TSN 1040 Jim Benning on June 30th

[Peen]

Do you actually believe the garbage you write?

He doesn't.

 

[BobbyJazzLegs]

Joke thread.

Jim is 3 years ahead of y'all, and Aquaman's cool with it.

 

[Horse McHindu]

Regarding Hamilton. What the hell, Benning? I know you covet meat and potatoes grinders, but Virtanen and McCann are absolutely worth moving for Hamilton. The kid's a #1 with franchise potential; something we don't have. With how stupid the Bruins have been. You could probably have made it a straight swap. Goddamn.

My guess is that Boston asked for Horvat. If that was the case, then I'm glad that Benning said no.

 

[Megaterio Llamas]

Did someone say Country Bumpkin?

 

[orcatown]

People are saying that Benning is improving the team b/c he is bringing in younger players (at the same time, according to them) that he is maintaining the strength of the present team.

Really. Look at the young players he's brought in

Vey - was mostly bad last year. Was horrible in his own end and just got owned by anyone with size. Teams were just a salivating at getting the right match ups out against Vey. By the end of the season was useless and benched

Clendening - was probably the worse defenseman in Utica during the playoffs. Had huge problems with outside speed and penalty prone as result as he latched on to what ever he could grab on to, to stop opponents from going directly to the net. Has real skating issues.

Pedan - absolute project and has concussion problems which cropped up again this year. Pretty weak reed to lean on.

Virtanen - Played 10 games at the AHL level and got 1 point. Yes tons of physical skills but clear questions about whether he has a head for the game. Might be a strong forechecker but is he top 6 material? Certainly not in the near term and an open question moving ahead. It is now clear that Larkin should have been the pick here. He was a far and away the better player in the series between Utica and Grand Rapids. Clear miss here by Benning.

Zelewski - cut free after a year.

Baertschi - Has real skill and should help the team. However, there is there is no guarantee this will happen. He is smallish and needs others to create space. Also a question of whether he can stand up to the heavy going - this is why Calgary moved him.

MacMillian - guy was terrible

Valk - couldn't play himself out of the East Coast League

Demko - in college - looks like a good prospect but who knows

Tryamkin/Petit/Stewart - ????????

Also in the process Benning has sacrificed draft choices (which is probably the only way to get upper level young prospects) and a player like Forsling. So gave up the potential to get younger as much as he got younger.

Mostly he has just dabbled around in other teams reject bins.

Saying he has got this plan to improve the team through getting younger players only works if you actually get younger players that can play and help to improve the team.

Beyond this Benning has passed up the chance to use players to get younger. Matthais, Weber, Stanton, Richardson, etc all moved on without any effort to get drafts or younger prospects.

Could also be reasonably argued that he has not acquired much with the players he has moved. And, overall, the team continues to age.

Would suggest to those who are so upset about the criticism of Benning that they begin to provide some in depth reasoning and evidence to defend Benning. This would go much further in changing people's opinion than just saying people who criticize Benning are somehow just negative people who can't understand the Benning master plan.

 

[groov2]

People are saying that Benning is improving the team b/c he is bringing in younger players (at the same time, according to them) that he is maintaining the strength of the present team.

Really. Look at the young players he's brought in

Vey - was mostly bad last year. Was horrible in his own end and just got owned by anyone with size. Teams were just a salivating at getting the right match ups out against Vey. By the end of the season was useless and benched

Clendening - was probably the worse defenseman in Utica during the playoffs. Had huge problems with outside speed and penalty prone as result as he latched on to what ever he could grab on to, to stop opponents from going directly to the net. Has real skating issues.

Pedan - absolute project and has concussion problems which cropped up again this year. Pretty weak reed to lean on.

Virtanen - Played 10 games at the AHL level and got 1 point. Yes tons of physical skills but clear questions about whether he has a head for the game. Might be a strong forechecker but is he top 6 material? Certainly not in the near term and an open question moving ahead. It is now clear that Larkin should have been the pick here. He was a far and away the better player in the series between Utica and Grand Rapids. Clear miss here by Benning.

Zelewski - cut free after a year.

Baertschi - Has real skill and should help the team. However, there is there is no guarantee this will happen. He is smallish and needs others to create space. Also a question of whether he can stand up to the heavy going - this is why Calgary moved him.

MacMillian - guy was terrible

Valk - couldn't play himself out of the East Coast League

Demko - in college - looks like a good prospect but who knows

Tryamkin/Petit/Stewart - ????????

Also in the process Benning has sacrificed draft choices (which is probably the only way to get upper level young prospects) and a player like Forsling. So gave up the potential to get younger as much as he got younger.

Mostly he has just dabbled around in other teams reject bins.

Saying he has got this plan to improve the team through getting younger players only works if you actually get younger players that can play and help to improve the team.

Beyond this Benning has passed up the chance to use players to get younger. Matthais, Weber, Stanton, Richardson, etc all moved on without any effort to get drafts or younger prospects.

Could also be reasonably argued that he has not acquired much with the players he has moved. And, overall, the team continues to age.

Would suggest to those who are so upset about the criticism of Benning that they begin to provide some in depth reasoning and evidence to defend Benning. This would go much further in changing people's opinion than just saying people who criticize Benning are somehow just negative people who can't understand the Benning master plan.

This post is a beautiful microcosm of Canuck Nation. Everything that could be bad, is. Hats off.

 

[PG Canuck]

Horvat pretty much picked himself when he was avaliable for schneider.

Gillis had nothing to do with such an easy decision

Pure garbage.

 

[m9]

Zalewski was brought in by Gillis.

Wasn't Valk a Comets signing?

Larkin wasn't projected near where the Canucks picked Virtanen, don't see how he was a realistic option at 6.

 

[Cupless44]

Zalewski was brought in by Gillis.

Wasn't Valk a Comets signing?

Larkin wasn't projected near where the Canucks picked Virtanen, don't see how he was a realistic option at 6.

He wasn't.

Pure 20/20 hindsight. Larkin surprised at least 9-10 teams

 

[Snatcher Demko]

This post is a beautiful microcosm of Canuck Nation. Everything that could be bad, is. Hats off.

I don't think it's meant to be a negative rant, Orcatown is usually fairly neutral in his assessments (and therefore not positive either).

I personally like Pedan and Baertschi and think they will be good value for what we gave up.

As for the prospects it is too early to tell. Virtanen will take a few years to develop, perhaps like Ladd and even then his upside is probably 25-25 at best.


Won't comment on McCann, Demko etc but honestly I think Benning's drafting is his strong suit and I think we'll be fine there.

But the others (Vey, Clendenning) are IMO not players that winning rosters have.

 

[iFan]

I Dont think other Gms Would have picked Horvat at 9. He was Not considered to be the bpa.

There were talks the Canes were going to take Horvat at 5 and at the draft when we picked Horvat a rumour of a team saying they'd take him 4th overall. That was a good draft and Horvat wasn't a lock for that spot but he wasnt a reach either, he went in the range he should've gone.