Fair response, I would agree that Gillis and his regime were poor drafters, however my point was on a broader scale. The canucks were so good (back to back best team in the league) that the last thing I would criticize is "leaving the cupboards bare". That is, ok they could have done a better job drafting but we wouldnt expect major pieces considering their draft position.
I get that, and honestly, the problem was Gillis' slow process in evaluating things and the way he tried to adjust the scouting/drafting. He did try, but it didn't work. It's worthy of criticism.
I don't think anyone was expecting Gillis to be netting the next Crosby or McDavid or whatever (although that certainly would've been nice!), but the fact that the only real 'wins' he had were Hodgson, Horvat and maybe Hutton/Connauton if you wanted to be generous, it does paint a bleak picture.
The flipside, though, is that people lauding Benning for doing such a great job of drafting ignore he's had the benefit of 5 top 10 draft picks but hasn't really 'stocked' the cupboard much better than Gillis had. 8 years later and there isn't much more than when he took over.
Now before people lose their shit and point to EP and Hughes and ~*~ Calder nominees ~*~ and all that, what I mean is that I'm looking at existing prospects in the system as of right now. I don't see a revamped/revitalized drafting/scouting department with a
consistent pipeline as I would expect from someone taking over who has that supposed expertise. Yes, Benning should receive credit for the guys he has drafted.
Drafting has improved, but my feeling (not backed up by seriously examining things) is that it isn't much better than the Canucks drafting record pre-Gillis. Which was seen as being bad, despite hitting on guys like Edler, Kesler, Schneider, etc.
