Toronto Maple Leafs: Ranking All 32 NHL General Managers
By Jeff Borsuk
30th Ranked GM – Jim Benning (Vancouver Canucks)
The patience that Francesco Aquilini and Canucks Sports & Entertainment have is quite admirable. They hired Jim Benning in May of 2014, plucking him from the Boston Bruins where he was working as their Assistant GM. Since then, the best single word description for the Canucks would have to be “disappointing”.
The Good – Benning’s best moves have to be his draft record. He’s made a lot of good decisions that have kept the franchise flush with exciting young players. In just his first year on the job, he selected Jake Virtanen and Jared McCann in the first-round of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft and Thatcher Demko in the second-round.
Benning has also picked up Brock Boeser (first-round 2015), Adam Gaudette (fifth-round 2015), Elias Pettersson (first-round 2017), Quinn Hughes (first-round 2018), and Nils Hoglander (second-round 2019). He gets the credit for those draft selections despite Amateur Scouting Director Judd Brackett believed to be the driving force behind all the above picks.
The Bad – Benning has had a lot of trouble with salary cap management. He’s paid players far more than their value. It’s a mistake that happens with most general managers but Benning has made a habit of it.
Benning signed Tyler Myers to a 5-year, $30M contract. So far, in his two seasons with the Canucks Myers hasn’t registered more than 21 points. Benning also gave Loui Eriksson a 6-year, $36M contract. The 36 year old Eriksson still has a year remaining on that contract after only being able to play seven games this season.
The Ugly – Benning’s inability to retain the important members of his organization may ultimately be his undoing. He famously traded Tim Schaller, Tyler Madden, and a 2020 second-round pick to bring Tyler Toffoli to Vancouver. Benning then failed to re-sign Toffoli at season’s end despite the center expressing publicly that his priority was to remain in Vancouver.
Benning appears to have allowed another key member of the Canucks join another franchise. He let go of Brackett who was very quickly snapped up by the Minnesota Wild to be their Director of Amateur Scouting.