Quote (Secksii @ Mar 24 2021 05:59am)
That's what minority of the fans wanted if I remember correctly, however majority was pushing for Benning to make a big move and sign either Lucic, Neal or Eriksson. It also didn't help when aquaman didn't wanna do a full rebuild after 2011 when Gillis wanted to, and basically forced Benning and linden to retool on the fly while the sedins were still playing. I think linden and Benning finally got the green light to rebuild once they were gone, since they finally started using the word "rebuild" lol. However linden probably wanted to do it the right way and patiently, while aquaman had other ideas. Benning is his yes man, so I can see why linden rage quit, while Benning is still around.
As for saved money being used to retain talented players, there was none back then. Most of the core were either alrdy locked up or retiring/traded away. If you look at the roster, it's literally horvat and boeser but then they were signed to good contracts. So the only option to utilize the saved money would be signing talented players through FA but the risk is it can turn into Eriksson, or just sign bunch of depth players. He did the later, but I agree the term was long and overpaid, but when ur team lacks prospects to fill the roster and ur team is trash the only way to attract players through fa is term and money.
Hawks were a good team though, and their prospects were full of decent players opposed to what Gillis left Benning. It's much easier to fill and make lateral moves to constantly re tool their roster on a better team, Benning had to do both. Find a way to fill the pool and keep em developing and find players that can fill roster spots. He figured 3yrs would be an average time for the prospects to develop and eventually replace them, but I don't think he expected to hit home runs with not only Petey with a 5oa but also Hughes with 7oa considerably speeding up the rebuild. That's 2 roster spots filled immediately as 1d and 1c back to back after only a year from getting the greenlight to rebuild after sedins retired. That's rare af, especially when it's not back to back lotto wins. Also, Kane is still playing well and is active, so is most of their older core, and their prospects like debrincat, dach, kubalik, etc. Became roster players. Canucks didn't have the same luxury while sedins were around cuz again not much prospects turned out like hawks did while the sedins were around. I think it was just Hutton, gaunce, mccaan, virtnanen.. So depressing
Aqua needs to stop interferring with the team, and actually hire someone to be the president of hockey operations, so they can have a clear direction and just yolo go with the plan. I feel like it's too much for Benning to handle everything, including the draft and he's leaving a lot of things to the last minute. It would be nice if someone more stern and with a good plan joined the org
granted no one expected Eriksson to fall off as hard as he did, but the signing is the prime example of Benning's gross tunnel vision. the team had just come off a terrible season and was clearly on the decline. it's fine to spend money if the owners OK it and you don't have to commit to other players but you have to plan the term around so it doesn't bite you in the ass. cap space is also an asset so that could've been used to take a dump from a contender and stockpile futures that way. it can also be used to "trial" veterans who may be useful down the line.
realistically there was little to gain from adding Eriksson in the long term because the Sedins core was no longer capable of competing for a Cup. we tanked anyways and ironically landed Pettersson because of it, but if Eriksson had performed to expectations we would've picked mid-round and had Brannstrom or some shit, being further behind in the rebuild. and now that we're kinda-ish competitive we lost good talent over a signing that should've not only been shorter but, if management had the capacity to plan long-term, should have never happened to begin with. if it's a matter of filling the roster, again, at least the contracts need to be aligned so that they're expired by the time the players you actually want to retain have to be re-signed.
feel like Benning just rode the coattails of his Bruins rep and was assumed to be capable just because that team won a Cup. the rot comes from the top for sure, we'll never know to what extent Aquaman interferes with operations but it has to be substantial at this point.
This post was edited by Hizkuntza on Mar 24 2021 12:01pm