Let's rename this thread to Vancouver Strata Hostages

“I want to talk to Jim and see where he’s at and where the team’s at because that’s priority number one right now...I want to stay in Vancouver.” - Tyler Toffoli

Imagine if Sutter, baertchi, Ferland, Eriksson, Benn contracts don't exist.
Literally only Sutter played throughout, the rest were like bench warmers lol.

That's about 18 Mil right there... Imagine having 17+18 cap to work with. Sign markstrom, toffoli, tanev np and fuck it, can even try to attempt to sign pangelo AND barrie lmao
Instead we choose 1 or 2 of 3, chances are higher the Canucks regress than improve next season imo

And that's why I've been a pessimist. So much dead weight

imagine if every team didnt have any problems

That would be boring

not like we're the Hawks, we got cap crunched after like a year of being any good.

Just goes to show how Benning's previous stupid decisions have come back to bite us in the ass.

Haven't even made it deep in the playoffs yet and we're already looking into throwing in asset sweeteners to dump cap lol.

To be fair, it got significantly fast tracked by drafting Petey and Hughes in 1c and 1d without lottery picks like all other teams lol. Otherwise I think the team would be still much worse and would've been "ready" closer to end of the contracts

and it has probably been shortened because of the signings and trades to try to skip the rebuild...

remember that trade for Bae? well, we gave the 2nd that became Rasmus Andersson - wouldn't it be nice to have a solid RHD who's not overpaid and can log 20+ minutes/night without giving you heart attacks unlike *cough* Myers *cough*?

remember Linden Vey? Benning gave a second for him, and he CLEARED waivers within a year.

remember Clendening? another 2nd rounder, for 17 low-quality games.

remember Bonino? actually not bad getting him, a 1st and (infamously) Pizza for Kes. but for some inexplicable reason, despite being tied to a super low cap hit, Benning ADDED yet another 2nd to get Sutter just to give him the fat contract that still curses us to this day? oh, and Clendenning was a throwaway in the Sutter trade because he was a contract dump L O L

remember McCann? came courtesy of the Kesler trade pick. what does Benning do with him? gift wrap him with a 2nd rounder for motherfucking Gudbranson - we paid hard for a downgrade! it's a fucking miracle he could partially undo this fuckup by acquiring Pearson, but still down yet another 2nd rounder.


the good thing is that Benning eventually learned to not get taken to the cleaners in trade, but he got a leash much longer than most GM's would've been afforded. of course salvaging Pearson out of Gudbranson, Miller, signing Vanek then flipping him for Motte, and even the Toffoli rental shows he learned to pick his spots better.

but then we have to talk about his legacy of going too far in free agency, which is where he DEFINITIVELY didn't learn his lesson even after Eriksson. and I'm too depressed to continue.