The Canucks could have had Sergechev or McAvoy in the 2016 draft. Both are doing very good. And yet, Benning drafted Juolevi who played couple games in the NHL before being traded. Had we not messed up on the draft that year, we wouldn't have needed to try to fix our blue line with ridiculous bad contracts such as Myers and OEL and the team would likely be a lot better. Now look at where we are.Forrest Gump wrote: ↑Fri Jan 06, 2023 8:13 pm Come to think of it, wasn't Benning's main attribute his drafting prowess before he arrived? So far basically all they got to show for 8 years of jim's drafting is Pettersson, Hughes, Boeser, and Demko. The jury is still out on Boeser and Demko(injuries), and not counting Podkolzin,Hoglander and Rathbone as they are in the minors and who knows if they'll pan out. So Benning pretty well failed at everything, trades, free agents, drafting, PR, etc. Unfortunately we'll have to wait several more years now to see if current regime's draft record is any better,not off to a good start with 1st rounder Lekkerimaki. I'm guessing that at least half the roster of most NHL teams are their own draft picks..not us.
That said, Pettersson at 5th and Hughes at 7th were good picks. However, as good as Pettersson is, it's too bad we picked 5th instead of 4th in 2017. Otherwise, we could have had Cale Makar. But given Bennings big misses in 2016, who knows if he even would have picked Makar.