Quote:
Originally Posted by PepsiFree
Benning had a plan? Benning promised playoffs every year and being an elite cup contender in year 5 (last year). The only time they've made the playoffs was in Benning and Treliving's first years, and the Flames came out on top. The Flames have made the playoffs twice since then, the Canucks haven't.
Benning's record: 211-213-55
Treliving's record: 248-190-42
Benning wiffed on TWO high first rounders (Joulevi and Virtanen). He traded McCann, a 2nd, and a 4th for Gudbranson, who turned into a turd. He's traded plenty of draft picks himself, either for bad players, players not worth the pick, or even just trading down in the draft. He chronically overpays guys, including Eriksson, Sutter, Sbisa, Beagle, Gagner, and Baertschi (who they're paying 3 million to play in the AHL). He's held on to players when they had no shot at the playoffs, letting them walk for nothing instead (Hamhuis, Miller). He's also just plain unlucky, with multiple signings/trades resulting in players that either don't fit or can barely suit up for a game (Ferland, Gudbranson, Del Zotto, etc.).
So, this idea that Benning has it all figured out and had a plan all along is pretty laughable. He hasn't met his own expectations and promises, most of his draft successes and failures seem to have come down to luck (both good and bad), and his signings and trades have ranged anywhere from decent to atrocious.
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And yet their future looks considerably better than ours. You omit their owner's expectations for playoffs and the fact that their rebuild didn't officially start until a couple years after ours. He was forced to try to win with the Sedins as shadows of their former selves. He of course said their expectations were to win, it was a foolish direction from his boss.
Their window is about to open big time. If you want to attribute that to luck and no plan, that's up to you. Has our window even opened yet? I honestly can't tell. Whatever BT is doing, at least he has the smooth corporate speak down pat. Personally, I'll take the guy that can draft any day over whatever strengths you say BT has. His biggest strength seems to be selling people on a vision for the team that takes 7+ years to achieve. The 'process' is actually selling people on the process. He's an empty suit as far as I'm concerned. It should not take 7 years to build a contender, and we aren't even there yet. Not by a long shot. Why do people think this current mediocrity is acceptable? We should be much better, we've had since 2013 to build something special and this management has failed us. Stability in management is only a good thing when the manager is actually delivering results.