Trevor Linden is stepping down in VAN

[Strangelove]

Great guy, great captain, great hockey player for a few years, but a pretty crappy president...

You are extremely happy with how things have gone the past 4 years, yet the guy in charge of Hockey Ops gets zero credit for it?

mmmmmmmmk

I guess you missed that whole "figurehead" thing hmmmmmmm.

[Blob Mckenzie]

Lol carry out a rebuild? How long have they been irrelevant? 2009 they drafted kadri, didn’t make the playoffs til 2017? Horvat drafted 2013, we got 3 years to make the playoffs and be bounced out of the first round to be on par with the laughs. Difference is we were a top team prior to the horvat draft the laughs have sucked forever. I suggest you switch to cheering for the laughs if you can’t see the benningplan.

These teams were in similar shithole spots as of 2014ish.

Oh yeah let's randomly just count from 2014

ish.

Are you better from 2013, 2015, 2016?

Pick a year

[ukcanuck]

Lol carry out a rebuild? How long have they been irrelevant? 2009 they drafted kadri, didn’t make the playoffs til 2017? Horvat drafted 2013, we got 3 years to make the playoffs and be bounced out of the first round to be on par with the laughs. Difference is we were a top team prior to the horvat draft the laughs have sucked forever. I suggest you switch to cheering for the laughs if you can’t see the benningplan.

These teams were in similar shithole spots as of 2014ish.

Oh yeah let's randomly just count from 2014

ish.

Are you better from 2013, 2015, 2016?

Pick a year

Since you bring those years up, and this is where all you full rebuild folks lose me, from the first first round bounce at the hands of the Kings it was clear that a rebuild was needed but the question was how??

Eye bags had at least 3/4 of the roster locked into no trade clauses. End of story. No way to trade anyone really worth draft picks or much of anything else.

Probably could have got a Kings ransom for the Sedins in 2013 but that was never going to happen.


The Leaves on the other hand were not handcuffed and didn’t have any expectation to fill seats since the fuckers in Ontario line up for leaf tickets good bad or ugly.

It’s really an apples and oranges comparison

[Hockey Widow]

Gillis was only a few players away from building a Cup team. No way was he going to go into rebuild mode. And without all those injuries, Manny, Ehrhoff, Hamhuis, Samuelson, Burrows, Kesler, Edler, Raymond....well no re-hash suffice to say we were the best team in 2011.

The problem, be it Gillis or ownership, was we never re-tooled after 2011. By the start of 2013 it was more than obvious the core was done but there was still a struggle, rebuild vs continue to compete with the same old, same old. That’s on ownership.

Calgary did the same thing we did, they never went full rebuild. I liken our progress more to their style than the Leaves. We held onto to players too long, continued to plug roster holes and never showed a long term vision.

Benning/Linden at least presented a long term vision, yes debatable whether they went about it the right way or not. Benning has shown he’s willing to trade NTC, burry guys in the minors and more recently trade stale players for something.

I expect this season to be fun to watch but not too fruitful in the standings. But come 2019-2020 we had better be a playoff contender.

[ukcanuck]

Gillis was only a few players away from building a Cup team. No way was he going to go into rebuild mode. And without all those injuries, Manny, Ehrhoff, Hamhuis, Samuelson, Burrows, Kesler, Edler, Raymond....well no re-hash suffice to say we were the best team in 2011.

The problem, be it Gillis or ownership, was we never re-tooled after 2011. By the start of 2013 it was more than obvious the core was done but there was still a struggle, rebuild vs continue to compete with the same old, same old. That’s on ownership.

Calgary did the same thing we did, they never went full rebuild. I liken our progress more to their style than the Leaves. We held onto to players too long, continued to plug roster holes and never showed a long term vision.

Benning/Linden at least presented a long term vision, yes debatable whether they went about it the right way or not. Benning has shown he’s willing to trade NTC, burry guys in the minors and more recently trade stale players for something.

I expect this season to be fun to watch but not too fruitful in the standings. But come 2019-2020 we had better be a playoff contender.

Interesting that Gillis has still not come out with the dirt even now.

At some point do these guys not think we deserve to know what happened behind closed doors?

Anyway all ancient history other than for Blob.
Moving forward is like to know which was who when it comes to the future direction of the team.
Does aqualini want Benning to spend to the cap and bring in a fading star or stars to rob ice time from the kids or does he want to throw the kids to the wolves or did Linden want to protect the cubs

Because I’m a little worried that aqualini is impatient and expects these kids to be stars this year...

[Strangelove]

Lol carry out a rebuild? How long have they been irrelevant? 2009 they drafted kadri, didn’t make the playoffs til 2017? Horvat drafted 2013, we got 3 years to make the playoffs and be bounced out of the first round to be on par with the laughs. Difference is we were a top team prior to the horvat draft the laughs have sucked forever. I suggest you switch to cheering for the laughs if you can’t see the benningplan.

These teams were in similar shithole spots as of 2014ish.

Oh yeah let's randomly just count from 2014

ish.

Are you better from 2013, 2015, 2016?

Pick a year

Hmmmm those all seem a tad too 2014 ish.

I vote we stay with Dick's original 2009 there Hairy!

[Blob Mckenzie]

Lol carry out a rebuild? How long have they been irrelevant? 2009 they drafted kadri, didn’t make the playoffs til 2017? Horvat drafted 2013, we got 3 years to make the playoffs and be bounced out of the first round to be on par with the laughs. Difference is we were a top team prior to the horvat draft the laughs have sucked forever. I suggest you switch to cheering for the laughs if you can’t see the benningplan.

These teams were in similar shithole spots as of 2014ish.

Oh yeah let's randomly just count from 2014

ish.

Are you better from 2013, 2015, 2016?

Pick a year

Hmmmm those all seem a tad too 2014 ish.

I vote we stay with Dick's original 2009 there Hairy!

Pick whatever year you want Abbotsford . One team has built a future powerhouse while the other is far from that. In 2015 they were in very similar spots, yet now they aren’t.Is it only Austin Matthews and Olli Juolevi separating them? That’s it?? Really!!! REALLY !!

THINK about it.

OH ITS TRUE

[Strangelove]

Lol carry out a rebuild? How long have they been irrelevant? 2009 they drafted kadri, didn’t make the playoffs til 2017? Horvat drafted 2013, we got 3 years to make the playoffs and be bounced out of the first round to be on par with the laughs. Difference is we were a top team prior to the horvat draft the laughs have sucked forever. I suggest you switch to cheering for the laughs if you can’t see the benningplan.

These teams were in similar shithole spots as of 2014ish.

Oh yeah let's randomly just count from 2014

ish.

Are you better from 2013, 2015, 2016?

Pick a year

Hmmmm those all seem a tad too 2014 ish.

I vote we stay with Dick's original 2009 there Hairy!

Pick whatever year you want Abbotsford .

Okay, I pick 2009 there Como Lake!

Like Dick said, that gives Canucks another four years before you can compare Canucks to what Leaves have now.

BTW Hairy, get off the Leaf knob, Paddy wants a turn!

[SKYO]

Gillis was only a few players away from building a Cup team. No way was he going to go into rebuild mode. And without all those injuries, Manny, Ehrhoff, Hamhuis, Samuelson, Burrows, Kesler, Edler, Raymond....well no re-hash suffice to say we were the best team in 2011.

The problem, be it Gillis or ownership, was we never re-tooled after 2011. By the start of 2013 it was more than obvious the core was done but there was still a struggle, rebuild vs continue to compete with the same old, same old. That’s on ownership.

Benning/Linden at least presented a long term vision, yes debatable whether they went about it the right way or not. Benning has shown he’s willing to trade NTC, burry guys in the minors and more recently trade stale players for something.

I expect this season to be fun to watch but not too fruitful in the standings. But come 2019-2020 we had better be a playoff contender.

Interesting that Gillis has still not come out with the dirt even now.

At some point do these guys not think we deserve to know what happened behind closed doors?

Anyway all ancient history other than for Blob.
Moving forward is like to know which was who when it comes to the future direction of the team.
Does aqualini want Benning to spend to the cap and bring in a fading star or stars to rob ice time from the kids or does he want to throw the kids to the wolves or did Linden want to protect the cubs

Because I’m a little worried that aqualini is impatient and expects these kids to be stars this year...

I'm not too worried about that, if the youth are ready they are ready, if not they can go to the farm - it's just as long as we keep our prized drafted players for the most part - that's all that matters, because ALL championship teams are built through the draft/developing, sure it takes awhile but if winning comes hard, the harder it is to lose when you start to become a contender, plus I'd rather not fluke it again (reach the finals) and then disappear real quick (easy come, easy go), I'd prefer to build a rock solid team that can win within a 8-10 year window like the Penguins and Crosby's team.

ULTIMATELY above all else the team needs to build around:

Horvat - Boeser
Dahlen - Pettersson

Hughes (need that long term top pairing right side dman yet).

Demko(maybe DiPietro) whoever steals the #1 spot fully and performs elite in the playoffs.

Those are the guys I'd give long term deals to, with Boeser, Pettersson and Hughes the NMC types.

The rest of these guys might be or hopefully should help the team win pretty soon in: Virtanen, Goldy, Gaudette, Gadjovich, Lind, Madden, Palmu, Juolevi, Woo, Tryamkin, Stecher.

But yeah, Jim Benning could win over some fans if he deals a few vets for future pieces, & notably gets that young core right side bigger dman to play with Hughes long term.

[Todd Bersnoozi]

Not sure if this is mentioned already, but the Team 1040 guys are saying that when JB got his new contract, there was a clause that he was to report straight to ownership and not Trev.

https://www.tsn.ca/radio/vancouver-1040 ... -1.1148203

This could be a reason why there was some friction between Trev + JB.

- Trev is like: WTF brah? You go out and sign all these guys and you don't tell me? I'm the guy who gave you your job and this is how you treat me?
- JB twiddles his thumbs: sorry bro, it's written in my contract. Francisco is my boss. He signs my cheques and I gotta do what he wants.


I just hope Aqua-man learned from the past when he wanted Nonis to trade Kes/Edler for B.Richards. I pray he doesn't tell JB to trade some of our young stars like BoHo, Petterson, Jake, Demko, Tryamkin, Gaudette, and Hughes for some immediate help. JB does have a bit of Elmer in him, so he just might do it. Don't think JB has the balls, fortitude and bleeds Canuck colours like Nonis. He does have some qualities of a Yes Man. I look at the Canucks and I see some resemblance to the Islanders of the early 90s under Mad Mike when they drafted all those great players like Palffy, Chara, Brewer, Redden, Kasperitus, Lachance, Bert, McCabe, Luongo, T.Green, etc. Man, whoever was telling Mad Mike to draft all these guys did a hell of a job. Quite a few former Canucks on that list, including our current coach. *hehe* If the Isle kept all those guys, they would have been a top contender for alot of years. Man, if JB starts trading some of our top young players, I might finally quit cheering for the team.

Not sure if the bridge is burnt, but Aqua-man should have kept Trev as a part-time ambassador or something. Trev can do his business stuff outside the team and come in to help the team once in awhile (ie: meet with season ticket holders, be a PR guy with the media (which he is pretty good at), schmooze with some the corporate guys, do some meet and greets with fans, etc). A part of me just thinks that in some way, Trev should be involved with this franchise. Maybe down the road.

[micky107]

A cheery fellow late last nigh, hey Todd?
Don't worry! Trevor will always be an ambassador.
Doesn't need a position to be that.

[Richardstroker69]

Not sure if this is mentioned already, but the Team 1040 guys are saying that when JB got his new contract, there was a clause that he was to report straight to ownership and not Trev.

https://www.tsn.ca/radio/vancouver-1040 ... -1.1148203

This could be a reason why there was some friction between Trev + JB.

- Trev is like: WTF brah? You go out and sign all these guys and you don't tell me? I'm the guy who gave you your job and this is how you treat me?
- JB twiddles his thumbs: sorry bro, it's written in my contract. Francisco is my boss. He signs my cheques and I gotta do what he wants.


I just hope Aqua-man learned from the past when he wanted Nonis to trade Kes/Edler for B.Richards. I pray he doesn't tell JB to trade some of our young stars like BoHo, Petterson, Jake, Demko, Tryamkin, Gaudette, and Hughes for some immediate help. JB does have a bit of Elmer in him, so he just might do it. Don't think JB has the balls, fortitude and bleeds Canuck colours like Nonis. He does have some qualities of a Yes Man. I look at the Canucks and I see some resemblance to the Islanders of the early 90s under Mad Mike when they drafted all those great players like Palffy, Chara, Brewer, Redden, Kasperitus, Lachance, Bert, McCabe, Luongo, T.Green, etc. Man, whoever was telling Mad Mike to draft all these guys did a hell of a job. Quite a few former Canucks on that list, including our current coach. *hehe* If the Isle kept all those guys, they would have been a top contender for alot of years. Man, if JB starts trading some of our top young players, I might finally quit cheering for the team.

Not sure if the bridge is burnt, but Aqua-man should have kept Trev as a part-time ambassador or something. Trev can do his business stuff outside the team and come in to help the team once in awhile (ie: meet with season ticket holders, be a PR guy with the media (which he is pretty good at), schmooze with some the corporate guys, do some meet and greets with fans, etc). A part of me just thinks that in some way, Trev should be involved with this franchise. Maybe down the road.

I think you nailed it bersnooze, Benning’s new contract reporting directly to ownership paved the way for linden to be on the outside looking in. If it comes down to linden or Benning running hockey ops I’m very glad ownership picked the Benning. Linden has too much of that nhlpa stink on him, and I don’t think he can be ruthless enough.

[Uncle dans leg]

. JB does have a bit of Elmer in him, so he just might do it.

Asa public school teacher...you know all about chowing down on the old elmers eh lol

Don't think JB has the balls, fortitude and bleeds Canuck colours like Nonis.

Dont recall cheeseburger nonis ever lacing up for the sliding spaghetti...maybe in the concession stand gorging on hot dogs

[Strangelove]

(Benning) does have some qualities of a Yes Man.

No he doesn't.

Thanks for the contract info though Todd, I figured Benning was regularly going over Trev's (figure)head

... but I did not know it was actually written into his contract!

[SKYO]

Don't think JB has the balls, fortitude and bleeds Canuck colours like Nonis.

Dont recall cheeseburger nonis ever lacing up for the sliding spaghetti...maybe in the concession stand gorging on hot dogs

score 1 for UDL.

--
Just some wiki info on JB...

After Jim Benning's ten year NHL playing career including four years with the Canucks he went in as a amateur scout for the Anaheim Ducks, then moved on to the Buffalo Sabres as a scout for four years before being promoted to their Director of Amateur Scouting for six years where they drafted some superb players, after which he became the Assistant General Manager for the Boston Bruins for six/seven years where the Bruins eventually won the Cup in 2011.

2014 onwards, Jim and Bracket have unearthed some gems in the draft and imo have accumulated some core players for the next Canucks contending team in a couple years onwards.

Of note Jim's father was a pro scout for the Montreal Habs.

I think having Trev here was good for the gradual turnover for Jim and his crew, helped with the transition of the tortuous rebuild with all the fickle fans, the emo media and the owners who are win hungry.

Jim Benning has put in a lot of NHL dues from being a player, to scout to assistant GM to now having his full NHL team under his control, he went at this in a proper professional way, and hopefully he can make some solid moves to help transition in the younger players further.
He really needs that key trade to win over some fans though aha.

But make no mistake Jim has earned his way to his current position as an NHL General Manager. I think we are lucky to have a GM like Benning, I believe in this dude.