Benning bets big on Pettersson
Was picking young Swede a stroke of brilliance or risky move for master drafter?
The days are long in late June my friends and, now, here’s something that will make them seem even longer: the Monday morning musings and meditations on the world of sports.
If you looked at Elias Pettersson’s highlight reel on YouTube, you might conclude the Vancouver Canucks just drafted a right-handed, underfed version of Peter Forsberg.
He has the look of a dynamic playmaker. He has the look of an elite goal scorer. In short, he has the look of a No. 1 centre, and if he’s that guy, he’ll be a huge piece for this franchise.
But (and isn’t there always a but), for the Canucks on draft day, the consensus opinion among hockey cognoscenti is that GM Jim Benning might have reached in picking Pettersson fifth overall. Benning, that narrative goes, was looking at three North American centres — Cody Glass, Casey Mittelstadt and Gabe Vilardi — who offered better value than Pettersson. Throw in the obvious fact that the reed-thin Swede is likely three years from making an impact on the NHL team and the pick seems risky ... maybe too risky for the fifth overall pick.
Either way, the Pettersson selection represents a watershed moment for the Benning administration. This is Benning’s fourth draft with the Canucks. He’s already picked sixth and fifth twice. For someone with the reputation of a master drafter, that’s ample opportunity to lay the foundation for a rebuild and it could be that’s what Benning has done in his four drafts.
He’s certainly assembled some nice pieces that have the makings of an able supporting cast.
But the key to the rebuild is those three lottery picks: Jake Virtanen, Olli Juolevi and Pettersson. Virtanen and Juolevi are still young and developing but it’s fair to say they’ve been passed by others in their draft class. Now there are questions about Pettersson.
If Virtanen, Juolevi and Pettersson all become front-line NHLers, the rebuild will be on schedule. If they’re just average, the Canucks and Benning are in trouble.
One other thing about Benning. There might have been questions about Pettersson. There weren’t a lot of questions about the Canucks two second-rounders: Kelowna forward Kole Lind and Owen Sound winger Johan Gadjovich, or third-rounder Michael DiPietro, the goalie for the Memorial Cup champion Windsor Spitfires.
I agree with most observers that Jersey and Philly were the big winners in the draft by virtue of moving up to 1 and 2 respectively in the lottery.
As for the other winners, most pundits singled out Vegas, St. Louis and Los Angeles, which is interesting because there was a Canucks’ connection with all three teams.
When the Canucks took Pettersson at No. 5, Vegas ended up with Glass as their first of three first-rounders.
L.A., meanwhile, ended up with Vilardi, another player who was rated ahead of Pettersson on most boards, with the 11th pick.
And St. Louis dealt tough guy Ryan Reaves and a second-rounder for Pittsburgh’s first-round pick, then took Russian forward Klim Kostin, the top-rated European in the draft according to Central Scouting, with the 31st pick.
Pettersson was ranked second behind Kostin among Europeans.
One more word about Vegas. It was universally agreed on in hockey circles that the Golden Knights made out like bandits both in the expansion draft and the amateur draft.
Former Canucks assistant general manager Laurence Gilman was a consultant to the Knights leading up to the expansion draft. It’s now been over three years since Gilman was let go by the Canucks. It’s inexplicable that he remains unemployed.
Since taking over as the B.C. Lions starting quarterback part way through the 2015 season, Jonathon Jennings is now 2-10 against Edmonton and Calgary, including playoff games. You can start taking Jennings seriously as an elite quarterback when he starts beating those two teams consistently.
And finally, don’t know if you would call the Lions’ season-opening loss to Edmonton on Saturday night a wake-up call, but it did reinforce a couple of realities about this team.
First off, their lineup includes six new starters on defence, three new starters on offence (and a fourth when tackle Kelvin Palmer gets healthy). Throw in a new kicker in Ty Long and it’s understandable that parts of the Lions’ game were exposed against a tough, experienced opponent.
“Just because you have good players doesn’t necessarily mean you have a good team,” said Solomon Elimimian. “We have some new parts. It might take some time to get rolling, but I feel we have all the ingredients to be successful.”
Maybe, but against the Eskimos, that new-look defence allowed four plays of over 40 yards, including a 76-yard Mike Reilly to Brandon Zylstra hookup with 48 seconds left that led to the game-winning field goal. Sorry, that can’t happen.
On the other side of the ball, and stop me if this sounds familiar, the Lions’ offensive line surrendered five sacks and nine pressures on Jennings, which is bad enough. But the Eskimos produced that pressure while rushing four and covering with eight, and that’s a dream scenario for any defence.
Reilly was sacked once and pressured twice.
Add it all up and the lasting takeaway from this game is that the Eskimos were superior in every key area. When they had to score they scored. When they had to stop Jennings and co., they did. They won the battle on both sides of the line of scrimmage.
Maybe the bigger question about Saturday night was how the Lions made it close. Four Edmonton penalties in the final seven minutes, three of which sustained scoring drives, had something to do with that.
The challenge before the Lions is now clear. The defence has to jell quickly and the offensive line has to play better.
On Saturday night, Lions head coach Wally Buono looked at the small media gathering and said: “You know what guys, it’s a long season.”
That might be a good thing for this team.