"That’s just not an option for us. We’re going to go out and compete hard every night and try to win games. I’m confident in the job that we’re going to do scouting that wherever we pick, we’re going to get a good player in the first round.”
That’s a quote from Vancouver Canucks general manager Jim Benning on the prospect of the team forgoing its quest for a playoff spot this year and focusing on landing a high draft pick when speaking to TSN 1040 Radio earlier in the week.
“I understand the thinking in that, but we have too much pride in this organization. I know how bad our fans want to win."
Yes, fans in Vancouver want to see the Canucks ice a winner, but the thing Benning is missing here – and perhaps the organization as a whole is missing – is that the current approach they’re taking isn’t going to produce the results those ravenous fans want. Vancouver’s ideal scenario is to get youngsters like Bo Horvat, Jared McCann and Jake Virtanen seasoning alongside established veterans like the Sedins, Radim Vrbata and Alexander Edler. Rather than stripping it down to the studs and focusing almost exclusively on young players for a couple seasons, the Canucks envision remaining a perennial playoff team while making additions and subtractions to the lineup year-by-year as needed.
But the reality is that very few teams, if any, are able to re-tool on the fly and be legitimate Stanley Cup threats from season-to-season.
The Detroit Red Wings have made the playoffs in 24 consecutive seasons and are poised to make it 25 this year, but no other team in the league can boast the same kind of perpetual success. Additionally, Detroit hasn’t advanced beyond the Conference Semifinals since making back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals appearances against Pittsburgh and some fans might prefer the team take a step back and miss the playoffs before reloading before hopefully embarking on another lengthy run as legitimate contenders.
Because they’re not legitimate contenders right now; they’re a playoff team, but if they went on a run and won the Cup, it would be a major surprise. That’s what Vancouver is trying to do, but they don’t have the organizational depth and unfortunately management doesn’t have the same kind of track record of success in the draft or in swinging deals that someone like Ken Holland in Detroit has.
What aided the Red Wings for so many years is that they found contributors deep in the draft, targeted players that worked in the structure they had built and groomed prospects in the AHL. Tomas Holmstrom, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrick Zetterberg went in the 10th, 6th and 7th round respectively. Jonathan Ericsson was a ninth-round pick. Current young contributors like Gustav Nyquist, Tomas Tatar, and Petr Mrazek all went outside of the first round.
Rather than trying to emulate what Detroit has done, Vancouver might be better suited taking the Toronto Maple Leafs approach – identify a few key players to build around, focus on the draft and look to be serious contenders three or four years down the road when that young core has matured and reached their potential. Stick with guys like Virtanen, Horvat and McCann, plus the other youngsters already in the system or logging minutes in the league, and build around them through the draft over the next two or three years. Adding a Top 5 or Top 10 pick into that mix each of the next two seasons could help carry the Canucks from being a team that sneaks into the playoffs to being contenders, especially if they can figure out their goaltending situation long-term.
Fans may want to win every night and every season, but that’s not realistic. There is an ebb and flow to things and sometimes, organizations need to embrace that low period in order to make reaching those ultimate highs possible.
Benning and the Canucks need to understand that and embrace that, rather than trying to appease the fans and remain stuck in the lower half of the Western Conference.
