Just saw an article where Markstrom was on Spittin’ Chiclets and he told them a story about him and Jet Black Jim. Markstrom played half a game in San Jose and it was an incredible game. Afterwards Benning went to him and just told him ‘we’re going to send you down, you’re too good if we keep you right now.’
He was then placed on waivers to move him down and thankfully went unclaimed and spent the rest of the season with the Utica Comets.
When I read this I thought typical Benning but! Is there any logical reason why this was a good idea?? Or was it a case of Benning being Benning?
Cheers.
by g_tan
12 Comments
I’m old enough to remember the uproar from fans every time the Canucks made any move that’s wasn’t tanking.
Maybe Bim Jenning was on team tank afterall?
It gave us a free development year for him, not sure why you’re hating on him for one of his few good moves
Man, I am bursting with salt for Benning, but this was actually a good move. We couldn’t have kept him up that year, and if we had sent him down much later, he would’ve gotten claimed. JB also purposely kept cameras away from his games so that he wouldn’t be on other teams’ radars.
This, along with Vanek, were IMO the only objectively smart things Benning did in 8 years.
They sent him down with the first big wave of cuts across the League that year. It basically forced opposing teams to decide if they wanted to blindly take a flier on Markstrom with limited game footage. Most teams likely wouldn’t have done so since 3 goalies at that point in time was unheard of, and if Markstrom didn’t excel in their Training Camp it would have just been a waste of everyone’s time when they would put him back on Waivers.
Essentially if the Canucks kept him around and played him more, it increased the chances of us losing him to someone else.
Probably important to note too that his stock as a prospect was up in the air. Whatever they were doing in Florida at the time was not a good match for him. That year in the AHL with us helped rebuild his game.
If the team had kept him up that year he wasn’t ready for the NHL and you’d have ruined his development and we’d be talking about how Benning ruined Markstrom’s career (see: DiPietro, Rick). It was a risky move done right that paid off.
it was a gamble but it paid off in the end. markstrom got an extra year to work out the kinks that were keeping him from being a full-time starter. the canucks didnt want to lose him and felt nobody would actually put a claim in and they were right. it worked out well for everyone including markstrom.
thing about markstrom is he always had talent and at one point was considered one of the best goalies not in the NHL as a young goalie. he didnt dominate right away and struggled a bit when he came over. by the time we had traded for him a lot of the luster surrounding him and worn off. he still had the talent and with work he could maybe become something, but it wasn’t a guarantee at the time. really hard to argue that waiving him was the wrong call given that markstrom ended up becoming a great starter and we got some really good years out of him.
Even back in florida at least one guy thought he was better than Brodeur or Price.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjoCVe8Ijb8
I’ll take a flyer on what Benning was thinking. Marky was the clear third stringer. He is too good to not be playing, meaning ice time, and he wasn’t going to get that if he stayed in the NHL.
This was a rare bit of foresight for an era defined by short-term thinking. Happy it happened, good move.
When Marky was sent down, it was 2014-15 and Vancouver had both Ryan Miller and Eddie Lack as the goalie tandem. Marky at the time was 3rd on the depth chart and expected to go to Utica to season. You’d think he should have been ahead of Lack but Lack had played a season where he had a .912 save percentage in 13-14. The rest is history.
I ran out of time to sign toffoli
I listened to the episode and did a double take when I heard it too. The way Marky tells it, Benning’s wording might not have been right but it made sense at the time. Marky needed reps and he wouldn’t get that as a backup. He didn’t need to prove anything to the big club at that point and they just wanted to quietly send him down so he could cook in the Ahl.