The area where I've defended Benning is in draft picks. And the name calling bugs me.
There's a huge double standard here. Time after time people bring up the teams lack of success in the Benning years, but would have no problem hiring a GM with just about as bad a record, in Gorton. Gorton is rebuilding in just the same way Benning is - that is finishing low in the standings then getting high draft picks. Gorton got lucky and won the draft lottery twice, giving him #1 overall in 2020 (Alexis Lafreniere) and #2 overall in 2019 (Kaapo Kakko). The highest pick Benning ever got was 5 (twice), but he has still managed to draft much better than Gorton.
Pettersson at #5 is easily better than #1Lafreniere, going by their rookie seasons, and Hoglanderr at 40 is having a better rookie season than #2 Kakko's second season in the league. The Rangers don't have anything close to Hughes talent, who the Canucks stole at #7. K'Andre Miller looks like he can play, but so does Rathbone. The 2 Russians cancel out, though Podkolzin is 19 and Kravtsov is 21 and has only 2G and 2A in 20 games, so I'm taking play-off beast Podkolzin here.
I'm just not seeing a huge difference in the trajectories of these 2 rebuilding teams, and you can make a strong argument that Benning has drafted much better, despite his weaker drafting positions.