We've also been through this discussion before multiple times.
No one expected Benning to turn the ship around quickly. That being said, it doesn't help when you trade four 2nd round picks (33rd overall included) along with a handful of other draft picks for waiver-eligible busts like Vey, Larsen, Etem, etc. And then he traded away McCann and Kassian for garbage players as well. At a time when we needed to be accumulating futures, Benning instead decided to spend them on players that were ultimately useless. He tried to take a shortcut in rebuilding and it blew up in his face, setting back our rebuild further. He also spent to the cap on terrible players (Eriksson, Gagner, Del Zotto, Beagle, Schaller, etc.), when we could have used the cap space to acquire more picks (see 1st round pick with Marleau).
We're agreeing on this point then. You're the one that made the comparison to those teams. I said those teams are different because they have changed management. Now you're jut repeating what I said. Staying the course only works when you have competent people in charge. Although most teams will make the playoffs after a significant amount of time of sucking has passed, so it's not really a testament to old Jimbo.
Lol, just because I care enough about the team to think critically about the moves they make doesn't make me any lesser of a fan. People like you are why crappy organizations stay crappy. Because you're complacent with whatever Benning does.
I mean if you ignore the 5 previous seasons when Hughes wasn't on our roster, then you have a point. But we're talking about Benning's tenure here and the core he inherited vs. built. Everyone knew Markstrom was a project; who is to say if his development would have been any different under any other GM in Vancouver. He still was here before Benning which is ultimately the point we were discussing. Man, you're grasping at straws here.
