[Article] Canucks: Trevor Linden slams former GM Jim Benning in Sportsnet 650 interview

[LillStrimma]

1 hour ago, Jeremy Hronek said:

 

Because, you always need to be sure.  Even if you really love one prospect and are 99% sure that you're going to draft him, you still need to do a comprehensive analysis on other picks and prospects just to be sure. For example, what if Pettersson had been drafted earlier?  Then what?     Doing a comprehensive analysis and proper due diligence is the smart thing to do.

So you believe scouts in NHL don’t know wich pick they will choose if their first, second, third, fourth, fifth etc choice is taken? 
Here it shows you only are here to defend Benning at all cost.

 

I’ve only heard of one guy being so stupid and that is Benning. Wich he showed when he let Tanev, Marky and Toffoli all go for free.

[Jeremy Hronek]

Just now, Provost said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[quote]There have been so many people attached to the organization and left that have effectively called Benning a snake that I think any right minded person can figure it out. [/quote]

 

Like who?  Linden has indirectly implied this but who else has done this?

 

 [quote]Heck, with the Brackett firing he said that Judd wanted 100% autonomy and control over every pick. [/quote]

 

Was Benning lying here?

 

[quote]Benning was a terrible GM and an average at best scout. [/quote]

 

Letting Tanev walk in the Summer of 2020 was absolutely unforgivable in my eyes and may have singlehandedly cost us from taking that 'next step' post bubble.  Benning seemingly got it ingrained in his head that guys like Schmidt, Myers, and OEL would be suitable replacements from Edler and Tanev in terms of being those 'two-way minute eating defensemen' that could take on tough match-ups, etc.  

 

But again - Why is this relevant in 2023?

 

I was a BenningBro and I got knocked on my ass.   I predicted that this team would 'arrive' in 21/22 (this core's version of 2008/2009)..........and now it's happening two years later.  

 

Let's enjoy the ride my friend.  

 

p.s.________________And yes, I'll be counting on you to make a 'probabilities' post in a few games if we keep our current solid play.  

 

 

 

[Mando27]

This feels like the media is just trying to find something negative to talk about with the Canucks now that they are playing well. Gotta get those outrage clicks.

[Jeremy Hronek]

Just now, LillStrimma said:

So you believe scouts in NHL don’t know wich pick they will choose if their first, second, third, fourth, fifth etc choice is taken? 
Here it shows you only are here to defend Benning at all cost.

 

I’ve only heard of one guy being so stupid and that is Benning. Wich he showed when he let Tanev, Marky and Toffoli all go for free.

 

No that's not what I'm saying.  What I'm saying is that Benning probably wanted his scouting team (and himself for that matter) to do a more comprehensive analysis before fully committing to Petey (even though Benning himself probably loved Pettersson).   I'm guessing that Linden may have misinterpreted Benning's intentions here (I will admit that Linden had good reason to 2nd guess Benning due to the 2016 drafting fiasco.........something that I fully blame Benning for by the way..........so you can get it out of your head that I'm emotionally and spiritually invested in Benning's genitalia and what have you).  

 

 

 

 

[Ballisticsports]

3 hours ago, LillStrimma said:

So you say the other scouts confirming Lindens word is also full of shit?

 

Did actually a true Benning fan come over here? 

If so I can reaffirm you that Benning was and is full of shit. He is the closest, anyone connected with the Canucks, to be called a MAGA Canuck. 

 

He managed the team horribly at his job he was hired to do

Don;t forget when fired Smyl talked of how all management (except UnWeis)was kept in the dark near the end

 

Be thankful Aqua finally made the move even if it was 2-3 yrs too late

Gm's manage scouts draft and why TL made sure of that in 2017 and after TL left JB wanted his way again and Judd and lot of scouts left

[LillStrimma]

Just now, Jeremy Hronek said:

 

No that's not what I'm saying.  What I'm saying is that Benning probably wanted his scouting team (and himself for that matter) to do a more comprehensive analysis before fully committing to Petey (even though Benning himself probably loved Pettersson).   I'm guessing that Linden may have misinterpreted Benning's intentions here (I will admit that Linden had good reason to 2nd guess Benning due to the 2016 drafting fiasco.........something that I fully blame Benning for by the way..........so you can get it out of your head that I'm emotionally and spiritually invested in Benning's genitalia and what have you).  

 

 

 

 

This is now you should stop and think it over.

Why do you believe the scouts didn’t do a comprehensive analysis on every player that could fall into their draft position? 
 

Is it because Benning said something stupid to try to deflect his shortcomings on others or do you have a source that is thruthful saying the Canucks scouts were dumb as few? 

[Jeremy Hronek]

14 minutes ago, LillStrimma said:

It’s in the thread, one tweeted the word ”Finally”. 
That is not a word someone tweets if Benning did a good job.

 

Meh, fair enough.     

 

But again, why is this relevant in 2023?   

 

I was a "BenningBro" and fully admit defeat.   

 

I predicted that the Canucks would "arrive" in 21/22 (this core's equivalent of the 08/09 season) and I was off............by two years.

 

23/24 seems like it's shaping to be our 08/09 season right now (followed by bigger, better, and blacker things to come over the next few seasons?).   

 

Excluding Pettersson, guys like Hughes, Demko, Miller, Boeser, Garland, and Hoglander are all a part of the current Canucks squad.   

 

Is that because of Benning?  Judd Bracket's ball sack?  Thomas Drance?  Who gives a fuck.  The bottom line is that this Canucks team looks poised and ready to take the next step.

 

I'm thankful for some of what Benning did for us, but am absolutely ecstatic that we have Alvin + what I think is the greatest coaching staff (Tocchet, Foote, Yeo, Gonchar) that this organization has ever had.  

 

Lets focus on the now.

 

Let the past be the past.

[iceman1964]

9 hours ago, RWJC said:

Canucks: Trevor Linden slams former GM Jim Benning in Sportsnet 650 interview

 

Rumours have swirled. Questions have been asked.

 

Was it really Jim Benning’s call to draft superstar forward Elias Pettersson with the fifth-overall pick in 2017, or did the former general manager prefer someone else?

 

Former Vancouver Canucks great Trevor Linden attempted to clear the air in an eye-opening interview on Sportsnet 650 on Wednesday afternoon — and his take on what happened behind the scenes leading up to that fateful draft for the Canucks is not favourable towards Benning.

 

On Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satiar Shah, Linden, who as team president hired Benning in 2014, said if the former Boston Bruins assistant GM “had his choice, he probably would’ve taken a different player.”

 

“I wasn’t happy with the way our process was in 2016 and that was the first year Judd (Brackett) had taken over the reins and I did not like how our meetings went,” Linden said. “So in 2017, I really pushed hard to have Judd really step up and really run a robust-type meeting in that we can really put our thoughts and feelings on the table.

 

“I really pushed hard in that management group to have Judd and his guys make the pick. And Judd — and give Ronnie Delorme a lot of credit as well — they loved this guy and so, Jim wasn’t sold.”

 

 

 

The year before Pettersson was selected, Benning took Olli Juolevi with the sixth-overall pick. Juolevi turned out to be a bust in Vancouver and is currently playing in Sweden.

 

A few hours after the Linden interview, Sportsnet producer Raja Shergill posted on X that he had spoken to Benning, who refuted the comments.

“We were always going to draft Pettersson. The whole group liked Petey.”

 

Benning also told Shergill that he felt the scouting group hadn’t watched other players enough and wanted them to do their due diligence.

 

Benning’s comments are thought to be the first to be made publicly since he was fired by the Canucks in December of 2021 — on the same day the organization relieved head coach Travis Green of his duties in a house cleaning move.

 

Brackett, meanwhile, signed with the Minnesota Wild to be their head scout in July of 2020.

Mike Raptis

mraptis@postmedia.com

twitter.com/mike_raptis

 

https://apple.news/AdpjVJCyGQBWzol6sgeoNjQ

Clear the air?  Sounds like someone being butt hurt STILL, get over it already and move on, EP is a canuck, the same guy when he didn't play well for a short stretch that he was thrown under the bus as a wasted draft pick, so who the fack cares? 

Blah blah blahhhh , or wah wah wahhhh  more like it... 

 

(Clickbait 101)  Our media is worse than useless, wish we could trade them, we'd rock that trade if we got a bucket of pucks in return, at least the pucks would be useful. 

P.S.  3 guesses where throw EP under the bus as a bust started? And some people believe these idiots?! How stupid could you possibly be? 

 

Edited November 9, 2023 by iceman1964

[JamesB]

1. Glad to get Linden's comments. I have had the pleasure of talking to Linden a few time personally and of course have seen him a lot on TV. He has always struck me as very straightforward and honest and he has a lot of credibility in my view.

 

2. Of course, we all tend to have selective memories and engage in ex post rationalization, so it does not surprise me that Benning has a slightly different take now, although he did not really dispute Linden's account. Yes, eventually he was on board with Petey, but that was after a lot of fist-pounding on the table by Brackett and the scouts. And it was the result of being pushed by Linden and others to put more emphasis on the scouts than on his own gut feeling.

 

3. I have tended to believe the rumours (now supported in a subtle way by Linden's comments) that Juolevi was a Benning guy. I also suspect that Benning picked Virtanen to "please" Francesco (another popular rumor). 

 

4. There were also rumors that have been pretty much substantiated that Brackett and Benning often disagreed and did not get along and that Brackett was a "Linden guy". And it is a fact that Benning made an insulting offer to Brackett that he felt he had to turn down rather than re-sign.

 

5. Now that the Canucks are doing well there are a few Benning loyalists claiming the Benning deserves credit for building the "core". I think that is wrong. If a team does badly enough for long enough it acquires enough high draft picks that it usually acquires two or three elite players. But going from there to building a good team is not easy and Benning was never smart enough to do that. I am very impressed with the way JR and Allvin have been able to build a good team around the core talents the team had. That includes getting a good coaching staff, making smart UFA acquisitions, good cap management, good prospect pipeline development (including drafting), etc.

 

 

[Jeremy Hronek]

4 minutes ago, LillStrimma said:

This is now you should stop and think it over.

Why do you believe the scouts didn’t do a comprehensive analysis on every player that could fall into their draft position? 
 

Is it because Benning said something stupid to try to deflect his shortcomings on others or do you have a source that is thruthful saying the Canucks scouts were dumb as few? 

 

Lol, I don't know bro.  

 

Who gives a fuck in 2023?    

 

I wish both Linden and Benning the best of luck with whatever they are doing in their lives right now and am thankful that we have Pettersson, Hughes, Demko, Garland, Hoglander, and Miller all playing for us whether that's due to Benning, Judd Bracket, Judd Nelson, Caitlyn Jenner, or whoever.  

 

Alvin is an awesome GM and we have the greatest coaching staff in our franchise history imo (yes, even better than the Pat Quinn days imo). 

[iinatcc]

32 minutes ago, 1-d said:

 

And that's when Jim & John's 2 yes-men show began.

 

Maybe it was John pulling the strings all along 

 

 

 

 

[iinatcc]

54 minutes ago, Jeremy Hronek said:

Maybe.....maybe not. 

 

But do you think it's possible that you're reading too far into this?

 

I mean if you think it's just a coincidence then it's up to you. 

 

 

[DeNiro]

Can we all just be thankful the right decisions were made on Petey and Hughes and stop living in the past?

 

Lets keep the positive vibes going shall we?

[Jeremy Hronek]

2 minutes ago, iinatcc said:

 

I mean if you think it's just a coincidence then it's up to you. 

 

 

 

I'd probably think more deeply about this if it was 2019 but too much time has passed.  

 

It's 2023.

 

Who gives a fuck?!?!

 

(although given how much I've responded in this thread, maybe I still do?  lol.  I don't know).

 

Fun trip down memory lane regardless.   I wish both Linden and Benning the best of luck in life.  

 

Bring on the Senators.  

[Strawbone]

"Slams" is just a clickbait title. I listened to the entire interview and Trevor was pretty measured in his responses. I didn't sense any animosity against Benning. 

[Jeremy Hronek]

9 minutes ago, JamesB said:

 

 

5. Now that the Canucks are doing well there are a few Benning loyalists claiming the Benning deserves credit for building the "core". I think that is wrong. I

 

 

 

I think both Alvin and Benning deserve credit for the current Canucks team.   Pettersson, Hughes, Demko, Hoglander, Garland, Boeser, and Miller were all brought in by the Benning regime whereas guys like Hronek, Kuzmenko, Mikeheyev, PDG, Suter, Bluegar, Soucy, Cole, DeSmith, etc. are all current regime players.   

 

There is no such thing as "A Benning loyalist" (at least I don't think?).

 

We are Canucks loyalists.   

 

I supported Benning and initially predicted that our coming out party would be the 21/22 season (this core's version of 2008-2009).

 

I was off by two years.

 

I'm human.  

 

I make mistakes.

 

But am now enjoying the ride.

 

Let all of the 2014-2019 shit go to rest.  

 

Go Canucks Go.

[iceman1964]

3 minutes ago, Strawbone said:

"Slams" is just a clickbait title. I listened to the entire interview and Trevor was pretty measured in his responses. I didn't sense any animosity against Benning. 

Then why even talk about it?! Have a hard time believing that...

[PhillipBlunt]

Listening to the interview, and the point where Linden talks about Benning and the 2017 draft, the statement about Benning not picking Pettersson seems legit. It doesn't come across as slamming Benning, more so a matter of fact statement. 

[Bure_Pavel]

8 hours ago, iinatcc said:

 

Now I want to know who is responsible for picking Kole Lind and not Jason Robertson 

Hague was the obvious pick there.

[LillStrimma]

9 minutes ago, Jeremy Hronek said:

 

Lol, I don't know bro.  

 

Who gives a fuck in 2023?    

 

I wish both Linden and Benning the best of luck with whatever they are doing in their lives right now and am thankful that we have Pettersson, Hughes, Demko, Garland, Hoglander, and Miller all playing for us whether that's due to Benning, Judd Bracket, Judd Nelson, Caitlyn Jenner, or whoever.  

 

Alvin is an awesome GM and we have the greatest coaching staff in our franchise history imo (yes, even better than the Pat Quinn days imo). 

From the start since I joined CDC it was all Gillis fault, he couldn’t draft etc. 
While Benning was talked about as he was good because he was so good at the draft.

 

I’m kind if fed of that a GM is judged almost only by the drafted players.

That is so wrong because the organisation pays a lot of people to do that.

So when a player is drafted it depends on the organisation, not the GM.

And when a GM is so bad as Benning was it’s almost insulting to hear about it.

So I hope that Allvin gets judged on how he handles the organisation and not who he picks in the draft.

[PhillipBlunt]

3 minutes ago, LillStrimma said:

From the start since I joined CDC it was all Gillis fault, he couldn’t draft etc. 
While Benning was talked about as he was good because he was so good at the draft.

 

I’m kind if fed of that a GM is judged almost only by the drafted players.

That is so wrong because the organisation pays a lot of people to do that.

So when a player is drafted it depends on the organisation, not the GM.

And when a GM is so bad as Benning was it’s almost insulting to hear about it.

So I hope that Allvin gets judged on how he handles the organisation and not who he picks in the draft.

Good point. Some of Alvin's choices were questionable to me at first. Now that I look at them as part of a larger whole, I see that he's had a methodology that's informed the type of team he wants to build. And it's clearly working. 

[Jeremy Hronek]

1 minute ago, LillStrimma said:

From the start since I joined CDC it was all Gillis fault, he couldn’t draft etc. 
While Benning was talked about as he was good because he was so good at the draft.

 

I’m kind if fed of that a GM is judged almost only by the drafted players.

That is so wrong because the organisation pays a lot of people to do that.

So when a player is drafted it depends on the organisation, not the GM.

And when a GM is so bad as Benning was it’s almost insulting to hear about it.

So I hope that Allvin gets judged on how he handles the organisation and not who he picks in the draft.

 

I hear you brother.

 

My personal interpretation of the situation is that Gillis wanted to start the rebuild as early as the Summer of 2012 (after our loss to the Kings) where we'd get to sell of our core players (peak value) for elite prospects and picks but Aqua said no.   

 

It's too bad because that would have been an excellent idea imo.  

 

After our four game sweep to the Sharks in 2013, everyone knew that we needed to rebuild and our players' values had diminished in value.  Gillis went to ownership again with the same plea but was met with rejection.    

 

When Benning took over in 2014, our aging core players' had greatly diminished values and were signed to shit contracts............not thanks to Gillis, but thanks to Aqua man.  Benning's hands were basically tied in many ways when he took over this team.  An aging core + very little prospects in the cupboards.  

[Jeremy Hronek]

9 minutes ago, PhillipBlunt said:

Listening to the interview, and the point where Linden talks about Benning and the 2017 draft, the statement about Benning not picking Pettersson seems legit. It doesn't come across as slamming Benning, more so a matter of fact statement. 

 

My personal take on the situation is the Benning liked Pettersson but preferred the defensemen that went earlier (Makar, Heiskanen)

 

https://theprovince.com/sports/hockey/nhl/vancouver-canucks/draft-notebook-if-makar-was-available-canucks-could-have-been-sweating

 

I think the 'Cody Glass' shit was a smear campaign started by Thomas Drance followers.

Edited November 9, 2023 by Jeremy Hronek

[Breadnbutta]

Benning the draft guru.

 

What a clown what a facade.

 

I will always believe Trev over Dumbo

[canuck73_3]

Another person to confirm credit to Delorme for Pettersson, Timrafan in shambles now