The Canucks are falling apart

[jd22]

DiPietro played four games. (Not saying he shouldn’t have played more or whatever but he didn’t play two.)

You're right, my apologies. I'm not sure where I got two from, rather than four. I will update my original post to reflect this - thanks!

 

[4Twenty]

Benning has clearly mismanaged your cap and saddled the team with some bad contracts. His chummy relationship with the dumb rich kid in charge sounds a little like how Dolan is with his favorites on the both teams (Sather, Isaiah Thomas with the Knicks) and that sort relationship gave them both comically long leashes. Hell, Sather is still there as an advisor and if Dolan is taking a new found interest in the team he’s most likely talking to Sather. Befriending a dumb owner is smart move in terms of survival for a GM. Fans should bitch, particularly if the owner is also doing this in part because he’s waiting out the last years of Benning’s contract.

That said, the tone of the OP and some Canucks posters is both over the top melodramatic and kind of pathetically whiny though. Cartoonishly so at times. The Canucks went to Game 7 in second round in Playoffs in the bubble playoffs with exciting young stars, you did get that experience. Part of Vancouver’s struggles this season were simply from Holtby being not very good and Demko’s terrible February, this season was uniquely brutal for any team who’s goaltending faltered because of the compact schedule.

It’s a little nonsensical to argue that no fanbase is suffering more and that Buffalo, of all teams, is merely suffering equally and Ottawa has to hold their beer, etc. The Pacific division is also a clown show outside of Vegas so the team is lucky there too for next season. I don’t care that much about what is in the end just tone policing but there’s a reason people keep saying some of these takes are way over the top.

When the oilers made the 2nd round in McDavid’s second year bad management led to it not being able to follow it up.

Making the 2nd round doesn’t matter. It also happened after the pandemic saved their season.

Look at their metrics last year vs this year. They’re the same. Bad.

Blaming goaltending is silly.


The Canucks cap situation heading into the current GM’s 8th season with another bottom 10 season is pathetically bad.

Mediocre looking short term for sure.

 

[arttk]

Benning has clearly mismanaged your cap and saddled the team with some bad contracts. His chummy relationship with the dumb rich kid in charge sounds a little like how Dolan is with his favorites on the both teams (Sather, Isaiah Thomas with the Knicks) and that sort relationship gave them both comically long leashes. Hell, Sather is still there as an advisor and if Dolan is taking a new found interest in the team he’s most likely talking to Sather. Befriending a dumb owner is smart move in terms of survival for a GM. Fans should bitch, particularly if the owner is also doing this in part because he’s waiting out the last years of Benning’s contract.

That said, the tone of the OP and some Canucks posters is both over the top melodramatic and kind of pathetically whiny though. Cartoonishly so at times. The Canucks went to Game 7 in second round in Playoffs in the bubble playoffs with exciting young stars, you did get that experience. Part of Vancouver’s struggles this season were simply from Holtby being not very good and Demko’s terrible February, this season was uniquely brutal for any team who’s goaltending faltered because of the compact schedule.

It’s a little nonsensical to argue that no fanbase is suffering more and that Buffalo, of all teams, is merely suffering equally and Ottawa has to hold their beer, etc. The Pacific division is also a clown show outside of Vegas so the team is lucky there too for next season. I don’t care that much about what is in the end just tone policing but there’s a reason people keep saying some of these takes are way over the top.

Woah the first thing I should say is that we are not as bad as Buffalo yet, I feel bad for those fans.
Yeah we experienced the playoffs but it wasn’t because we were actually good, we just got lucky because of covid and we went in because of a play-In series and ended up playing against a Blues team that played like they didn’t want to be there. Oh it only cost us a 1st, 2nd, 3rd round pick and a top prospect to experience that playoffs. This season did not came as a surprise, we knew having 20M worth of crap at the bottom was going to come back and haunt us and nobody is really surprised that Benning made another bad decision to get Holtby and re-sign Virtanen over Toffoli and a cheap backup. The team is capped out, our cap number is like 86M this season believe it or not and look at how bad the team is. We have like 1 prospect that will come in next year and all the rest are like pretty long shots.

 

[bossram]

Yes..they clawed back to almost .500 before the covid break with a really good March..they could have made things interesting at the end with the way the Habs and Calgary played...They were cooked after Covid.

I'm not suggesting that they were a worthy playoff team either, after their first 3 weeks of the season that essentially put them out of it.

No one is really criticizing their post-COVID performance. That's not what the issues with management are about.

If the best the Canucks can aspire to be is "maybe crack .500 if Demko goes on a scorching run", then I don't think you have a good hockey team.

 

[Guttersniped]

When the oilers made the 2nd round in McDavid’s second year bad management led to it not being able to follow it up.

Making the 2nd round doesn’t matter. It also happened after the pandemic saved their season.

Look at their metrics last year vs this year. They’re the same. Bad.

Blaming goaltending is silly.


The Canucks cap situation heading into the current GM’s 8th season with another bottom 10 season is pathetically bad.

Mediocre looking short term for sure.

I wasn’t defending Benning. I did say fans should bitch because the goal should be to pressure ownership to put better management in place. There’s no point in trying to be scrupulously fair to Benning, drag him to hell and back, because the point is literally to get him fired. The Canucks are mediocre now though (at least in terms of the Pacific Division), not god awful with weird operatically tragic overtones, which is what the Buffalo Sabres have been and are now. So you don’t get to compare yourself to Buffalo Sabres fans right now. And your owner hasn’t reached Eugene Melnyk public embarrassment levels. And your franchise doesn’t have the disfunction that Arizona Coyotes have. And so on.

The situation reminds more of the Rangers than Buffalo or Ottawa, especially Benning being the owner’s special hockey pal. It makes it harder to dislodge that relationship as the rich dude stubbornly holds on, presumably convinced that his hockey pal will win.

Yeah, I’ll admit this is tone policing which is always a bit dumb. (“You can be unhappy and upset but not THAT MUCH unhappy and upset.”) And eight years is an eternity in terms of a crappy GM’s shelf life.

 

[4Twenty]

I wasn’t defending Benning. I did say fans should bitch because the goal should be to pressure ownership to put better management in place. There’s no point in trying to be scrupulously fair to Benning, drag him to hell and back, because the point is literally to get him fired. The Canucks are mediocre now though (at least in terms of the Pacific Division), not god awful with weird operatically tragic overtones, which is what the Buffalo Sabres have been and are now. So you don’t get to compare yourself to Buffalo Sabres fans right now. And your owner hasn’t reached Eugene Melnyk public embarrassment levels. And your franchise doesn’t have the disfunction that Arizona Coyotes have. And so on.

The situation reminds more of the Rangers than Buffalo or Ottawa, especially Benning being the owner’s special hockey pal. It makes it harder to dislodge that relationship as the rich dude stubbornly holds on, presumably convinced that his hockey pal will win.

Yeah, I’ll admit this is tone policing which is always a bit dumb. (“You can be unhappy and upset but not THAT MUCH unhappy and upset.”) And eight years is an eternity in terms of a crappy GM’s shelf life.

It actually doesn't. I think you should probably gather more facts before entering discussions with people who are immersed in the facts surrounding the Canucks.

The Canucks were capped out this year, the Rangers had $10m in space while rebuilding and had multiple buyouts eating their cap space, and they finished way ahead of the Canucks.

The team doesn't score enough, gives up alot, the shots and attempts all come from the house area.

Why haven't the Oilers added at the deadline the past few years to give Connor and Leon a push? Because they were capped out and needed to fix previous management mistakes. The Canucks are in a similar position, but have Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson (love these dudes) but they're not Connor Mcdavid and Leon Draisatl and we've seen that the Oilers still aren't very good with those guys.

The Canucks suck and their 3 most important players were under $1m caphit this season.....the job gets much harder.

I don't think you really understand the severity of the situation in Vancouver, and I think folks from a far just see the 4 or 5 young pieces they have and just assume it's automatically good.....they did the same thing with Eichel, Reinhart, Dahlin etc.....Vancouver is a mess. Making the playoffs and winning a round is not the bar.....being a championship team is. With this front office, that's never happening.

 

[4Twenty]

No one is really criticizing their post-COVID performance. That's not what the issues with management are about.

If the best the Canucks can aspire to be is "maybe crack .500 if Demko goes on a scorching run", then I don't think you have a good hockey team.

0.472 pre-covid

Lemme guess someones pointing out the hotstreak where the goalie put up .960 ......that's not sustainable. The Canucks are what there record is. They are what their 5 on 5 metrics say they are.....terrible.

 

[TheHelmet]

Some obscure stat? Let's take the same stat you gave and change the window to LITERALLY any other length of time. The definition of cherry-picking is choosing the one point on the chart that suited your argument best. Look again at 7 years, 4 years, 3 years, 2 years. Literally any gap but the one you picked. How's this for cherry-picking: the 2 years Quinn Hughes has been in the league, there are 8 teams between Canucks and Sabres. Is that "obscure" enough for you?

Let's keep in mind, the one gap you actually DID pick still couldn't put the two teams side by side

Show me one stat, any stat at all, that supports what you said

I did show you one stat
Benning has been in charge during those entire 6 years

This is a pretty basic concept that apparently you are unable to fully grasp for some reason.
Benning in charge equates to Vancouver being bad

Buffalo and Vancouver and Ottawa have the right to be compared.

 

[Guttersniped]

It actually doesn't. I think you should probably gather more facts before entering discussions with people who are immersed in the facts surrounding the Canucks.

The Canucks were capped out this year, the Rangers had $10m in space while rebuilding and had multiple buyouts eating their cap space, and they finished way ahead of the Canucks.

The team doesn't score enough, gives up alot, the shots and attempts all come from the house area.

Why haven't the Oilers added at the deadline the past few years to give Connor and Leon a push? Because they were capped out and needed to fix previous management mistakes. The Canucks are in a similar position, but have Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson (love these dudes) but they're not Connor Mcdavid and Leon Draisatl and we've seen that the Oilers still aren't very good with those guys.

The Canucks suck and their 3 most important players were under $1m caphit this season.....the job gets much harder.

I don't think you really understand the severity of the situation in Vancouver, and I think folks from a far just see the 4 or 5 young pieces they have and just assume it's automatically good.....they did the same thing with Eichel, Reinhart, Dahlin etc.....Vancouver is a mess. Making the playoffs and winning a round is not the bar.....being a championship team is. With this front office, that's never happening.

I meant the Glenn Sather-era Rangers back in the day, that was the last time Dolan took more of an personal interest in the team and was pals with the GM. The dynamic in Vancouver seems very similar.

I’m not against the Benning bashing and his contracts have put the team in a bind in terms of improvement. And I get being unhappy about making TDL deals when the team is not particularly good.

It’s simple, GMs go away when owners simply want to fire them, which is it pretty easy unless it’s such a bad idea that even they can’t do something that dumb, or they feel like they have to, and unfortunately it’s hard to force their hand if they are being willful rich idiots due to emotional attachments. So fans should boo Benning.

But having exciting young stars who don’t have herniated disks with one foot out the door and going far in the playoffs is better than being kicked in the teeth.

Again, I admitted in the end it’s really meaningless tone policing, I just didn’t see Vancouver Canucks fans as the unluckiest one ever, nor is the franchise a “becoming a Sabres level catastrophe... in potentially a worse state than the Sabres” (as claimed by the OP). You may disagree.

Most of the terrible contracts will end soon enough, but the team needs a new GM to clean up the mess. If was a fan I would be gutted if Benning managed to survive this long like a cockroach. I’m not saying you’re wrong about the specifics of the state your team.

 

[4Twenty]

I meant the Glenn Sather-era Rangers back in the day, that was the last time Dolan took more of an personal interest in the team and was pals with the GM. The dynamic in Vancouver seems very similar.

I’m not against the Benning bashing and his contracts have put the team in a bind in terms of improvement. And I get being unhappy about making TDL deals when the team is not particularly good.

It’s simple, GMs go away when owners simply want to fire them, which is it pretty easy unless it’s such a bad idea that even they can’t do something that dumb, or they feel like they have to, and unfortunately it’s hard to force their hand if they are being willful rich idiots due to emotional attachments. So fans should boo Benning.

But having exciting young stars who don’t have herniated disks with one foot out the door and going far in the playoffs is better than being kicked in the teeth.

Again, I admitted in the end it’s really meaningless tone policing, I just didn’t see Vancouver Canucks fans as the unluckiest one ever, nor is the franchise a “becoming a Sabres level catastrophe... in potentially a worse state than the Sabres” (as claimed by the OP). You may disagree.

Most of the terrible contracts will end soon enough, but the team needs a new GM to clean up the mess. If was a fan I would be gutted if Benning managed to survive this long like a cockroach. I’m not saying you’re wrong about the specifics of the state your team.

Oh I was just getting my thoughts out. I’m not specifically coming at you. Just that I feel the job to get from where the team is to consistently contending is miles. Making a run or getting in the playoffs via a weak division isn’t going to change that they’re being held back.

 

[AdvancedPressure]

Let's be honest; even last year, in the bubble, the team relied on unsustainable goaltending and took advantage of disinterested opponents who looked like they didn't really want to be there in the first place (St. Louis). This team clearly isn't close to being a contender. Benning needs to go. There is no way he should still have his job. The losing seasons should be reason enough to can the guy, but then you add on the stuff like not even bothering to reach out to heart and soul guys like Tanev and Stecher in FA last fall, the abhorrent cap management, and the reports of growing player dissatisfaction, and you'd think it would be a no-brainer.

 

[Pyrophorus]

Is it coming down to money?

I said, they should just have a clean break from everyone
I'm reading here, that FA doesn't want to pay for another GM
Its been mentioned on Vancouver radio, they want to cut costs on coaching as well.
Now there is rumoured player discord-not to mention Virtanen

 

[CokenoPepsi]

I don't get not firing Benning now, I guess he has a contract extension so they want some work from it but they'll just have to fire him early next season if they struggle

 

[Seattle Totems]

Canuck fans need to start boycotting the team until they fire Benning and Weisbrod and tweet Aquilini;

I am boycotting the Canucks until you fire Benning and Weisbrod

#boycottcanucks

 

[M2Beezy]

$6 million Eriksson - taxi club
$6 million Myers -#4/5 Dman
$4.375 mill Sutter - #12/13 forward
$4.3 million Holtby - poor quality backup
$3.5 million Ferland - LTIR
$3 million Beagle - #13/14 forward
$3 million Roussell - just too brutal
$2.5 million Virtanen - lol
$2.5 million Baertchi - AHL
$1 million Spooner - buy out

Yeah, keep Benning, its only been 7 years, rebuilds typically take a quarter century anyways

 

[LuckyBoeser]

A rebuild should not last an entire generation.

Exactly, and if it does it's likely due to poor management.

 

[Jmo89]

Wasn't Linden doing a good job when things went south with him? Found that odd.

Bad ownership is a scary thing when it rears its ugly head.

 

[Sergei Shirokov]

You don’t think it’s easy?

which media members?

The heat in Vancouver vs a Toronto or Montreal is night and day.

PJ, Sekeres, Price, Lalji, PITB, Burke, Drance, Jpat...

Maybe 'open agenda' is too strong for some of these guys, but none of them are supporting this management group.

Why don't you tell me which media members support Benning and co. ?

The heat in Vancouverhas been high lately. They flew a plane over the city, Canucks twitter is a continual gong-show, and the fans literally forced ownership to re-consider their plan - they weren't at all considering deviating from whats in place earlier this year...

MTL is perhaps harder, but idk about Toronto.

 

[4Twenty]

PJ, Sekeres, Price, Lalji, PITB, Burke, Drance, Jpat...

Maybe 'open agenda' is too strong for some of these guys, but none of them are supporting this management group.

Why don't you tell me which media members support Benning and co. ?

The heat in Vancouverhas been high lately. They flew a plane over the city, Canucks twitter is a continual gong-show, and the fans literally forced ownership to re-consider their plan - they weren't at all considering deviating from whats in place earlier this year...

MTL is perhaps harder, but idk about Toronto.

The low bar is pathetic. The folks who have expectations of competency are haters. Lol.

The ride has been easy. The teams been shit for 7 years and his job is iron clad. The questions butter soft. The expectations knee high to a grasshopper.

 

[Snipes45]

As an Oilers fan who got sh** on left and right by Canuck fans during 2011, etc, this brings a smile to my face that I cannot take off.

 

[Snipes45]

The Canucks probably the worst-managed organization in professional sports at the moment. I can't think of an organization that's worse.

For this franchise to thrive again, the owners must go.

An owner doesn't have to go, He/she/them just have to do what good owners do and not micro manage. Trust their own process and let the men they hire do their jobs.

The best owners are the ones that can quickly see if something is going wrong and rectify it/replace people and sit back again.

 

[ASAP Surg]

An owner doesn't have to go, He/she/them just have to do what good owners do and not micro manage. Trust their own process and let the men they hire do their jobs.

The best owners are the ones that can quickly see if something is going wrong and rectify it/replace people and sit back again.

This owner is not going to move in that direction anytime soon lol

 

[Windy River]

Had they managed to pick up the phone and sign Toffoli I dont think we’d be having the discussion as the team settles into the 1st round.

The problem with the team is they didn’t sign Toffoli- sh*t happens. The problem with management is they didn't pick up the phone. That’s inexcusable, and illustrates a level of incompetence percolating throughout.

 

[Mickey Marner]

Rumoured to be bringing back Green now? Doubling down on Benning-Green is a bold move, Cotton.

 

[Honkybonk]

I cut Benning a bit of slack for the Toffoli debacle (the fact he didnt even talk with him is some grad A BS though) i mean when the deal was made for Toffoli the management had no idea that a pandemic was going to happen and cause a completely flat salary cap.

and if it came down to signing Toffoli or aquiring Schmidt i think the canucks made the right decision. we needed more help on defense than we did on the wing.

(still not defending Benning he needs to go, but the narrative around Toffoli is more complicated than people are making it seem)