How has Francis done a fine job? If he was looking to build up his draft and prospect pool he should have targeted more players on short term contracts that he could move at the deadline if a young player wasn't available. They could have also pulled off a trade with Calgary where they pick Kylington and got a package from Calgary. Those are the type of moves that Vegas pulled off and made all the difference in the world.
Then you have Grubauer who is unmovable at this point.
The Vegas expansion draft model is different from the Vegas post expansion draft model. Vegas absolutely nailed their expansion draft by getting assets to select players. I understand that the environment was different but Seattle could have "weaponized" their cap space. Benning was willing to retain some salary on Holtby and Vegas could have gotten an asset from the Canucks and get Holtby for a year. Or work out a deal for one of the players we traded to Arizona. You keep saying Benning is dim and all Francis got out of Benning was Kole Lind?
You are assuming they didn't ask. Jim might have said no, he had Arizona lined up to clear cap.
I think Francis had a decent expansion draft plan, but I think he had Vegas fever too. He thought he could get people to make the Vegas style deals but he couldn't. There was not quite the talent, Vegas had already depleted teams of one player.
Teams also were fully prepared for the expansion draft, moving players to limit their roster exposure.
Exposing players on bad/big contracts and calling Seattle's bluff in ways they didn't against Vegas.
Finally, teams like Arizona where cutting Seattle's ability to do bad cap hit deals. It was much more of a seller's market.
Honestly I think Benning did worse than Francis. He had the opportunity to use his protection spots to acquire other teams players. He used them on Juolevi, Dickinson, Myers and Motte. Nate Schmidt was protected, just to be traded for a 3rd. That's how much Jim value his spots. Complain about Holtby but we could have put Myers in the expansion draft, they wouldn't take him and there is a spot for Jim to do something interesting. If the did take Myers' contract, party time.