Jim Benning Named 11th General Manager of the Vancouver Canucks.

photo attrib: Jonathan Hayward, CP

"Vancouver plays in maybe the toughest division in the league and to win our division and to keep going we are going to have to go through the L.A.’s, the Anaheims and the San Joses. They are big, heavy teams. When we talk to our scouting staffs, one of our mandates will be let's try to get a little bit bigger, let's get a little more rugged so we can play both styles. We can play a skilled skating style when need be, but when it it is a rugged physical game we can play that style, too."

"We want a coach that is firm, but fair, that has good communication skills so he can relate to the players. We want a coach that is going to play a structured style of game when we don't have the puck, but give the players the freedom to skate and create when they do have the puck."

These were some of the words that Jim Benning used to describe what the Vancouver Canucks have to go through in order to get through the play-offs; the pieces of the puzzle that they would need in order to solve the riddle that is the re-constituted Pacific Division which has stymied the Canucks this past season.

This past season that seemed at the start so bright has been an absolute disaster and at its conclusion saw John Tortorella removed from his position as head coach.  All in all with a Vancouver - Calgary game that saw Torts become unhinged and frantic to get into the Calgary locker room to the defensive breakdowns that have continually plagued the Canucks; this season was a circus.  I was a Torts proponent; and in some ways, I still am, I feel he was stymied by Mike Gillis; we saw a much more media-savvy “kindler, gentler” Torts, but in that way, he wasn’t able to meld the Canucks to what was expected out of them.  He was ham-strung from doing his job.  Be that as it may however this season was a season best forgotten and not emulated in any way shape or form. 

And now poor Jim Benning, formerly a Canucks defenseman during his playing days from 1986-1990 has spent his career off the ice, in a scouting role; first from 1993-94 in Anaheim as an amateur scout, then with Buffalo from 1994-2004 as a scout and Dir. Amateur Scouting, then finally with the Bruins from 2006-2014 as Dir. Player Personnel then Asst. General Manager instrumental in the Bruins franchise and Stanley Cup Champions in 2011, has had to step into the role of General Manager of the floundering Vancouver Canucks to right the ship and steer it in the right direction.  Lest anyone think that this is a Canucks version of the “ol’boy’s club” Canucks President of Hockey Operations, Trevor Linden, has done his due diligence interviewing many suitable candidates and finally selecting Benning from his attributes and experience that he brings to the management table. 

The next job for Trevor Linden and Jim Benning is to go to Toronto to view the draft choices at the NHL Combine and select a head coach for next season as veterans training camp starts in middle of September and rookie camp starts earlier than that and for the curriculum to be in place for rookie camp, the head coach needs to be hired long before then. 

We know three things:  The Canucks are going to get 1) bigger, 2) more aggressive and 3) still be able to play a transition game balance from offense to defence.  It’s not an impossible task but those pieces are going to be tough to locate.  Benning is keen on the draft that there will be a player available this draft that can help the team.  And he, like Linden feels that the best way to get key players into the Canucks organization is to build through the draft.  Considering the poor picks that have plagued the Canucks during their history; Libor Polasek, Mike Wilson and others come to mind, the fact that our new GM has a scouting background comes as a literal godsend. 

Hopefully this will be the start of the turnaround of the awful Canucks fortunes since the 2011 playoffs where we lost the Stanley Cup in our home arena thanks to a team literally built from draft choices that Jim Benning made.  We’re glad he’s home (Vancouver is as close to Edmonton as he can get…let alone Calgary), back in the Canucks fold and hope that he can recreate the Canucks in his and Trevor’s vision.