Lol Blob, maybe wait more than 7 minutes before declaring crickets!
DonCherry4PM wrote: ↑Tue Feb 19, 2019 10:59 am
Ronning's Ghost wrote: ↑Tue Feb 19, 2019 10:45 amBut for purposes of this board, the buck needs to stop somewhere. If you go down the ownership interference rabbit-hole, how do you know that any of the bad moves by Gillis, or the good moves by Benning, were not the result of ownership pressure?
("I heard the Aquabros really had a hard-on for Ballard, so Mike negotiated that one with a gun to his head."
"Yeah, but I heard they insisted on drafting Pettersson, so I guess it evens out.")
This is an excellent point - one that is ignored far too often.
If we say that all the bad or mediocre signings/trades/picks that have occurred in the "Benning era" are due to a meddlesome ownership group, shouldn't that also apply to all the good signings/trades/picks (assuming the ownership group is actually as meddlesome as many claim)?
Seems a bit naive to blame ownership (or a past GM) for everything bad while praising JB for everything good.
I'm a fan of Benning, and I actually think that if the Canucks make the playoffs this year, after ONLY 3 years of missing the playoffs, it can't be called anything but a successful rebuild on the fly. Particularly as it is done with zero luck in the draft lottery.
Everything Gillis did has to be viewed through a completely different lens, because he was going all-out for a Cup. He came tantalizingly close, and the only reason we fault him is that he made moves to put us over the edge by mortgaging the future, but the returns on those moves were dreadful and didn't help at all. He moved out picks, and the returns were utter garbage - Ballard, Roy, and Bernier cost us a 1st, 2nd, two 3rds, Grabner and Connauton. All of those picks and prospects would have made the transition smoother, but instead they were burned for players that wound up being totally inconsequential and provided no help to the Sedins' team to get to the holy grail.
Nonetheless, you have to have that context when you complain for 4 years about trading Garrison for Vey, or Bonino for Sutter. I would say the Vey trade is the only one that's panned out as poorly as the Ballard trade or the Roy trade, in that the asset acquired was virtually useless. If you're still complaining about the Gudbranson trade, he's undoubtedly a better player than Ballard and the cost was far less than what was paid for Ballard.
Gillis and Benning have operated under the same owner, in two very different eras. Overall, I don't fault Gillis for handing out NTCs - he was getting good players under contract for a good cap hit, and that was the price to be paid. I do fault him for acquiring terrible players with high draft picks, and for being a terrible drafter.
I fault Benning for acquiring players who have been underwhelming., like Sutter, Vey, and Gudbranson, however the prices paid were minimal so it doesn't really bother me. I fault Benning for signing Eriksson as a UFA, and Schaller. The rest of his signings have been fine. I credit Benning for putting together the best string of drafting in franchise history.
I give Benning zero blame for not acquiring more picks, because he didn't have the assets available to acquire picks. That is just a fact.