2017) for Erik Gudbranson, 5th round pick (2017)
4th round pick (2018) for Derrick Pouliot
7th round pick (2020) for Marek Mazanec

In all, that’s 7 picks (2 2nd’s, 2 4th’s, 1 5th, 1 6th, 1 7th), a 22 year old Center who went 19-16-35 in 78 games this year and a depth defenseman that turned into Sven Baertschi, Tanner Pearson and a 5th (Cole Candella). Adding to the list of trades that shouldn’t have been made are the trades that weren’t made. It was undeniable incompetence that led to Dan Hamhuis and Radim Vrbata not being moved in 2016 which also could’ve brought in picks or prospects.

Players that went within 30 picks of the ones traded away include Rasmus Andersson (was the pick), Alex Debrincat, Brayden Point, Brandon Montour, Carter Hart, Victor Mete, Samuel Girard, Jordan Kyrou, Ryan Donato, Christian Dvorak, Warren Foegele and Jesper Bratt. That also doesn’t take into consideration the prospects that may distinguish themselves from the 2018 draft. This only becomes harder to stomach when this management’s strength seems to be at the draft table.

As for Free Agency, this is where even the most staunch supporters will admit that they wish Jim would have his phone disconnected on July 1st. Perhaps the only meaningful success on this front is the Bo Horvat extension. Without dredging up contracts that have since expired, let’s focus on those that are signed through 2019-20:

Loui Eriksson, $6.0m x 6 years, expiry 2022-23
Brandon Sutter, $4.375m x 4 years, expiry 2020-21
Sam Gagner -> Ryan Spooner, $3.1m, expiry 2019-20
Jay Beagle, $3.0m x 4 years, expiry 2022-23
Tim Schaller, $1.9m x 2 years, expiry 2019-20
Total, $18.375m for next season

Assuming that the club extends Boeser, Edler, Hutton, Leivo, Demko, Motte, Granlund, Goldobin, and Schenn, this should eat up roughly $22-25m of the available $27.1m under the current salary cap. A $2-3m increase to the cap as anticipated and the $18.375m of dead money taken up by those contracts equates to between $22.5m to $26.5m of cap space that the Canucks could and should have had.

Looking at the depth chart that was possible without all of these mistakes, you can start to understand the frustration of most Canucks fans:

Forwards: Horvat, Pettersson, Boeser, McCann, Virtanen, Gaudette, Roussel, Leivo, Motte, Granlund, Goldobin

Defense: Edler, Tanev, Stecher, Hutton, Hughes, Forsling, Biega, Sautner, Brisebois, Juolevi, Schenn

Goalies: Markstrom, Demko

It’s not that this roster is impressive. It’s that it largely looks the same as it does now and there’s the potential that a couple of really good young players mentioned above could’ve been here and that there should be upwards of $20m that could have been committed over the last 2-3 free agent crops to bolster this group.

For all the talk about this management’s drafting, they have undeniably missed on 2 out of their 4 top 10 picks. Virtanen and Juolevi being any of Nylander, Ehlers, Tuch, Larkin, Tkachuk, Keller, or Sergachev makes the Canucks a significantly better team.
Last but not least, player development gaffes such as Nikita Tryamkin and Jonathan Dahlen along with some serious questions about the program in Utica blunt the effectiveness of the argument that this regime drafts well.

This, combined with glaring deficiencies in the trade record and free agency, paints a pretty clear picture; Jim Benning should not be permitted to continue unchecked in his role as General Manager.
 

M2Beezy

Objective and Neutral Hockey Commentator
May 25, 2014
45,287
30,123
Kinda puts it all into perspective i guess. Too many mistakes, I think its time for Benning to go. I gave him one last shot last summer but he made the same mistakes. Cant afford another season of targeting the WRONG players in trades and free agency. Im sure firing him also wouldnt effect the draft as the team running that seems to be the Bracket guy. Doesnt sound like he will be fired anyways but Im just thinking of the future and worried about another 5 or 6 years deal to more bottom six junk
 
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valkynax

The LEEDAR
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May 19, 2011
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Forget keeping his job with someone to "check his work." Benning should be fired. Simple as that. Someone that incompetent should never be allowed to manage a taco stand, let alone a professional hockey team.

I would like to talk to Benning, not about his work, but about his religion.

Someone who's never been accountable for multiple fire-able offenses must have some secret voodoo ritual or worships a deity more powerful than a thousand Cthulhus.

I don't know what that is, and I want in.
 
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Fire Benning

diaper filled piss baby
Oct 2, 2016
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Welcome to HFCanucks. Most of this is constantly discussed in other threads already but most of what you said is right.
 

Cupless44

Registered User
Jun 25, 2014
7,154
3,298
Oh so many ways that Jim Benning is not the man for this job. The examples never cease to present themselves. The latest being his "audit" of the situation in Utica. Clearly closer attention needs to be given to Utica with highly drafted prospects not developing and others wanting out. So after Benning did not visit Utica once all season to see first hand he talked about how he was going there after the season to do an audit. He spent half a day with Trent Cull, then left and declared everything fine with the farm team LOL...cited Luke Schenn as a development example LOL
 
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JuniorNelson

Registered User
Jan 21, 2010
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What Benning did with a Sedins team leads me to believe he isn't a dynamic GM. Yet, this is what the club needs right now to best deploy their young stars. A team must be assembled around them. I do not see any indication that Benning has the slightest clue about what to do. I think recent signs of sanity can be credited to Green clamoring for a fit roster. If true, Benning's influence is waning and he will fade into the background.
 
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m9

m9
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Jan 23, 2010
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If your team is not in the playoffs, the bare minimum you should do as a GM is:

- sell your excess at the deadline for picks/prospects

-draft more players with those extra draft picks

-restock those open roster spots with either said prospects that have developed or short-term free agents that can be put back into this cycle

There are about 100 mistakes Benning has made since he's been here, but not doing this simple process is the reason I personally have wanted him fired for quite some time.
 

mossey3535

Registered User
Feb 7, 2011
13,218
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The players he obtained when EP wasn't on the team were all exactly the same - middling, overpaid.

Now that we have EP, it is absolutely vital that we have a competent GM who can start building the complementary pieces while EP is somewhat cost-controlled.

If you just look at what he's acquired so far, IMO it doesn't make a case for him suddenly being able to improve the team around EP to make us a contender.
 
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YeahHeDid

Registered User
Mar 26, 2011
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Benning apologists (reddit) don't seem to understand something simple. If at first he was trying for a quick re-tool, and thus went out and got Sutter and Eriksson etc - and then the re-tool was a failure. What value are those players to the current make up with the team? Either he was strategic and brought them in for a reason and now they don't fit the new plan, or he has no strategy and he he just shrugs his shoulders and thinks "may as well keep 'em" Yes Erikson would be harder to move, but he could be moved and both he and Sutter are the wrong players for the current direction. This GM doesn't have a plan really. And it's painful to watch.
 

Edge27

Registered User
Apr 19, 2019
3
12
Way, way off base, OP.

Mazanec for a 7th was totally okay.

Haha I know you’re joking, but honestly how frustrating was that? He lets the goalie situation fester for weeks, then the scenario everyone talked about happens and instead of signing a stop gap, we spend an asset? Canucks lost an asset on a guy who never played a minute. Unreal.
 
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ProstheticConscience

Check dein Limit
Apr 30, 2010
18,459
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Haha I know you’re joking, but honestly how frustrating was that? He lets the goalie situation fester for weeks, then the scenario everyone talked about happens and instead of signing a stop gap, we spend an asset? Canucks lost an asset on a guy who never played a minute. Unreal.
Oh, I know. Symptomatic of everything that's been going on.

Welcome to the madhouse.
 

82Ninety42011

Registered User
Jul 2, 2011
7,527
5,456
Abbotsford BC
Supervised or not he's clueless either rebuild or go for it can't do both. He's not good enough to draft well in later rounds so he's literally keeping us in limbo. We should have sold everything years ago but failed to trade assets for picks. He on his own or with owners pulling the strings has kept us floating around with over priced 3rd liners. Sutter, Eriksson paying Beagle crazy money etc. He got lucky with Elias falling to him and I guess did well with Boeser. Other then that he's failed with Juolevi and Virtanen picks. Picks that high you need to hit on if your not really finding any gems in the later rounds. Our defense he has done nothing with since coming here its crazy. He so needs to go.
 

Ori

#Connor Bedard 2023 1st, Chicago Blackhawks
Nov 7, 2014
11,578
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Whatever happen this summer draft.. But Jim Benning need to move Loui Eriksson contract soon as possible, it will cost them 2nd or 3rd pick, but worth it to sign maybe 2 UFA players this summer for a playoffs push with or without Jack Hughes.
 

carolinacanuck

Registered User
Apr 5, 2007
2,549
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The Carolinas
not sure if this is the right thread, and probably not gonna be a popular opinion but...

the hiring of stevie Y back to detroit makes me wish t-linden was given more of a chance. not sure what happened and not sure what kinda say he had in player acquisitions/trades etc. but he was our teams icon and now it's all been effed up somehow. ya, he was kinda wishy washy in interviews and didn't give an answer most times but i think he was acting at the direction of team acquilini who didn't want the word rebuild out there. just my 0.02 cents.

now we're stuck with benning and weisbrod. just kinda sucks.
 

valkynax

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May 19, 2011
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not sure if this is the right thread, and probably not gonna be a popular opinion but...

the hiring of stevie Y back to detroit makes me wish t-linden was given more of a chance. not sure what happened and not sure what kinda say he had in player acquisitions/trades etc. but he was our teams icon and now it's all been effed up somehow. ya, he was kinda wishy washy in interviews and didn't give an answer most times but i think he was acting at the direction of team acquilini who didn't want the word rebuild out there. just my 0.02 cents.

now we're stuck with benning and weisbrod. just kinda sucks.

He's just a straight up liar who seems to have the compulsion to remind everyone around of how vastly superior he is to the fans.

He was hired to improve team PR, and every time he opens his mouth it just reveals what an arrogant snake he was.
 

Melvin

21/12/05
Sep 29, 2017
15,198
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Montreal, QC
not sure if this is the right thread, and probably not gonna be a popular opinion but...

the hiring of stevie Y back to detroit makes me wish t-linden was given more of a chance. not sure what happened and not sure what kinda say he had in player acquisitions/trades etc. but he was our teams icon and now it's all been effed up somehow. ya, he was kinda wishy washy in interviews and didn't give an answer most times but i think he was acting at the direction of team acquilini who didn't want the word rebuild out there. just my 0.02 cents.

now we're stuck with benning and weisbrod. just kinda sucks.

The difference between the two situations is stark. Yzerman spent a few seasons in the red wings front office learning the ropes under Holland, and took a GM position with another team after Holland signed an extension. Joe Sakic and Rob Blake also took lesser roles in their respective teams front office before moving up the ranks.

Linden was busy building houses in Kelowna with his brother and hawking contact lenses when he was randomly named President of the team. It really has been understated how absurd the whole thing was and, honestly, how unfair it was to put him in that position.

And I say that as someone who doesn't like Linden much at all.
 

Bojack Horvatman

IAMGROOT
Jun 15, 2016
4,037
7,093
Whatever happen this summer draft.. But Jim Benning need to move Loui Eriksson contract soon as possible, it will cost them 2nd or 3rd pick, but worth it to sign maybe 2 UFA players this summer for a playoffs push with or without Jack Hughes.

No team is going to take on 6m for 3 years for a 2nd or 3rd. We are mostly stuck with this contract as the bonuses make it buyout proof, it costs 5m to keep him in the minors and he has a full NTC until next year.
 
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valkynax

The LEEDAR
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No team is going to take on 6m for 3 years for a 2nd or 3rd. We are mostly stuck with this contract as the bonuses make it buyout proof, it costs 5m to keep him in the minors and he has a full NTC until next year.

I would absolutely bury his pension-collecting ass in the AHL.

Of course Benning will never have the balls to do it, this is his most prized acquisition, he's gonna keep this loser on the line up until the end of time.
 

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