Where does Jim Benning rank among GM's?

[VoluntaryDom]

Bad at signings and not particularly good at trading but great drafter. Bottom 10.

 

[Painful Quandary]

To me, meddling ownership is irrelevant. The GM owns the work he does. It's the same thing with his drafting. We don't know if it was Brackett's aptitude or Benning's input that got Boeser and/or Pettersson drafted. It doesn't matter. Both players were drafted within his regime. The logic should be the same for ownership influence.

You did get me thinking about the Olli Juolevi draft. I will have to retract my opinion about the possibility of Benning being "Middle of the pack." I remember hearing that Juolevi was drafted over better players available because the Canucks hadn't drafted a defenseman in the first round in a long time. I did not find that a good reason to do that when the Canucks needed talent at all positions.

It is a fair point to have the buck stop with the GM, as a competent GM with a backbone would resign rather than being pushed around by an owner. That would mean whether there was pressure or not for various bad signings (Eriksson, etc.) or drafting local boy Jake Virtanen 6OA over better options, the buck would stop at Benning. Though being consistent, anything positive that subordinates he hired or kept on he deserves some credit as well. I guess that's why I would put him Bottom 10 rather than Bottom 5, granted all it takes is for him go back to being Bottom 5 is another blunder.

I am curious how much truth is there to the rumor that there was pressure put on Benning to draft Virtanen 6th OA due to Virtanen being a local.

I am curious how much truth is there to the rumor that there was pressure put on Benning to draft Virtanen 6th OA due to Virtanen being a local.

 

[WilliamNylander]

He had one really good draft and the EP pick puts him in the middle of the pack.

Would be top half for me except he took Virtanen and Juolevi which has to drop him down. I would say 15-20ish.

 

[Aqualung]

He had one really good draft and the EP pick puts him in the middle of the pack.

Would be top half for me except he took Virtanen and Juolevi which has to drop him down. I would say 15-20ish.

You're being generous. More to GM'ing than drafting, and he's not even that great at that.

 

[rypper]

Kind of gained respect for the Guy. He refused to tear it down with the Sedins on the team, to at least give them a chance, without giving up futures to do so. Since their retirement, he seems like hes taking the team in the right direction.

He traded away a ton of draft picks and many of his trades had a win now spin to them when the right thing to do would have been to focus on futures.

 

[David Bruce Banner]

Not enough options IMHO. It's hard to gauge a GM's actual ability due to ownership, time and luck factors. But he seems to be a slow learner in a field where slow learners get eaten for lunch. "Below average" is where I'd rate him.

 

[HOPE]

Bad at trading, mediocre at signings, solid at drafting.

Bottom 10.

i never understood why the GM would get the biggest credit on drafting, Obviously they have final say but their job is to let their scout do the job. With all a GM needs to do in a year, theres no way they have time to scout prospects.

 

[HarryLime]

Middle of the pack

 

[Isaac Nootin]

Probably bottom 10. He's on the rise (as are the Canucks) but hasn't done anything yet to establish himself as an above average GM.