Canucks: Analyzing Jim Benning’s success at the draft

The Vancouver Canucks have had Jim Benning at the helm for six drafts now, and his work is starting to come to fruition. I’ll be reviewing his work at the draft table since his hiring.

Right now, the Vancouver Canucks have six players that general manager Jim Benning drafted on the roster — and 11 of them have played at least one NHL game since 2014.  While lots of these drafts picks have not yet had the opportunity to turn pro, Benning’s predecessor Mike Gillis had 14 draft picks from 2008 to 2013 play at least one pro game.

These numbers don’t jump off the page as being remarkably different. But once you delve into it deeper, you’ll noticethat the oldest player that Benning has drafted is 25-years-old in Nikita Tryamkin who has a shot to come back to the NHL after his season in the KHL.

The youngest player that Gillis drafted is 24 years of age — captain Bo Horvat. There isn’t any likelihood that anyone else drafted by Gillis will turn into anything in the NHL level, but there is a strong chance that Benning’s young picks could turn into future NHL players.

I’m going to look into the redraft rankings of the first round to see where Benning hit it big or failed from 2014 to 2018, as the jury is still out on most of the 2019 picks.