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

[Madcombinepilot]

But now, I suppose we can take solace in the fact that we have one more playoff win in the past 3 seasons than the Kings do

Yyeeeaaahhhhh... uh, no

Think I will just sit here quietly in the corner and plot their downfall while looking suspiciously at all strangers...

[nuckster]

Just found this article that ranks the GMs. Its kind of comical to see that Elmer is rated as dead last! I didnt really read it - just skimmed it, but it should be amusing to some.
https://hockey-graphs.com/2017/05/04/th ... more-19656

[SKYO]

The Kings are an outlier in many respects - which is why I was so shocked that they were able to repeat!

Two cups, and haven't won the Division since 1990/91! Won the Cup as 8th-seed!

Their window was similar to the Canucks, though it came after missing the playoffs for 7 years. The obvious difference is they won it all in their window, where we came oh-so-close.

One thing LA had in both its championships was unreal health/durability. They went on deep playoff runs with a full, healthy roster and managed to not lose anyone to injury.

But now, I suppose we can take solace in the fact that we have one more playoff win in the past 3 seasons than the Kings do

Helped Lombardi targeted the right players that can score goals (carter/williams/richards (gagne 2012, gaborik 2014) after they had a big solid top 6 defense and a goalie in the zone, their defense had unreal synergy that perfectly worked together to help Quick, who had mindfucked all the teams/fans with his stellar performances.

And more importantly they had age correct players for 2012-2014, their team was built with mass and size, built for the playoffs, all coached by the hard working blue collar farmboy Sutter.

Kings top 6 mass: Brown (216lbs), Carter (217lbs), Kopitar (224lbs)
Pearson (204lbs) Toffoli (201lbs)
depth: King (229lbs) Clifford (211lbs), Nolan (219lbs), 2012 Penner (242lbs).

Most of their dmen were all big boys.

Now about Vancouver, the only players with some mass up front on the Canucks is Horvat and our bottom six depth: Gaunce and Virtanen.

Most of our forwards are all under 200lbs including Dorsett at 192lbs , so it's no wonder this team gets injured a lot.

Chiarelli first thing he did was get mass on his team, Maroon (for a prospect + pick), Larsson (hall), Lucic (ufa), Kassian (scrivens).

Benning has to start doing this now, he's been after small skilled players so much now, Dahlen, Goldobin, Granlund, Baertschi, eriksson/sutter both in 190's lbs, he's been so focused on acquiring that perfect & proven power winger, he should lower his standards and just acquire a big fella who can score.

[Blob Mckenzie]

I don't think Elmer is quite as bad as the piss posse at hfboards makes him out , but he's definitely one of the poorer managers in the league that's for sure. He made a couple decent moves but he needs to continue this trend and not resort back to the constant blunders we have seen for most of his tenure.

[nuckster]

I don't think Elmer is quite as bad as the piss posse at hfboards makes him out , but he's definitely one of the poorer managers in the league that's for sure. He made a couple decent moves but he needs to continue this trend and not resort back to the constant blunders we have seen for most of his tenure.

Pretty balanced response there BM. I should probably lay off being so hard on Benning; I just get a little tired of the rediculous 'genious' mindset.

[Mickey107]

There is no-way I consider JB the worst GM in the league, but he is definitely what I would call somewhat of a hybrid.
In other words, head scout and GM, so he like has to report to himself? It's different.

Though I doubt many around the hockey world would agree with me, "yet" !
I think the worst GM in the league is S.Y.

[2Fingers]

I don't think Elmer is quite as bad as the piss posse at hfboards makes him out , but he's definitely one of the poorer managers in the league that's for sure. He made a couple decent moves but he needs to continue this trend and not resort back to the constant blunders we have seen for most of his tenure.

Read this morning about the NHL GM ranking and our boy ranked last. Cannot find any link or anything but I don't agree he is the worse. I put him in the middle.

[Cornuck]

Cannot find any link or anything but I don't agree he is the worse. I put him in the middle.

https://hockey-graphs.com/2017/05/03/th ... rd-part-2/

methodology:
https://hockey-graphs.com/2017/05/02/th ... rd-part-1/

[Todd Bersnoozi]

Just looking @ some of the highlights about JB in that article:

Worst Drafter: I'd disagree, I'd say drafting is probably JB's strength. I think he has done pretty good overall. He'd probably like to redo the Virtanen and McCann picks if he could, but it's still early. Getting Tryamkin where he did was a gem. Boeser, Gaudette, Demko and a few others are looking good.

Worst Player Dev't: Maybe. He did rush Virtanen and McCann which set them back a bit. Look @ what Edm did with Draistel, he struggled when he first came in the NHL and the Oilers saw their mistake, sent him back to juniors and the kid came back as a beast. Never looked back since. Hutton also regressed a little in his 2nd year, so maybe some time in Utica would have been good for him as well.

Worst with Extensions: Maybe. He may have overpaid a bit for the Sbisa, Dorsett extensions, although Sbisa was full value for his money this season. The Sutter and Tanev extensions I don't mind, prob about right.

Worst with UFAs: I think I'd disagree here. He did well his first season by picking up Millzy and Verby. Millzy was fulll value for the contract and Verby had one great year followed by a sub-par one. Even though Millzy and Verby were great that first year, I'd say direction of the club, pushing for playoffs rather than rebuild was a mistake. However, that is not the topic. The Eriksson contract looks bad right now.

I'm surprised the article didn't really highlight trades, prob how GMs will be judged the most. I'd rate JB pretty good here. I thought he did well in the Kesler deal considering he only had one dance partner. He did pretty good in picking up Guds and Sutter. It looks like he made a steal with the Granlund trade and Baert looks good. I am mixed on Dorsett and the Linden Vey trade was bad. He moved out Garrison @ the right time as he saw that the contract could be a problem. He got good returns for some older declining players in Juice, Burr and Hansen. Overall, I'd say JB has way more hits than misses.

In summary, I'd say JB is not the worst the GM, although far from the best. He's probably above average for the most part.

[Strangelove]

OMG why do we care about an article by someone named Carolyn Wilke?

Oh yeah because she ranks Benning low.

Not going to waste any time dissecting a horrible article...

[2Fingers]

OMG why do we care about an article by someone named Carolyn Wilke?

Oh yeah because she ranks Benning low.

Not going to waste any time dissecting a horrible article...

Translation, I'm not going to waste my team with anyone saying bad things about my golden boy.

[Hockey Widow]

OMG why do we care about an article by someone named Carolyn Wilke?

Oh yeah because she ranks Benning low.

Not going to waste any time dissecting a horrible article...

Translation, I'm not going to waste my team with anyone saying bad things about my golden boy.

Well there really was no analysis of reasoning done in that article. Just spewing internet chatter. I think most reasonable people can colour grey. The extremes on either side, genius or dumkopf, are not worth spending time over.

[Strangelove]

The fact Reef considers the article worth discussing

... pretty much guarantees the article is not worth discussing.

[2Fingers]

The fact Reef considers the article worth discussing

... pretty much guarantees the article is not worth discussing.

Haven't even read it, just think it's funny any negative Benning you disagree with.

[Strangelove]

Haven't even read it

Why am I not surprised.