I wonder why, then, does Brendan Shanahan have more of a vision despite never being in a position of team management?
I think Linden has his heart in the right place. He knows what he wants to see in a team. He obviously didn't (and still doesn't) know how to get to that goal. Meanwhile, over in Leaf Nation, Shanny brought on guys like Dubas and Hunter to essentially act like his advisors because he knew he needed to identify deficiencies in a quantifiable way and to be able to make decisions based on logic.
Instead, in Canuck Land, Linden hired a GM to try to get his vision into place. Which, if the GM were competent, he'd have put metrics in place to do the same thing Shanahan is doing. The problem is that it turns out Linden hired a scout who GMs like he's trading hockey cards.
So I say yes, Linden's to blame. But Benning moreso. I wouldn't be upset if Linden stays on as President once Benning is fired. I'd be upset, however, if Linden is the only guy responsible for hiring the next GM of the Canucks.