Benning taken out back and given a last cigarette and a blindfold

[yave1964]

His eight and a half year reign of terror is over. BC, your long national nightmare is over. Jim Benning along with his cronies in the front office has been removed from the front office in Vancouver with the Sedins and a committee running the team for the short term, possibly for the remainder of the year.

 

  Surprised it took this long. The bubble year where they made a small dent in the playoffs and appeared to give the team hope was an illusion as it was last season in Montreal. 

[JR Ewing]

It probably won't be talked about in the media, but Francesco Aquilini was at a crossroads at the end of the 2017-18 season. The team had just finished their mediocre year in a row, there wasn't much coming in the pipeline, and Aquilini was presented with a plan by Trevor Linden, who was President of Hockey Ops: the Canucks should go into full rebuild mode. The problem for Linden was that Jim Benning played his own card, went to Aquilini alone, and presented his own quick-rebuild plan. Classic dirty politics, and Linden was forced out.

 

Now, the Canucks find themselves with the talent and record of a team in a full rebuild, but without having built up a roster strong young players AND are saddled with the Ekman-Larsson anchor contract until 2027.

 

I think the Canucks management team needs something other than old boys club, so I fully expect somebody like Stan Smyl to get the job.

 

[yave1964]

47 minutes ago, JR Ewing said:

It probably won't be talked about in the media, but Francesco Aquilini was at a crossroads at the end of the 2017-18 season. The team had just finished their mediocre year in a row, there wasn't much coming in the pipeline, and Aquilini was presented with a plan by Trevor Linden, who was President of Hockey Ops: the Canucks should go into full rebuild mode. The problem for Linden was that Jim Benning played his own card, went to Aquilini alone, and presented his own quick-rebuild plan. Classic dirty politics, and Linden was forced out.

 

Now, the Canucks find themselves with the talent and record of a team in a full rebuild, but without having built up a roster strong young players AND are saddled with the Ekman-Larsson anchor contract until 2027.

 

I think the Canucks management team needs something other than old boys club, so I fully expect somebody like Stan Smyl to get the job.

 

Here is the deal with the Canucks as I see them. They are actually a very talented team in there own way BUT

 

Horvat, gifted center, great faceoff man can score but SOFT

Hughes can move the puck from the back end with the best of them but SOFT AND SMALL

Pettersson Human highlight real but SOFT AND PLAYS SMALL

Boeser Can snipe but SOFT

Hoglander Can score a bit with size but gets tossed off the puck easily

Podkolzin The next one, does something every night to excite but again, SUPER SOFT 

 

All were drafted by Vancouver, all are talented real deal NHL players but to a man they are soft as ten ply. On the entire team of their true skill guys only Miller and Garland seem to play with heart and fire every night. Both came in from outside the organization. Some teams skip a player or two in a draft to select the player who best exemplifies their team, Vancouver seems to get the Hughes/Pettersson/Boeser's of the world who slip a bit to them and yes, they are talented, but to a man all the picks of the Canucks can be thrown off their game with a little bit of playing the body. Granted it is a dying art form in todays No Hitting League, but Vancouver is the softest team in my memory of following the sport. So you bring a Myers and a Schenn in on the back end to provide snarl but niether can really play anymore, Tucker Poolman too, he couldnt crack the Jets painfully thin back end. So up front you have soft forwards and on the back end you have slow plodding guys who really shouldnt be more than a 15 minute a night 6th dman playing 19-20 a night because there isnt anyone else. 

 

  Demko may be a tad overrated but it is hard to know with the arson squad of a defense that he has in front of him. I dont know if Plante could perform well with these foreign legion rejects on the blueline. Schmidt came, was assigned the blame, he flourished in Vegas and now away from Vancouver is flourishing in Winnipeg. 

 

 and now Hughes and Pettersson are signed forever.  This team is going to take awhile to get fixed, and the funny part is the player with the most heart, Miller, is the one that Benning was looking to move. Maybe that is why he finally got the axe.

[J0e Th0rnton]

3 hours ago, JR Ewing said:

It probably won't be talked about in the media, but Francesco Aquilini was at a crossroads at the end of the 2017-18 season. The team had just finished their mediocre year in a row, there wasn't much coming in the pipeline, and Aquilini was presented with a plan by Trevor Linden, who was President of Hockey Ops: the Canucks should go into full rebuild mode. The problem for Linden was that Jim Benning played his own card, went to Aquilini alone, and presented his own quick-rebuild plan. Classic dirty politics, and Linden was forced out.

 

Now, the Canucks find themselves with the talent and record of a team in a full rebuild, but without having built up a roster strong young players AND are saddled with the Ekman-Larsson anchor contract until 2027.

 

I think the Canucks management team needs something other than old boys club, so I fully expect somebody like Stan Smyl to get the job.

 

I'd Argue that Petterson age 23, Boeser 24, Quinn Hughes 22, Thatcher Demko 26 are all pretty fine young players and Hoglander age 21  isn't a bad top 6 option. Green was more and more micromanaging how he wanted these offensive players to play and I think Boudreau will do well with this Roster in addition to Miller 28, Horvat 26, Conor Garland 25.

 

That defense is a mess and the bottom 6 isn't great. But its fixable by a competent GM. Horvat is a good two way center. Petterson has already shown he can hit some pretty lofty numbers when playing confident. So can Boeser, although his injury history is suspect. Quinn Hughes is a pretty dynamic offensive D

[yave1964]

19 minutes ago, J0e Th0rnton said:

I'd Argue that Petterson age 23, Boeser 24, Quinn Hughes 22, Thatcher Demko 26 are all pretty fine young players and Hoglander age 21  isn't a bad top 6 option. Green was more and more micromanaging how he wanted these offensive players to play and I think Boudreau will do well with this Roster in addition to Miller 28, Horvat 26, Conor Garland 25.

 

That defense is a mess and the bottom 6 isn't great. But its fixable by a competent GM. Horvat is a good two way center. Petterson has already shown he can hit some pretty lofty numbers when playing confident. So can Boeser, although his injury history is suspect. Quinn Hughes is a pretty dynamic offensive D

I agree with every single bit of this, they are al fine young players, all could play on my team any time. The problem as I see it is that every one of the drafted players mentioned above is soft as can be. You can win with that type if they are mixed in with a Todd Bertuzzi here, a Mason raymond there, a Ryan Kesler and his nasty streak for good measure. The problem is lack of heart, lack of willingness or ability to do the dirty work. All those guys will have nice careers but unless they deal one or more of them for someone who isnt afraid to get dirty, they will never come close to winning, This forward group as built with an average defense MIGHT be able to make the playoffs but wont ever go anywhere past the first round. Too soft.