The Core Five: Jim Benning’s Vancouver Canucks

general manager of the year is always a weird award because as you all know things that general managers do sometimes don’t show up till two three four maybe five years down the road but early candidate for GM of the year has to go to Jim Benning so far has he whiffed on anything Doug from 2014 to 2021 Jim benning’s Vancouver Canucks made two postseason appearances winning one single playoff series his tenure was filled with confusion anger and low expectations creating Great Divide within the Canucks fan base but as Vancouver appears to have entered a new era Benning is largely responsible for the team’s current core Quinn Hughes Brock besser JT Miller Thatcher Demco and Elias pson are all Benning Acquisitions and he does deserve credit but despite all of those names there’s a certain consensus around his tenure with many talking it up as a failure besser sweeps the puck to the point to Garland long shot blocked in this video we are going to explore the highs and lows of Jim Benning stint with the Vancouver Canucks and if you wouldn’t mind subscribing to our Channel or maybe even leaving a like on this video that would be so much appreciated another side notes if you have any general managers who you’d like to see us cover you can comment them below we’re going to be about hard work we’re going to work hard to try to get this thing you know back in the right direction so you know if that’s what needs to be done we’re going to do it Benning was hired in May of 2014 after Vancouver missed the postseason for the first time in 6 years Jim had spent the previous eight seasons as an assistant general manager in Boston prior to that he’d spent 12 years with the buffalo Sabers eight of which as their director of amateur scouting for me it was all about having someone that had experience at all levels who was a talent evaluator whether it be amateur or Pro and and someone who had built built teams who was a builder and so those were critical musthaves in other words Benning was signed with the intention of initiating a rebuild and the first Domino to fall in executing that plan with Ryan Kesler let’s talk about the Ryan Kessler trade they pick up Lucas saiza they get Nick Bonino they get the 24th overall pick in the draft what do you think well I think that Jim Benning did very well considering that his hands were relatively tied with respect to Ryan Kessler determining where he was going to go bino’s stint was short saiza was somewhat underwhelming and Jared mccan would never reach his peak in Vancouver but putting aside future mismanagement the trade in itself at a face value was relatively admirable to coincide Jason Garrison was also shipped out at the 2014 draft while the Canucks acquir Derek Dorsett and lynen vay at high prices talking about that draft specifically it was a pretty impressive pull for the Canucks though Vancouver would fail to reap the benefits on most of their selections ver tannin was a bust we already touched on mccan and gustaff forsling was swiftly traded within the year but nabbing thatcher Demco in the second round was a considerable win turning to free agency where Benning signed redeem verata to a short-term deal Ryan Miller was Inked to a three-year contract and Chris tanov was Reed for one year at only $2 million so the 2014 15 NHL season comes and Vancouver bounces back into the playoffs largely thanks to to benning’s offseason moves that year Benning also made a string of prospect swap trades attempting to bring more NHL ready youngsters to the Canucks but none of them really worked out regardless there was a certain praise for benning’s efforts across the NHL though Vancouver would ultimately lose out to the fiery Calgary Flames in round one progressing to the 2015 off season Vancouver took Brock besser at the NHL draft Eddie Lack was traded for two draft picks Kevin bexa was traded for a second round pick Zack Cassian was swapped for Brandon prust and Nick Bonino was traded for Brandon Sutter in a confusing deal that Vancouver easily lost maybe the idea was to use these players as affordable trade assets down the road but that certainly never came to fruition changing gears the 20156 season marked the beginning of a 4-year stretch where Vancouver repeatedly missed the postseason so for this portion of the video we are going to transition to a rapid fire segment highlighting benning’s most significant moves during this time [Music] frame Benning trades Jared mccan a second and fourth round pick to Florida acquiring Eric good Branson in Exchange Vancouver drafts o Levy fifth overall at the NHL draft passing on the likes of Matthew kachak Clayton Keller and Mikel sergachev Louie Erikson is signed to a 6-year $36 million [Music] contract Jacob markstrom signs a three-year $1 million contract Willie deard is fired couldn’t be more pleased with how everything has unfolded Willie ticks all the Box is we’re looking for Travis Green is hired uh Benning selects Elias Pon fifth overall at the NHL draft Bo Horvat is signed to a 6-year $36 million contract Benning trades Thomas vanck to Columbus failing to acquire youth or draft picks in return Quinn Hughes is drafted seventh overall at the NHL draft Sven berie is extended to a three-year $10 million contract J beagle signs a 4year 122 million contract Antoine rousell signs a 4year 12 million contract Benning admits defeat trading Eric good Branson to Pittsburgh in exchange for Tanner Pearson picking things back up for the 2019 off season where Benning would make a significant trade just prior to that year’s draft the Canucks acquired JT Miller from the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for a first and third round pick as well as Merrick maznik this trade was huge for The kxs Who subsequently drafted Neils hoglander and Arthur seof the following day talking P koulen who knows what’s going on there come July 1st of 2019 Benning made another jaw-dropping move in signing Tyler Meyers to a 5-year $30 million contract at 29 years old I don’t think anyone was a fan of the term on this deal and now that the contract is coming to a close I think it’s fair to say that Meers underperformed but to his credits he’s been relatively healthy for the last three seasons while playing 20 plus minutes a night so I guess Vancouver at least got some use out of him touching on the 2020 NHL season and Vancouver crawled out of their Funk making the playoffs thanks to the NHL’s covid themed playing round in a first round matchup against the St Louis Blues Vancouver got rounded scoring and decent goal tending helping them to take the series in six games in their following second round matchup against the Vegas golden knights Vancouver found themselves down 3 to one in the series when Thatcher Demco stood on his head through games five and six making 89 combined saves on 90 shots in a decisive game seven however Vancouver unfortunately ran out of gas this right here was the peak of Vancouver’s success during the Benning era in the following shortened NHL season Vancouver took a massive step back finishing dead last in the NHL’s Canadian division an attempt to shake things up Benning made another massive trade sacrificing high draft picks to D salary while also acquiring Oliver emman Larson and Connor Garland but as Vancouver stumbled out of the gate in The Following Season Benning was relieved of his duties ending his tenure in Vancouver wrapping up this video with a somewhat controversial statements to me benning’s most blaring success came at the NHL draft if he was hired to build and mold a team for the future I’d say he and his scouting staff accomplished that to draw a parallel to our previous video about Brad tree living in the Calgary Flames when it comes to drafting the bar was indeed low in Vancouver but Benning managed to pull significant prospects in five of eight drafts taking a step back though his selection of OI U Levy in 2016 was a catastrophic error building on that point more criticism comes in benning’s mismanagement of draft picks and youth Trading Jared mccan and Gustav forsling while acquiring Sven berie are all head scratchers in hindsight pointing to a lack of patience and poor Prospect assessment but my biggest point of judgment on the Benning era comes down to contract negotiations Tyler Meyers Antoine rousell Brandon Sutter J beagle Louie Erikson and Michael del Auto were all signed to brutal contracts though some were obviously worse than others in signing such players Benning repeatedly failed to bring meaningful depth pieces to Vancouver instead overpay on often aging players in retrospect there’s a lot worth judging and I understand the disgust which is often associated with his name but again if it was his job to build and mold the next cup contending version of the Canucks and if this 2023 2024 season is the beginning of repeat he playoff runs I’d say he succeeded 5 years from now who knows what it will look like but for what’s happening hockey I’m Tate lcraft

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

27 comments

  3. 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

  4. 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

  9. 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…

  11. 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.

  12. 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).

  13. 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.

  16. 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.

  17. 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

  18. 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

  19. 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.

  20. 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.

  23. Don’t care if he created the core. His impatience, inefficient contracts, and poor trades and drafting will forever cement his legacy as a failure in Vancouver.

  25. The OEL trade was bad 'keep my job' short term move. Canucks could have rid themselves of the Ericksson, Rousell and Beagle contracts after 1 year. They also gave up a 1st who became Guenther and had to buy out OEL which will last until 2029-30.

  27. Benning's Achilles Heel really were the contracts. Benning could find good young players, sure, but those awful contracts would kill any player development because as soon as the young prospects are coming into their prime and having their big breakout season, they'd be up for a new contract and those Benning Contract Players would eat up so much of the cap that Benning would be unable to retain the talent the team had developed, resulting in those players going on to have great or at least good careers with other teams. Guys like Brendan Sutter and Rouselle were good bottom 6 checkers/energy players, but having a combined $8 mil of cap space tied up on just those 2 players meant not enough space for the other 4 bottom 6 players and some good top 6 players to round off the top of the lineup, often resulting in bottom 6 players having to play in the top 6 and has beens or not there yets rounding off the bottom 6. If those 2 players were only signed to contracts in alignment with their skills and roles, we'd have had a great pair of players to build a 3rd and 4th line around.

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