Who's saying they aren't ready? A guy like Kenins for example is certainly ready yet he's likely to be the 13th forward. Virtanen is physically ready and is likely to either be the 14th forward or sent back to junior. Corrado is ready and is likely to be the 7th defenseman.
Corrado and Kenins were ready last year, as was Kassian (obviously). They all sat in the press box multiple times, and had fewer games played than Linden 'PP producer' Vey. Corrado I don't think looked as bad as some people said, and IMO clearly outplayed Sbisa. Also, Sanguinetti absolutely deserved a shot, but was snubbed in favor of others, though he isn't exactly young.
This management has shown they like to talk about the 'youth movement' to satisfy fans who don't know better, but it's beyond obvious that they're not making spots for the kids and they're shipping them out for 'character'.
I can't wait to see Corrado dumped like Forsling, Clendening, Kassian, and the rest of our picks that we shipped out.
Absolutely horrid management. How can a manager make the team worse, take on more salary, and get older all at the same time? I'm still shocked at the ineptitude of Lindenning. You would think you trade youth for better players now, or trade low salary guys for someone that a team can't fit under the cap. No, this team trades away our young guys on good contracts for worse players who are older on worse contracts. I can't even wrap my head around it. If Benning and Linden are canned soon, I think their reign of terror in Vancouver will be one of the worst management performances of the last decade, even worse than the Oilers.
Rough times are ahead friends, and we we might not be able to get off this train. Gillis wasn't perfect, but lets not forget he was also a relatively new GM who never even had an Assistant GM role (I don't think). He was learning the trade, and trying to surround himself with the best minds he could find. He didn't feel the need to be "the guy" like Benning has shown, he got input from those around him who he trusted and used that information to make a decision. Gilman helped him manage the cap, he demoted Delorme and promoted Crawford who has shown, in my opinion, to be a solid scout. Then Gillis listened to those guys. In my mind, a good executive doesn't just make all the decisions himself, he's just the final guy. His job is to listen to the people he hired for their expertise on the subject. Benning fired those guys because there were 'too many voices in the room'.
Gillis made mistakes, but his mistakes usually had pretty solid reasoning behind them. Yeah, Booth didn't work out, but we offloaded two nothings to get him and he looked good in his first year here before injury. How can people condemn him for this trade? 24 goals, and a 3rd round pick (Cassels) for a near retirement Samuelsson and awful Sturm. Yeah, he didn't buy out Ballard when he should have, but we don't know behind the scenes either. Did ownership block that? Maybe Gillis figured Ballard might be able to turn it around, since he had been a top 4 defender for his entire career until he arrived in Vancouver. Either way, it was excusable. Combine that with picking up Kassian for Hodgson because he knew how to increase Hodgson's value, and his usually excellent free agent signings, and we had a very competent GM. His only weak spot was drafting, which he was working on fixing, top scouts are at a premium and he can't just pick them all up. His other weak spot was clearly his people skills, but I'd rather a competent ******* than Benning whom I'm sure every GM in the league absolutely loves dealing with.
All of Gillis' mistakes can be explained reasonable, or he at least worked to fix them. Jim "Double Down" Benning does the opposite signing Vey, Sbisa and Dorsett to crazy extensions, moving Lack to keep Miller, and letting players walk for zero return while bleeding assets to pick up guys that are comparable to guys on the UFA market. The only explanation for the 5 or so Benning defenders on this board is that they've had a nervous breakdown watching these moves and are still in the 5 stages of grief, at the denial and bargaining stages. The rest of us are angry, depressed, and accepting of our fate because we live in reality. I can understand casual fans around the water cooler and on 1040 thinking these moves are good because they don't engage in intelligent (not really the right word, this is HF after all) discussion, but just hear what management tells them and buy it because Linden is their God. People who actually follow the league, understand the game, and can use statistics to supplement their knowledge should really know how awful this management group is.
This.
I see Horvat as a young player. Baertschi is young-ish, and so is Vey but they're both in their mid-20's.
People can buy into Benning's crap about integrating youth all they like. The fact of the matter is it isn't happening. It's just lip service and some are buying it hook, line, and sinker.
Yeah, we have Baertschi and Horvat in the lineup, and maybe Virtanen too. Our average age in the lineup is very slightly lower, but we also gave up Kassian and Horvat would be in the lineup anyway, not to mention he was a Gillis pick. Virtanen, while a good prospect, was 6th overall and whoever Gillis picked would be an equally good prospect. Actually, he would probably be better since Gillis reportedly liked Nylander, and I believe Gilman really liked Ehlers. Baertschi was one of the only good moves Benning made. Absolutely fleeced Calgary, IMO, because Calgary management has the same outdated thinking of Benning. How can anyone who likes the Baertschi trade for us think the Kassian trade was fine? Kassian is a better player who got a worse return than Baertschi, and were both moved because of perceived 'character' issues. ****, I would have been way happier to get a 2nd for Kassian than Brandon ****ing Prust.
