Have the Vancouver Canucks entered a new era of NHL success? How much is Jim Benning to blame/thank? In this video we explore the highs and lows of Jim Benning’s tenure with the Vancouver Canucks, From Elias Pettersson to Loui Eriksson. #nhl #canucks #hockey
00:00 Intro
01:33 Benning’s tenure begins
02:21 The rebuild starts… Sort of?
05:14 The dark years (2016-2019)
06:56 J.T Miller & Tyler Myers
09:13 The verdict
28 Comments
I wanna see Bill sussman next
As a Flames fan, many thanks to Benning (and Jarmo Kekäläinen) for Matt Tkachuk (though we all know Matt's in the process of winning his Cup in FLA now…GO Panthers). As we headed into that draft I was under the impression that, with the 6th pick, Calgary had no chance of landing this player, and I was happy to be proven wrong.
As for GMs to evaluate, Peter Chiarelli please…the Edmonton model and the Boston edition.
Need more of these
Make a video about the perpetual rebuild in Arizona / Utah
peter chiarelli/ken holland oilers
Would love to see a Dale Tallon's Panthers video!
Three GM's in Canucks history worked for 8 years.
Two of them got the Canucks to game 7 of the Cup finals .
Benning got one bubble playoffs.
Also only one of the core he "acquired" was Miller. Other 4 were draft picks. props to scouting. And he didn't want to draft Petey. Benning wanted another Virtanen style player.😂😂
His staff had to fight him to get Petey .
Benning is garbage.
Sam McMaster.
W video
Benning was worst GM in the franchises history, the club will be paying for his mistakes for years to come still. Firing Benning was the best move Ive seen in 34 years of watching them
The Canucks could have been more successful if he chased more actual defenders and didn't have his center men playing defense.
The Coaches he brought in kept forcing their defenders to play as wingers….
Then when they got rockem sockem players he traded them for a bag of marbles
The combination of both of those left the stars vulnerable to look stupid
Then he gave big contracts to the old folks on their way out of the league
Eriksson and OEL.
great video
Virtanen was much worse than a bust
Nothing Wrong With The Way Tyler Myers Or Conor Garland Have Played
JB made it out of so many drafts like a bandit. Pety, Demko, Hughes, Boeser were all top-end players drafted by Benning. He also stole JT Miller from Tampa…
Just think we could have had Cody glass instead of petey if it was up to benning
Silovs-Benning
Demko-Benning
Hughes-Benning
Miller-Benning
Boeser-Benning
Petey-Benning
Myers-Benning
Hoglander-Benning
Benning's tenure operated under a tight Aquilini and with the aid of one AGM.
Aquilini now has spent the wad and the Canucks are paying Rutherford, GM Allvin,AGM Granato,AGM Castonguay,Tallon. and AGM Johnson. Count 'em.
Giving Benning credit for building the "next canucks roster" is forgetting that every single one of his moves were in service of making the team at the time better. He moved on from anyone he hadn't obsessed over(and overpaid to sign) and "future" improvements were always more of an afterthought/happenstance with him. If he hadn't traded out as many picks as he did to get "his guys" then signed them to overpaying contracts that would be bought out or moved with other trade assets, I would be more willing to give him a pass.
As it stands, he could be counted to rush prospects or trade them for roster players that held scant potential growth for fill in gaps, then throw what was a strength(cap space) away to sign them to bloated contracts.
Thank you Benning for reading out names on draft day when your draft department fought you over the picks and you lost out, but I am glad you are gone.
Just wish ownership would get out of the way and let management cook(the Benning era saw them influencing management excessively and resulted in one of the longest, poorest performing periods in team history).
Very good video, I will just want point out that the Vanek was all around good move by Benning.
1). Benning signed Vanek weeks before training camp, fairly late into free-agency for $2 million for 1 season (not over spending on UFA).
2). Vanek came in and produced at a top-6 rate on the team and he was a good mentor for Brock Boeser in his rookie season.
3). Benning traded him at the trade deadline in 2018 to Columbus. Yes, he did not acquire any prospects/draft picks. However, the main piece returning from this trade wasn't Jussi Jokinen (though he was actually pretty good in his short stint as a Canuck), Jokinen was just a contract/capspace coming back so Columbus has room for Vanek. The main piece of the trade was Tyler Motte. Motte became a solid bottom 6 and PK player for the Canucks over the next several seasons and he scored some big playoff goals for the Canucks in 2020 bubble playoffs. Motte was a solid pick up.
I would say the Vanek situation from signing to trade was the best Jim Benning has done in both free-agency signing and asset management. If he was able to do this more instead of overpaying so many over the hill players in Beagle, Roussel and Eriksson etc. the Canucks would be in a lot better state.
Would love to see one of these on doug willson
Bumbling Benning and his horrible trade moves and hamstringing contracts, worst Canucks GM EVER
Benning never wanted a full rebuild. He kept signing or trading for NHL ready players to field competitive teams instead of striping it down and get more great young talents. He drafted well with high picks but nothing much otherwise, and he made too many the desperate moves or overpaid for veterans that set the team backwards. The OEL trade was the ultimate dagger IMO, instead of holding onto his mistakes for one last season and letting the contracts expire. The 7 years (2014-2021) felt like the dark years in the late 90s.
Dont forget drafting Kole Lind instead while Jason Robertson was available
And while Baertschi for a 2nd is already mentioned, that 2nd turned out to be Rasmus Andersson
Imagine if Vancouver had both Forsling and Andersson in their current dcore
I think you have this wrong Jim Benning isn’t responsible for the current core it was director of scouting at the time Judd Bracket who is responsible for the drafts Benning wanted Cody Glass but Judd said to take Petterson
it is common knowledge within Vancouver that Benning did not want to take Petersson and wanted Cody Glass and eventually fired the chief scouting director Judd Brackett and whomever disagreed with him surrounding himself with yes men. People still dont know what John Weisbrod did during his tenure as AGM for the Canucks.
Eriksson was just super bad luck. Towards the end of his prime, but was always a strong 2-way winger who has put up 30+ goals. Regularly played with the Sedins internationally, and has done well with them. Unfortunate that all 3 steeply declined. Players always get old… but they just fell off a cliff.
OEL was good on paper. A 2-way defenseman who probably should have gotten more Norris considerations just a few seasons prior. Stuck at the backwaters of the NHL in Arizona, minimal attention and a team that's regularly struggling…. thus never got the recognition he deserved. Unfortunately, Benning picked him up after he has had a series of injuries around his foot and also his knees, some that required surgery. For joints like the knee, it may take a few years before you get back to normal. The Canucks couldn't afford that time, considering his salary, thus were forced to buy him out.
Overall, Jim Benning wasn't as bad as many made him out to be. The first 3-4 years were somewhat of a write-off as he had an aging team with the Sedins… and you can't just tank. Just see Pittsburg now and Chicago just a few years back. When you have franchise players in the twilight of their careers, you do your best to try to make the playoffs.
The Benning era was completely bonkers in that most all of his moves were either home runs or complete disasters. lol