Does Jim Benning get a 2nd look ?

[Javaman]

Linden overrode him, which caused a power struggle and Aquilini sided with Dimbo.

Another funny one was Benning really wanted Conner Bleackley, but the Avs took him 1 pick before the Canucks and he defaulted to the scouts because it was his first year as GM. All of the struggles between Dimbo and the scouting department are fairly well documented/insinuiated over the years, with people like Brackett (responsible for US players like Boeser/Gaudette) and Palango (McCann) eventually leaving for greener pastures.

I looked up Bleackley on hockeyDB and noticed he was drafted in the 1st round of 2014, right ahead of McCann and then Pastrnak. I'm not sure what happened (I'm assuming he refused to sign with Colorado or something) but he got drafted again by St. Louis in 2016... but this time in the 5th round, lol.

Anyways, it's hard to believe, looking at his pic, that he's a 28 year old professional athlete. Dude looks like a 40 year old insurance salesman.

Not a single NHL game for Bleackley: more evidence to counter the silly notion that Benning is good at scouting.

 

[EpochLink]

Benning and Chiarelli were both 'success' stories from the Boston Bruins model. This was at the time Boston was being the hot commodity for new blood for GM's and they were coming off very successful seasons.

Turns out, both just made coffee, did massive farts in the office and played NHL 94 on Sega.
Seeing at how the OBC has pretty much sentenced them to the witness protection program, doubt they will get GM jobs again.

Probably AGM or scouting but not GM.

 

[Fatass]

NFW

 

[rypper]

This is just hyperbolic nonsense. There have been plenty of terrible GMs in this league. The average GM is very bad. If you only followed Peter Chiarelli or Jason Botterill half as closely as you followed Benning.

Benning never wrote a single max contract or made a single star player lopsided trade. Like Hall for Larson.

The worst GMs ever , make multiple star player lopsided trades and sign multiple bad max contracts. Or trade for them. Like the guy who signed Scott Gomez and then the guy who traded for him

Jimbo wasn't even the worst GM in his tenure. Chia or Botterill were

Sorry but you're wrong.

Plus Botteril lasted 3 seasons, Chiarelli 4. Benning had almost 8 seasons. He's by far the worst.

 

[Strangelove]

Jim Benning is probably the kindest, bravest, warmest, most selfless human being I've ever known.

OOPS, sorry, that was Raymond Shaw.

 

[Frankie Blueberries]

^the poster above me still believes Benning did a great job lol. This guy was a prominent poster of a 400+ page thread mocking HF Boards because our posters criticized Benning based on his poor decisions and terrible results. He’s an embarrassment and we have since traded him to Edmonton fandom for future considerations

 

[LordBacon]

He's a terrible gm, it's a fact. Get over it.

 

[RebuildinVan]

I think k he would be a good AGM, GM probably not again.

He wont, there really was no aspect of the job he was good at

 

[Brookbank]

I looked up Bleackley on hockeyDB and noticed he was drafted in the 1st round of 2014, right ahead of McCann and then Pastrnak. I'm not sure what happened (I'm assuming he refused to sign with Colorado or something) but he got drafted again by St. Louis in 2016... but this time in the 5th round, lol.

Anyways, it's hard to believe, looking at his pic, that he's a 28 year old professional athlete. Dude looks like a 40 year old insurance salesman.

Not a single NHL game for Bleackley: more evidence to counter the silly notion that Benning is good at scouting.

Seeding more Benning stories are we ? Connor Bleackley. This will be the next Benning rumor that will spread far and wide.

Pass it on

 

[Jack Tripper]

Even if you put aside all of the terrible drafts, deadlines, free agency periods and cap management, perhaps the worst thing about Benning was his arrogance and complete lack of self-awareness.

Lost all respect for him as a person during the Covid season when the team went through one of the worst outbreaks in professional sports - ended Brandon Sutter's career - and he was absolutely nowhere to be found. Forced JT Miller and others to speak on behalf of the organisation. Total coward.

 

[Javaman]

Seeding more Benning stories are we ? Connor Bleackley. This will be the next Benning rumor that will spread far and wide.

Pass it on

Dude, Benning sucked at every single aspect of being a GM. The one thing he was maybe, possibly not objectively terrible at was drafting. But GMs play a fairly minor role in that area anyways.

Whether or not the Bleackley story is true is irrelevant. There is an absolute mountain of evidence he was completely terrible as a GM.

Just deal with it and move on. It boggles my mind that anyone could possibly feel compelled to keep defending him.

 

[Bourne Endeavor]

This is just hyperbolic nonsense. There have been plenty of terrible GMs in this league. The average GM is very bad. If you only followed Peter Chiarelli or Jason Botterill half as closely as you followed Benning.

Benning never wrote a single max contract or made a single star player lopsided trade. Like Hall for Larson.

The worst GMs ever , make multiple star player lopsided trades and sign multiple bad max contracts. Or trade for them. Like the guy who signed Scott Gomez and then the guy who traded for him

Jimbo wasn't even the worst GM in his tenure. Chia or Botterill were

Hall for Larsson was one-sided but at least made sense for Edmonton who desperately needed defense at the time. OEL made absolutely zero sense for us yet Benning not only genuinely believed he was still a #1 defenseman but tossed in the damn 9th overall pick for a player on a massive decline who had a two team list.

What's even more hilarious is he let Tanev and Toffoli walk to accomplish this colossal level of stupidity. You know, a guy currently in the third round and routinely known for his stellar defensive play. The Canucks definitely didn't need a guy like that the past few years. They absolutely didn't need a near constant 30 goal scorer either...

Chiarelli was a complete moron but I'd still take him over Jim Benning.

 

[HairyKneel]

That's BS. He had the power to override everyone and pick Glass. But they picked Petterson. So you can't just put that on his CV.

And again , I'm not defending him. Just trying to be objective


Demko , Silovs , Forsling , Mccan , Boeser Hoglander. Only Mccan and Boeser was 1st round.

There was others too

lol you just enraged the infants with this post. That said he was as a terrible GM and he will never get another GM job in the NHL. He had hits and misses at the draft table, but made mostly horrible trades and mangled the cap. His communication skills were horrendous and his cap management/UFA signings were piss poor.

 

[93LEAFS]

I'd love to know what old western movie you've been watching, because I am so in the mood for it.

Just a ton of Deadwood and Leone, nothing recent.

 

[SmoggyTwinkles]

Just a ton of Deadwood and Leone, nothing recent.

Loved Deadwood.

You helped me realize I've never seen Duck, You Sucker.

So that is how I'm going to start my day off just chilling with that. Thanks!

 

[Rowlet]

lol you just enraged the infants with this post. That said he was as a terrible GM and he will never get another GM job in the NHL. He had hits and misses at the draft table, but made mostly horrible trades and mangled the cap. His communication skills were horrendous and his cap management/UFA signings were piss poor.

Linden was his boss who overrode him and went with Pettersson.

And I generally think his drafting was okay, but missing on that many high picks is unforgivable.

 

[krutovsdonut]

i don't see benning working again. he's not going to go back to an agm gig, and the only way he's going to get a gm title is working for a poho that is really the gm and just wants a guy to do the leg work. there are better more credible candidates for that role so i doubt it. nobody is going to trust benning to be a real gm actually in charge of the team. the only thing good he has on his resume is the core drafting and jt miller trade. there's reason to question how much of that was his idea just as there is reason to doubt a lot of the bad moves were his idea. the overriding problem is that the guy was never really his own man.

benning's tenure was a drawn out mess and could be a case study in business organizational failure. i call it the triumverate of suck. you had a wannabe gm owner who set team direction and got involved in management to a ridiculous degree, a completely green and inept poho in linden who could not control the owner, was totally unsuited to and unqualified for the role and who also had personal ties to the core in place when benning was hired that led to an unrealistic vision for the team. then you had benning, who i like to call an errand boy for grocery clerks.

the real disaster was that it lasted so long because of a lack of accountability between those three cooks. benning repeatedly survived horrendous events and decisions because they were not necessarily his moves since he was being micromanaged. eventually it looked like he could not be fired because the owner did not want to give up control and involvement in hockey ops. it took years for benning to take the fall and it happened because the rest of the owner's family intervened. benning is almost a bit player in his own story.

 

[JianYang]

Yes. He's quite handsome.

 

[MS]

Seeding more Benning stories are we ? Connor Bleackley. This will be the next Benning rumor that will spread far and wide.

Pass it on

This was reported in the Vancouver media like 9 years ago. It has plenty of credibility and has been around for ages.

 

[JianYang]

I wouldnt hire Benning but when I look at their current core guys like demko, pettersson, Miller, Boeser, and hughes, are those all Benning era guys? I think they are.

Like I said l, that's not to say I hire him but perhaps he's not the biggest idiot in the history of mankind that he's made out to be?

 

[Breakers]

Vancouver’s insider is Dhaliwal for those that aren’t aware.
He’s not a great insider on rumors like trades, but he is really good at breaking signings during free agency as he knows all the agents in the game, as that’s how he got his start.

Anyways they asked him to characterize Benning’s tenure and what stuck out, he said what was funny about Benning was he negotiated against himself and was oblivious to the market.

He brought up Tucker Poolman as an example
He was told from numerous agents the signing would be a 1 year, maybe 2 year deal if they were desperate coming off a 1 assist season.

So Dhaliwal describes the story where he gets a text from an agent saying $2.5 million for Poolman to Vancouver.
And he thinks:
$1 million in year 1
$1.5 million year 2
He tweeted that out!!
LOL

The same agent text’s him back after the tweet. And says NO! $2.5 is the AAV and he’s like ohh Vancouver overpaid on a 1 year deal.

Same agent texts him back saying it’s a 4 year $10 million deal for poolman

He was speechless, he just couldn’t believe Poolman got that.

That’s Jim Benning as a GM.

 

[Frankie Blueberries]

I wouldnt hire Benning but when I look at their current core guys like demko, pettersson, Miller, Boeser, and hughes, are those all Benning era guys? I think they are.

Like I said l, that's not to say I hire him but perhaps he's not the biggest idiot in the history of mankind that he's made out to be?

Translation: “let’s just focus on the 20% of moves that he made that were positive for the team, and ignore the other 80% that were negative and stupid as hell.”

 

[Mathew Barzal]

The dude is an oaf. I have no idea how anybody can listen to him speak and think he’s an intelligent enough person to manage a multimillion dollar franchise.

 

[JianYang]

Translation: “let’s just focus on the 20% of moves that he made that were positive for the team, and ignore the other 80% that were negative and stupid as hell.”

Not quite the correct translation but that's okay.

 

[Bgav]

I am convinced the OP is either Benning himself or Weisbrod