BENNING’S BACK HOME AFTER SCOUTING IN SWITZERLAND
But Benning back home after watching talent in the Alps, NHL on TV
He spent the past week in Switzerland at the IIHF World Under-18 Championship, but Canucks general manager Jim Benning did not miss a minute of his National Hockey League team’s first four playoff games against the Calgary Flames.
It did, however, make for a rather strange sleeping schedule.
“The games were starting at four in the morning,” said Benning, who was back in Vancouver for Game 5 on Thursday night. “I’d get back from the junior games at 11, catch a couple of hours sleep and then get up at four and watch the games, go eat breakfast, sleep for a couple of more hours and then go to two games a day over there.”
He was obviously more than a little disappointed to watch his team drop three of the first four games to the Flames.
“Well, I think in every game it could have gone either way,” he said before Thursday’s Game 5 win at Rogers Arena. “We have played hard. We have played good. … In the third game, I thought they came out real strong and we didn’t have the pushback maybe we needed to get back to where we needed to be, but in the fourth game I thought we came out and played a strong (first) period.”
Benning’s trip to Zug and Lucerne raised some eyebrows. As a rookie GM, it wasn’t easy to miss his team’s first playoff games, but Benning said he felt it was vital to get a first-hand look at some of the top European players before this summer’s draft. His boss, president of hockey operations Trevor Linden, agreed.
“Trevor and I have a partnership where if I have to get out and do some scouting, he’s with the team,” Benning said. “I tried to be with the team most of the year outside of when I was gone scouting.
“I have seen all the players in the draft (expected to go) in the first round, except I wanted to see some of the top European players. So I got over there and I had to take a week away from the team.”
Benning noted that many of Vancouver’s Western Conference competitors are picking ahead of the Canucks in this summer’s draft.
“With Edmonton winning the lottery, they are going to get (Connor) McDavid and they are going to be a stronger team going forward,” he said. “I was looking around in the stands over there and teams like L.A., San Jose, Colorado and Dallas are all going to pick in the top 15 and will be getting a real good player in this year’s draft.
“So I wanted to make sure I got over there so I know that when we pick at No. 23 we are going to get a good player.”
Benning said he scouted some European players who could be potential later-round picks.
“I can say there are three or four guys outside of the top-end guys that I was very impressed with,” he said. “Going forward, some of them could be in our wheelhouse in some of those other rounds.” ICE CHIPS: Benning said injured winger Alex Burrows remains in Calgary, but should be able to return home in a day or two. Dave Zarn of the team’s training staff is with Burrows at a Calgary hotel. The Canucks have not confirmed media reports that Burrows suffered a fractured rib. “He is going to be fine,” Benning said of Burrows. “But we have to take this precaution to make sure everything is all right.”