[News] Canucks sign Benning to extension

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Monahammer

Benning > Chiarelli but that's not saying much.

In terms of draft success- Boeser is definitely a homerun, Pettersson looks great but he was BPA when he was drafted so I don't know about giving him too much credit for it.
Let's see if his later round picks start turning out in spades. His trades seem 50/50 and his contract signings are pretty dismal.

Overall i think i would be displeased if I were a nucks fan!

This is besides the point, but it is annoying when fans and observers choose to ignore the quality of a pick on the basis of the player being the best available.

Simply put: if a general manager and his scouting staff shoulder the blame for all of their poor picks, then they definitely deserve the credit for their successful picks.

... and Jim Benning is no good.

[Calgary4LIfe]

I think it is the right move for the Canucks. They are not done their rebuild by the looks of things, and Benning has been (mostly) good at the draft. Even some of his 'busts' are looking like they may turn into capable NHL'ers (Virtanen might end up becoming a decent bottom 6 guy).

I don't think he will last out those 3 years - barring an improvement in building a team. It is hard to look at the Canucks and saying that they are a poorly run organization without hope though. Their future is certainly much more bright than Edmonton's is, and they have a lot of young talent coming up through that organization. They accumulated a lot of depth in their prospects, and have some really nice blue-chippers rounding them off now. Won't take them long to turn that franchise around, unfortunately.

At least we have Edmonton to continue laughing at.

[shadowlord]

I think the Sutter trade and re-signing were poor choices too.

[Meers]

Meh.

He has made some inspired picks (Boeser, Pettersen, Demko, Gaudette), but some clunkers as well (Virtanen). Jury's still out on Juolevi - I thought he looked good at the WJC.

A mixed bag on trades. Some terrible (Gudbranson), some modestly improved his team (Granlund, Baertshi).

Where he's tended to strike out is on free agency (Ericksson) and contract negotiations (Sutter, Sbisa and Dorsett).

A bottom half GM, but not the worst.

Basically, he would do his organization a world of good to hire a tough former agent to negotiate contracts for him. Fortunately for other teams in the Pacific, he hasn't realized his limitations in that area yet.

[afc wimbledon]

I think Travis Green looks to be a good choice as a coach as well, although its still early

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by genetic_phreek

Flames also took Bennett over those guys.

Come on now...Any GM on earth would have selected the top four ranked guys that season in the top 4. Benning has fluked out a few draft picks (blew one very badly) and made couple decent trades (pretty easy when you are seller every year with no expectation of winning)

[gunnner]

I think the future of the NHL is moving to the NFL model, where the battle is won at the draft. Sign your core to a huge chunk of the cap, and fill in the holes with steals on draft day. Turn off the phone on July 1st to avoid a bidding war on players, and only make trades to send out players who have peaked for more picks to fill those holes.

[IgiTang]

^
Thought this was the mentality since the inception of the salary cap in the NHL. Teams had to draft a couple key guys for their core to build around. Kopitar, Doughty. Toews, Kane. Malkin and that Crosby guy. McDavid and.. Hall, Yakupov, Eberle, RNH, Drai,... who am I forgetting?

[Pointman]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

This is besides the point, but it is annoying when fans and observers choose to ignore the quality of a pick on the basis of the player being the best available.

Simply put: if a general manager and his scouting staff shoulder the blame for all of their poor picks, then they definitely deserve the credit for their successful picks.

... and Jim Benning is no good.

Like Pens should get credit for drafting Crosby?

It is rightfully so that the fans don't give much credit for drafting the consensus BPA at whatever position a team was drafting. All a GM has to do in such situation, is not screw it up, like Benning did when he passed on Tkachuk. Well-paid GMs and numerous scouting staff is supposed to show some clever, calculated moves, like drafting Jankowski to get some real credit.

[jlh2640]

[shadowlord]

Originally Posted by Meers

Basically, he would do his organization a world of good to hire a tough former agent to negotiate contracts for him. Fortunately for other teams in the Pacific, he hasn't realized his limitations in that area yet.

Wasn't Mike Gillis a former agent before he became GM of the Canucks?

[d_phaneuf]

Ya, but Gillman did the contracts and was fantastic at it

They never should have fired him