Canucks win 7 in a row... somehow ??? Then get blasted in Florida

The Vancouver Canucks are a brutal hockey team at times. And at other times they're just a mediocre team that gets badly outshot and outplayed and can win a game or two.

Either way - they're still not a playoff team. Haven't been in more than a month even in the worst division in the NHL.

When you can't draft in rounds 2-7 - you find yourself throwing money at unrestricted free agents and having dead cap space.

The Canucks are going into most games with a $20 million deficit versus the other team. And it hits them right in the face on most nights as it did in a 9-2 loss in Tampa and 6-2 loss in Sunrise (Fort Lauderdale).

You simply can't have that much dead cap space and survive.

Then you couple that with no one in the AHL, no one in the system that is going to make the NHL roster besides the Russian they took in the 1st Round last year - you've got what you have - a team in No Man's Land.

Sutter, Eriksson, Beagle, Ferland are just dead cap space.

The only thing anyone can hope for is the owner's sell the team.

It's that bad.

I would expect in another month someone will buy a billboard encouraging the Aquillini's to sell the team - please.

The time to fire Jim Benning and entire staff - draft crew included - has come and gone.

There's virtually no way back from this fate without new vision from the top and that includes a President (Trevor Linden would be a good start). It has to be a total rebuild.

They're 5 years in and don't even have a 35 goal scorer in the system from drafting.

Now some of that is luck - because of the lottery system.

But in 5 years of drafting you should have pissed out a 35 goal scorer by now. It's not a high bar.

Could Elias Pettersson hit 35 goals? He could. But again, the NHL scoring leader has more than that right now at the 1/2 way mark.

Jimbo could have drafted the NHL scoring leader by the way - he took a pass on it.

Harry Neale got Cam Neely at 9th overall.
Pat Quinn got Trevor Linden, Mike Peca, Matt Cooke, Mattias Ohlund, Pavel Bure, Adrian Aucoin, Petr Nedved - traded for Marcus Naslund.
Mike Keenan traded for Todd Bertuzzi.
Brian Burke traded up to grab the Sedins - drafted Ryan Kesler.
Mike Gillis traded for Jakob Markstrom - traded for and drafted Bo Horvat.

And Jim Benning has done ??? What ???
No other Canucks GM has been in the position of drafting 7th overall or better year after year after year like Jim Benning.

What's he got to show for it? Elias Pettersson? That's it?

Neely or Pettersson... hmmmm let me see. Neely
Linden or Pettersson... hmmmmm, I'm going Linden.
Bure or Pettersson... hmmmmm, going Bure on that
Nedved or Pettersson... hmmmm, taking the 40 goal scoring center Nedved.
Horvat or Pettersson... Maybe Pettersson? Horvat's the captain. Toss up.
Peca or Pettersson - Peca. Period. 2 Selkes.
Kesler or Pettersson - Kesler - duh.
Sedins or Pettersson - uhh, Hart Trophies.

Again, being realistic... Jim Benning has been a pretty mediocre GM.
Drafting hasn't been his thing.
He can't trade (a potential 1st overall pick for the 20 goal scoring JT Miller who is fading fast) - ummm that's bad. Really bad.
Can't sign free agents. Tyler Myers makes people laugh.

He has been a travesty. Speaking of the coach, lol. They give up 50 shots per game and Travis Green is still coaching the team.

They're a tire fire.