Who was more responsible for the 2014 Draft?

Who was responsible for the 2014 Draft?


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    23

Bubbles

Die Hard for Bedard 2023
Apr 16, 2004
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BC Teams:Nucks,Juve
Need some opinons here:

Who do you think was more responsible for the 2014 NHL Entry Draft. Let's take a look:

Draft Num. Round Player Pos Drafted From GP G A Pts PIM
2014 Entry 6 1 Jake Virtanen R Calgary Hitmen [WHL] 270 48 43 91 176
2014 Entry 24 1 Jared McCann C Soo Greyhounds [OHL] 301 52 68 120 114
2014 Entry 36 2 Thatcher Demko G Boston College [H-East] 29 0 1 1 0
2014 Entry 66 3 Nikita Tryamkin D Yekaterinburg Automobilist [KHL] 79 3 8 11 74
2014 Entry 126 5 Gustav Forsling D Linkoping (Sweden Jrs.) 122 8 19 27 42
2014 Entry 156 6 Kyle Pettit C Erie Otters [OHL]
2014 Entry 186 7 Mackenze Stewart D Prince Albert Raiders [WHL]

To have 5 NHL caliber players in a draft is quite an achievement. Benning was hired two weeks before the draft, how much influence did he have over the draft? Curious about other people's thoughts here.
 
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F A N

Registered User
Aug 12, 2005
18,711
5,952
I picked Benning because I felt his direction influenced the draft such as the drafting of Demko and Tryamkin. With that said, I think it's fair to give the GM less credit if he came on in the summer since he has no chance to evaluate his scouting staff or direct his scouts to look for certain skillsets. The work was already done.
 

WetcoastOrca

Registered User
Jun 3, 2011
38,303
22,207
Vancouver, BC
It was a bit of a unique situation as Benning would have been heavily involved in the Boston draft preparation so I think he had a pretty good handle on the players available.
Probably a combination of Benning and the scouts. Same as every draft since.
I can’t see how Gillis would be a choice here.
 

Hoghandler

Registered User
Jul 9, 2019
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Satiar Shah said Benning was a Nylander guy. It was the worst kept secret in the city that Virtanen would be a Canuck if he was available, and that was before Benning was hired.

There were rumblings that Benning wasn't too happy with his scouts for the McCann selection. He then proceeded to deal him very quickly.

The only connection I can see is Thatcher Demko, in that he played in Benning's back yard in Boston.

Other than that, who knows.
 

Jyrki21

2021-12-05
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Oh man, I wish he was – that would be amazing. But he joined too late.

Anyway, the owners obviously wanted Virtanen, the scouts obviously did most of the rest (Stewart being a Delorme special), but I do think Benning liked the idea of McCann, given his on-video exchange with Gilman, who looked less enthused with the selection.
 
May 31, 2006
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I think the most credit you can give Benning is that he lifted Gillis’ policy of drafting no Russians, which led to the Tryamkin pick.
 

sting101

Registered User
Feb 8, 2012
15,884
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Satiar Shah said Benning was a Nylander guy. It was the worst kept secret in the city that Virtanen would be a Canuck if he was available, and that was before Benning was hired.

There were rumblings that Benning wasn't too happy with his scouts for the McCann selection. He then proceeded to deal him very quickly.

The only connection I can see is Thatcher Demko, in that he played in Benning's back yard in Boston.

Other than that, who knows.

Yup. I have told this story many times. Jakes camp was told weeks in advance of Benning being hired that Jake was their guy. Jim obviously didn't feel strongly enough to try and veto the decision though and he wears it.
McCann was a Benning pick as was Demko who was rated in the frst round by many scouts and Benning liked watching him in BC.
The issue Benning had was more to do with Pastrnak not being rated higher. He was privy to the Bruins spring ratings and the Canuck staff obviously had him a lot lower. i get the feeling the boys in Sweden didn't push that hard for him.

It was reported he had some input into the first 3 picks then sat back and let the scouts do their thing. He let Chibisov take Tryamkin and Lindgren/Gradin take Forsling followed by the OHL and WHL scouts.
He obviously didn't have the time to restructure the criteria for ratings and mostly went off the list the group had compiled before him.

I kinda get sick of these shift the blame/praise narratives though. If i'm the boss and i have final say and don't step in when i see something detrimental then its on me. And that goes both ways
 

Billy Kvcmu

Registered User
Dec 5, 2014
27,491
15,862
West Vancouver
Satiar Shah said Benning was a Nylander guy. It was the worst kept secret in the city that Virtanen would be a Canuck if he was available, and that was before Benning was hired.

There were rumblings that Benning wasn't too happy with his scouts for the McCann selection. He then proceeded to deal him very quickly.

The only connection I can see is Thatcher Demko, in that he played in Benning's back yard in Boston.

Other than that, who knows.
I also remember reading a report of potentially drafting one of Nylander or Virtanen
 

Pastor Of Muppetz

Registered User
Oct 1, 2017
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Don't really know with Virtanen..McCann fell a bit in the draft (which was a bit of a blow to him personally), and was considered a bit of a steal (much like Hunter Shinkaruk the previous year)..Demko was scouted by Benning in Boston, and Benning lifted the embargo on drafting Russians.

Its been six years since that draft, and a lot of those players taken in the top 10 never did live up to their potential..In a redraft, the top 5 would look noticeably different.
 
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RandV

It's a wolf v2.0
Jul 29, 2003
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I mean, Benning himself said something like outside of the first pick he just sat back and observed letting the scouts make the picks, so why would this even be a question? The biggest discrepancy is it appears that every scout/region was allowed to make a pick, so under Gillis it's highly questionable if we would have drafted Tryamkin, and Mackenzie Stewart falls into this category as well being a Delorme-backed goon pick. There would have been an extra shuffle had ownership not interfered in that we could have had different draft picks, but given the picks we did have I don't see why we wouldn't still have McCann, Demko, Forsling, and Pettit regardless of who was GM.

The best way to sum it up that I've posted several times over the years is:

2000(?)-2009: Ron Delorme era
2010: Gillis transition year
2011-2014: Eric Crawford era
2015/2106: Benning/Weisbrod transition years
2017-present: Judd Brackett era

Gillis put together the Crawford team so if you have to put credit towards a GM I'd tilt it in his favour.
 
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Hoghandler

Registered User
Jul 9, 2019
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All I know is that some draft guru from Boston drafted Pastrnak at 25th OA.

Yeah, makes you wonder when you hear Benning was pissed at his scouts for the McCann selection. Especially considering Pastrnak is like the only guy better than McCann in the 50 picks taken afterward. The fact it was the staff that Benning worked with all year that ended up with Pastrnak makes it even more concerning...

If those rumblings were true, and Benning was in fact a Nylander guy, as Satiar Shah said, did we just miss out on a Nylander/Pastrnak haul in 2014?

This was the question I wanted Mathew Sekeres to lob at Trevor Linden.
 

Pastor Of Muppetz

Registered User
Oct 1, 2017
26,143
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I mean, Benning himself said something like outside of the first pick he just sat back and observed letting the scouts make the picks, so why would this even be a question? The biggest discrepancy is it appears that every scout/region was allowed to make a pick, so under Gillis it's highly questionable if we would have drafted Tryamkin, and Mackenzie Stewart falls into this category as well being a Delorme-backed goon pick. There would have been an extra shuffle had ownership not interfered in that we could have had different draft picks, but given the picks we did have I don't see why we wouldn't still have McCann, Demko, Forsling, and Pettit regardless of who was GM.

The best way to sum it up that I've posted several times over the years is:

2000(?)-2009: Ron Delorme era
2010: Gillis transition year
2011-2014: Eric Crawford era
2015/2106: Benning/Weisbrod transition years
2017-present: Judd Brackett era

Gillis put together the Crawford team so if you have to put credit towards a GM I'd tilt it in his favour.

Judd Brackett was promoted to Director Of Scouting in August 2015...and you're claiming that he had no influence for two years until 2017 ...?...(essentially citing Dim Jim for the 2016 selections)...

Obvious' narrative pushing' here......:rolleyes:...Basically a more long winded, more well written version of Brackett made the good piczzz,and the the rest were Dim Jim specials..
 
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