Quote:
Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan
Yeah, at least the Canucks can draft reasonably well.
They're not good with free agent contracts under Benning, nor have they convincingly won any trades, but at least they can draft.
The Oilers can't do ANY of those things well.
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There are so few free agent signings that are good that I don't even count them, they are almost all overpayments for players whose best years are behind them. I would argue that Vanek has been a good stopgap and that he has helped in the maturation of Boeser if all indications are correct.
After that his trades with Calgary have worked out reasonably well Granlund will play more games for the Canucks than Shinkaruk will with the Flames. In a third line role so it is a minor win, but a win none the less. Baertschi for a second seems to be a trade that was a win for both teams as well, he isn't a driver but he is a good second line player on the Canucks which is a good return for a second round pick.
Burrows and Hansen trades were good returns on players on the downside of their careers as well.
The Gudbranson trade was bad in my opinion, not because I don't like him as a player but because I don't see the point in picking up a depth type 4/5 defenseman for a team that isn't making the playoffs and giving up a young player + draft picks in the process. Same thing with the Forsling for Clendening trade... just a pointless trade
The Kesler trade I can't hold against him because when trading a player with a NMC it really limits the potential return.
The drafting has been good though - there have been some misses (Virtanen and Juolevi come to mind but they are still both young players with potential - just the early returns are not good). However the strength of Benning and his scouting team is to find good players in the draft - Petterson, Lind, Demko, Tryamkin, Forsling, and Gaudette come to mind as players who look like great picks in the past few years. Now keeping them has been a different story.