Vancouver Canucks season takeaways: Jim Benning must make playoffs
We’re counting down the 10 biggest takeaways from the Vancouver Canucks’ 2018-19 season. Up next, GM Jim Benning enters a must-win season.
Most of the time, four straight non-playoff seasons usually gets someone fired — but Vancouver Canucks general manager Jim Benning is in a very unique situation.
Benning got the Canucks into the playoffs back in 2014-15, his first year on the job. The Canucks have now missed out in each of the last four years, which includes two bottom-three finishes in the league standings (2015-15 and 2016-17).
The Aquilini family has been very patient under Benning, allowing him to rebuild this team rather than go for the playoffs. But after a while, the results speak for themselves. And that brings us to our No. 8 takeaway on the Canucks’ 2018-19 season: Benning is facing a make-or-break year going into 2019-20.
To his credit, Benning has drafted three future superstars in Brock Boeser, Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes. But Benning is the same person who gave Loui Eriksson $36 million — and the man who drafted Olli Juolevi over established star Matthew Tkachuk. The Jay Beagle contract already looks like a mistake, too.
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Benning also hasn’t been able to add many draft picks throughout the years. Not trading Chris Tanev hurt him big time, and the Canucks are never going to receive good value in a trade for the 29-year-old — assuming he’s playing out his final days in Vancouver.
The point is, there are different ways to view Benning’s first five years in Vancouver. Do you think he’s the man for the job because of his strong drafting? Or do you think they need a change, due to questionable free agent signings and a handful of bad trades.
It doesn’t matter how fans view Benning though. The only opinion that matters is that of Francesco Aquilini. If the Canucks miss the playoffs for a fifth straight year in 2020, it’s safe to think that a change in the front office will take place.
Benning has plenty of cap space to add one or two impact players in free agency. He can also start moving out the players that haven’t performed here. He has all the resources to fix this team and get them into the playoffs next year.
Oh, and he has the No. 10 pick in what looks like a stacked draft class. Here’s his chance to add an impact scorer to play with Pettersson — or another stud defenceman that can form a pairing with Mr. Hughes down the road.
Benning is simply running out of chances to finish this rebuild in proper time. The Canucks now have a promising core in Bo Horvat, Pettersson, Boeser and Hughes. He’s got the prime chance to add build around these guys in the offseason.
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But if the Canucks are a mediocre team once again in 2020, it’s hard to see Benning getting a sixth on the west coast. Fans are impatient. Ownership can only tolerate so much losing. The Canucks need to make the playoffs in 2020, otherwise they’ll likely be on their third general manager in 12 years.