The Great Jim Benning Debate! (And personal insult thread)

[Cousin Strawberry]

Jim Benning is, as of right now, one of the top team builders in the game. Teams are busy studying how he acquired so much budding EL talent and are augmenting systems to try and emulate his formula.

I shit you not.

I listen into plenty of radio interviews here in Alberia(where excellent hockey people are the local scribblers which makes the shows so much more interesting that 650 or 1040) and the consensus is that this was a very very well executed rebuild in the fraction of time most teams take.

All facts.

We are fucking lucky to be enjoying watching this core round into shape...all thanks to Jim Fucking Elmer Benning. Period.

[Carl Yagro]

^Amen, brother.

Vancouver's comparatively quick turnaround is exactly what is being studied by writers, GMs and owners of other teams.

[Strangelove]

(Benning is) sort of a von Manstein figure (without implying that either he or the Little Eagles are Nazis -- just the same relative command and talent structure).

"Liddell Hart was an admirer of the German generals; he described Manstein as an operational genius."

And in the same way that being an operational genius is still somewhat short of being a military genius, if the years prove that Benning was a drafting genius, that's still some distance from being a hockey management genius.

More from Liddell Hart:

"The general verdict among the German generals I interrogated in 1945 was that Field-Marshal von Manstein had proved the ablest commander in their Army, and the man they had most desired to become its Commander-in-Chief. It is very clear that he had a superb sense of operational possibilities and equal mastery in the conduct of operations, together with a greater grasp of the potentialities of mechanized forces than any other commander who had not been trained in the tank arm. In sum, he had military genius."

- Liddell Hart

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Erich_von_Manstein

[Chef Boi RD]

Ronnings Ghost prefers the Buffalo Sabres model, just draft endlessly and forever. Lose in the name of drafting. Fuck winning. Lose to draft. Draft, draft, draft.....

Btw if memory serves, RG wanted Glass instead of Pettersson, Bouchard instead of Hughes and Boldy instead of Podkolzin

[Megaterio Llamas]

Mr Aquilini doesn't like the empty seats model.

It's why Jim has such staying power around here.

[Chef Boi RD]

Mr Aquilini doesn't like the empty seats model.

It's why Jim has such staying power around here.

A genius doesn’t want you to know he’s a genius, in fact the opposite, he’s perfectly fine with you thinking he’s an idiot, that’s what makes him a genius.

[Nuckertuzzi]

Can't help but remember Botch's cries of "we need an army". He cited the Jets as an example of having an army and expressed angst and envy at how far we were from getting to that point. I totally echoed those emotions and couldn't have agreed more. That seemed like a long time ago but it really wasn't, it was only a few years ago when things looked so bleak and here we are now right up there or possibly even ahead of the Jets. That's up for debate because I think the Jets are still a team to be reckoned with but the point is it's remarkable how far we've come in such a short period of time. We still need an army. The good news is more soldiers might be coming soon (Pod, Hog, Lind, Rath, Olli, etc., etc..). It's not likely all of them will hit, but we don't need that, we need maybe 2 or 3 more and we should have our army.

[Blob Mckenzie]

Btw if memory serves, RG wanted Glass instead of Pettersson, Bouchard instead of Hughes and Boldy instead of Podkolzin

You of all people shouldn’t be bumping your gums about who anyone else wanted to draft.

[Chef Boi RD]

Can't help but remember Botch's cries of "we need an army". He cited the Jets as an example of having an army and expressed angst and envy at how far we were from getting to that point. I totally echoed those emotions and couldn't have agreed more. That seemed like a long time ago but it really wasn't, it was only a few years ago when things looked so bleak and here we are now right up there or possibly even ahead of the Jets. That's up for debate because I think the Jets are still a team to be reckoned with but the point is it's remarkable how far we've come in such a short period of time. We still need an army. The good news is more soldiers might be coming soon (Pod, Hog, Lind, Rath, Olli, etc., etc..). It's not likely all of them will hit, but we don't need that, we need maybe 2 or 3 more and we should have our army.

The Jets Army is no more

[Chef Boi RD]

Btw if memory serves, RG wanted Glass instead of Pettersson, Bouchard instead of Hughes and Boldy instead of Podkolzin

You of all people shouldn’t be bumping your gums about who anyone else wanted to draft.

You wanted Vilardi and Bouchard snd Krebs instead of Podkolzin

[Blob Mckenzie]

Btw if memory serves, RG wanted Glass instead of Pettersson, Bouchard instead of Hughes and Boldy instead of Podkolzin

You of all people shouldn’t be bumping your gums about who anyone else wanted to draft.

You wanted Vilardi and Bouchard snd Krebs instead of Podkolzin

You also wanted Vilardi. Can you admit it?

I wasn’t sold on Krebs. I was concerned about his injury. Why do you lie so often?

[Blob Mckenzie]

On the morning of the 2017 draft the Chef wanted Vancouver to pick Vilardi or Glass.

[Chef Boi RD]

It doesn’t matter what we wanted as long as the Genius got it right in which he did. I just need the likes of Ronnings Ghost ti come clean and realize they are spend their life’s work trying to run Jimbro out of town yet Jimbro picked Pettersson, Hughes, Podkolzin and Hoglander when clearly as seen in the archives they wanted others players. It astounds the Chef that they are angry mad at the man who picked the players they didn’t want, players that are clearly better and more importantly Generational!

Ronnings Ghost what says you?


I bet Cliffy responds with “bottom 6 contracts”

[Blob Mckenzie]

Hey if it doesn’t matter who we all wanted what is the point in constantly bringing up who I wanted? You do realize there’s a search function and that people can easily see who you wanted, right. You were every bit as bullish on Dobson, Glass and Vilardi. You called Hughes a shrimp and a dwarf, Petterson a toothpick etc. There’s a comment from Doc in the draft thread right before the draft saying he’d “go to the dark side” if they drafted Petey. He was on literally nobody’s radar here. Yet apparently only I didn’t want him.

You’re right though Elmer made the correct picks and those two picks are why he still has his job and those two picks have greatly accelerated the rebuild and transformed this team into must watch tv.

RG seems bitter. I don’t think he’s as bitter as the folks at Mongoloid Island but he isn’t a happy man, that’s for sure.

[Chef Boi RD]

Hey if it doesn’t matter who we all wanted what is the point in constantly bringing up who I wanted? You do realize there’s a search function and that people can easily see who you wanted, right. You were every bit as bullish on Dobson, Glass and Vilardi. You called Hughes a shrimp and a dwarf, Petterson a toothpick etc. There’s a comment from Doc in the draft thread right before the draft saying he’d “go to the dark side” if they drafted Petey. He was on literally nobody’s radar here. Yet apparently only I didn’t want him.

You’re right though Elmer made the correct picks and those two picks are why he still has his job and those two picks have greatly accelerated the rebuild and transformed this team into must watch tv.

RG seems bitter. I don’t think he’s as bitter as the folks at Mongoloid Island but he isn’t a happy man, that’s for sure.

But that’s my point, Benning gets roasted constantly by mad hatter fans like RG, nut-jobs who wanted far worse players than what Benning ended up picking. MS wanted Vilardi and still Auto this day criticizes Quinn Hughes. So the dingbats argument now has switched gears to - “Benning had nothing to do with those picks!” Unfuckingbelievable

RG is bitter because Benning’s great work has just confirmed that the element of crazy emotional Vancouver Canuck fan base Brian Burke so eloquently spoke of do exist, say hello to - RG, MS, Bleach Clean, Peter10, Y2K, 50 Sheas, Jack Burton