One day into the Jim Benning regime, the general vibe seems to be cautious optimism.
Even Sportsnet's Mark Spector, who's usually more than happy to take shots at the Canucks, chimes in with this glowing review.
Of course, Spector's from Edmonton, and so's Benning. Trevor's an Alberta native as well. Watching the two of them together yesterday, I felt like part of Linden and Benning's affinity for each other is as deep as their roots. They speak a similar hockey language.
What's your first impression of Jim Benning?
Early Roster Thoughts
Though Benning said he'd be willing to break a no-trade clause if it was the right move for the team, I wouldn't expect that to be the first thing that happens this summer.
Benning mentioned more than once that he thought last year's Canucks team was a good group that had a bad year. I think he'll try to revitalize the players he has before he goes gung-ho towards getting new ones.
We all know that Alex Edler is not as bad as his numbers showed in 2013-14, so it's exactly the wrong time to try to ship him out. Before Torts' arrival, Edler was a player with a few issues. Then, he wilted terribly. The turning point could even have been that moment early in the season when Torts reamed him out on the bench.
If Benning's here because he believes in the talent of the core group, one of his top priorities will be the reclamation of the good ship Edler—for our purposes, not someone else's.
For now, let's take him at his word, that his priority will be re-vamping the bottom six and offering better support to the team's top players—by getting bigger and tougher, but not in a fighting sense.
Looking at the players under contract, I'm going to assume for now that all the NTC guys will start the season with the team. I don't think he'll try to move them until he sees whether or not they can bounce back.
Looking at the forwards, I'd also say that Shawn Matthias and Brad Richardson fit with the Jim Benning model in the bottom six. Matthias is big; Richardson is scrappy. Both are decent skaters.
I'd think that David Booth and Tom Sestito are the two players under contract who are least likely to fit the Benning vision. They're big enough, but I don't think either brings the type of grit that Benning is after.
I have never been overly excited about buying out Booth, but the move would open up both cap space and ice time for players who could be brought in to support the new philosophy.
The buyout window will open just after the Stanley Cup Final ends and close for good on June 30th, right before free agency begins. We'll get our answer on this in the next month.
I hope the Canucks will have a coach in place by that time. I'd like to think the new bench boss would get a chance to weigh in on whether or not he thought he could work with Booth—who has shown a willingness at times to play a physical game.
With their dirt-cheap goaltending tandem under contract, the Canucks are in decent shape, cap-wise, even without a Booth buyout: $60 million committed, with Zack Kassian and Chris Tanev still to sign. I would expect that Benning would make Kassian a priority—a player with a chance to play a Milan Lucic-type role. Tanev might not be such an easy fit—he's a pretty wispy body to be playing the "heavy" Pacific-division game, and should have trade value after a decent season.
Unlike Boston, who's facing big cap penalties next year, Benning and his group here in Vancouver will have some room to maneuver this summer, without having to go the cheap route.
That's where I think Mike Santorelli falls by the wayside. Yes, he was great value as a stop-gap measure at $550,000 this year. But he's small and he's not tough. If Alex Burrows returns to his usual self, he'll play those top-six minutes where Santorelli excelled last season. Benning will be able to afford to bring in a bigger player who's just as versatile to play in the bottom half of the lineup.
Benning's not afraid to make a blockbuster deal—and as we saw with the Tyler Seguin incident last summer, he's not afraid to put out the "For Sale" sign when he's ready to make something happen. But I expect the early changes we'll see to this team will be a lot more low-key than most of the drama we've been watching for the past year.
Lots more to come on that front in the coming days and weeks...