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5 most interesting quotes from Jim Benning’s interview with Bob McKenzie
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Thomas Drance
Sep 14, 2015, 10:58 EDTUpdated: Invalid DateTime
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Screen cap courtesy: TSN.ca
The awesome thing about the Penticton Young Stars tournament – aside from the high pace of the games, the intriguing talent on the ice, the weather, the proximity to good wine, great golf, a gaggle of CanucksArmy.com writers, and the glorious Okanagan beaches – is that there are four general managers, four head coaches (most years), and the entire scouting team from all four Western Canadian NHL teams. It’s basically a hockey reporter’s Mecca.
That’s especially true if you’re a stone cold boss like TSN’s Bob McKenzie, who sat down for lengthy conversations with the general managers of every team at the tournament this weekend. You can watch his 20-plus minute interview with Canucks executive Jim Benning here. 
Click past the jump to read our summary of the five most interesting quotes Benning gave McKenzie this weekend.
1. Vrbata, Burrows and a mystery forward will audition to play with the twins
Canucks head coach Willie Desjardins placed incoming forward Radim Vrbata on the right wing on the very first day of Vancouver Canucks main camp in 2014. He was going to be given an opportunity to flank the Sedin twins, and the coaching staff wanted to maximize the amount of time Henrik, Daniel and Vrbata had to ‘gel’. 
The Czech sniper ultimately held down that spot successfully until the new year. He was only bumped to the second line in the midst of a prolonged slump for the Nick Bonino, Alex Burrows and Chris Higgins trio – so that he might help the secondary scoring unit regain some of its former potency.
We probably shouldn’t expect the Canucks to be quite so decisive this fall. 
Benning indicated in his interview with McKenzie this weekend that Vrbata and Burrows will both have an opportunity to audition for the first-line right wing spot at training camp and into the preseason. 
“(We) don’t know that right yet,” Benning answered, when asked who he expects to start the season on the Sedin twins’ right wing. “We’re going to go through the exhibition season and (Desjardins is) going to try some different players with them.
“We know that Alex is a good fit with them. Vrbata played with them the first part of last year and he was really good with them, but at some point we decided that we wanted to spread our skill amongst our top two lines so we moved Radim to the second line and he got that line going. 
“I’ve talked to Willie about it,” Benning continued. “We’re going to go into the preseason and we’re going to try like three different players and decide what the best fit is.”
Wait a minute, “three different players”? Does that mean that the Jannik Hansen with the Sedin twins experience is going to get another look? 
Perhaps Benning has another forward in mind when he invokes a third possible option to play with the twins. It’s hard to figure out precisely who that forward might be though – Alexandre Grenier, maybe? – if it’s not Hansen. 
Hansen has generally been productive with the twins (no, really!), but most Canucks fans and media are cool on the idea. Observers understandably still can’t get the taste of the usually effective Danish-born middle-six winger ineffectually looking for one-timers in the high slot in Game 6 of Vancouver’s first-round loss to the Calgary Flames. 
It might not be the worst idea though. Burrows is an ace two-way player and play driver, and might look good on a matchup line with Brandon Sutter and, say, Chris Higgins. That would free up Vrbata to play with Bo Horvat and Sven Baertschi on a line that might be able to feast offensively against tertiary competition. Meanwhile Hansen is good enough with the twins that they’ll still be able to do most of what it is they do. 
It should be fascinating to see how this battle plays out, but we should also keep in mind: no matter who wins out, typically several Canucks forwards get a prolonged look on the Sedin line in any given season.
2. Horvat could earn a spot on the second line
In discussing where he expects Canucks sophomore centreman Bo Horvat to play this season, Benning didn’t shut the door on the possibility that the 20-year-old pivot might earn a top-six spot.
“That’ll be up to him,” Benning said of Horvat’s opportunity to play more minutes this season. “He started off with us last year, and he plays the right way. He’s a high hockey sense guy.
“I think once he got adjusted to the speed and the strength of the NHL, the second half of the year, I thought he really took off and he had a good playoff for us,” Benning continued. “We don’t want to rush Bo, he’s an important player for us, but if he deserves to be on the second line… I don’t really pay attention to the second/third line. I know we have a solid forward group and I think we’re solid down the middle with Bo, with Brandon (Sutter), and with Linden Vey.”
Benning’s distaste for the undue emphasis given to the ‘second- and third-line’ label is sensible, given the egalitarian way Desjardins doled out ice time in his first year behind the Canucks’ bench. Still, the implication is pretty strong here: Horvat isn’t necessarily going to be the club’s third-line centre this season. 
3. The defense will be mixed and matched in preseason
The Canucks are not married to a ‘top-four’ defense group that includes the Alexander Edler and Chris Tanev top pair, and the Dan Hamhuis and Yannick Weber second pair. In fact, along with the Sedin twins’ linemate, Benning suggested that the club will experiment with different combos during training camp and in the preseason.
“That’s not set in stone either (our top four),” Benning said of how expects Vancouver’s two most frequently used defense pairs to to be composed this season. “We’re going to experiment with Matt Bartkowski maybe with (Hamhuis) and see how that goes.”
Bartkowski is a left-handed shooter who has spent most of his 5-on-5 ice time playing with Dennis Seidenberg, Johnny Boychuk, Kevan Miller and Adam McQuaid over the past four seasons. Those four defenders have typically been used on the right side in Boston, so it doesn’t seem like Bartkowski has a tonne of experience playing his off-side.
Handedness aside, Bartkowski does a variety of things at a top-four level – including produce 5-on-5 assists at a very solid rate. The puck-moving defender had an extremely effective season playing in Boston’s top four during a season in which they won a Presidents’ Trophy. While being partnered with Johnny Boychuk is a cushy gig, it’s conceivable that he’s a credible option as a fourth defender. Gambling that Bartkowski will be able to handle playing that many minutes on his off side would seem to be a longer shot.
“We know Hamhuis and Weber can play together,” Benning continued. “So we’re going to go through training camp, we’re going to go through the preseason, we’re going to mix and match these guys and see what the best fit is. I’m happy with our D though. I think we’ve become more mobile and we’ll be able to get out of our end and transition the puck up ice faster.”
4. The Canucks will find a spot for Virtanen if he earns it
Most Canucks observers have long believed that 2014 sixth-overall pick Jake Virtanen has an inside track on earning a job out of training camp. 
While the Canucks haven’t been explicit about it, the writing has been on the wall since the club dealt Adam Clendening as part of the Brandon Sutter deal. When, following the Sutter deal, the Canucks didn’t then go out and sign an eighth NHL-level defender, it was clear that they wanted to at least preserve the flexibility required to give a 19-year-old player a legitimate shot at winning a job.
Obviously Benning didn’t commit to starting Virtanen in the NHL during his chat with McKenzie this weekend, but it’s not too hard to see which way the wind is blowing.
“It’s going to depend on what type of training camp he has,” Benning said of Virtanen’s chances of making the team. “We’re not afraid – like we did with Bo Horvat last year – like if he comes in and he deserves to make the team, we won’t be afraid to keep him.
“He offers us a different skill set than what we have,” Benning continued. “He’s a big power forward, he’ll play physical, he’ll take pucks to the net and he’s got a good release on his shot. So that’ll be up to him. I know he’s had a good summer he’s really put in the work off the ice… so we’ll see. If he keeps progressing through training camp we’ll find a spot for him.
“The bottom line is if he deserves to be on the team and he’s going to help us win then we’re going to make a spot for him,” Benning added later in the interview.
It still sound like Virtanen has an inside track on earning a roster spot. And one thing is for certain, particularly after the abrasive style of game that Virtanen has flashed at the Young Stars tournament this weekend, if he makes the team he’s going to sell a tonne of shirsheys.
5. Has Benning learned from misjudging the timing of the Derek Dorsett and Luca Sbisa extensions?
Hamhuis and Vrbata’s respective contract status – they’re both on expiring deals – is one of the biggest ongoing stories for the Canucks this season. The veteran forward and defenseman are useful pieces on no-trade contracts, and they’re both on the wrong side of 30. 
If the Canucks struggle this season, or even if they’re on the fringes of Wild Card contention, monetizing Hamhuis and Vrbata as assets on the trade market could be imperative for a club that should have their eyes on contending two to three years down the road. Meanwhile the club will have to be very careful about committing money and term to a pair of players who are sure to be on the downswing of their careers, particularly by the time this next crop of young Canucks players are in their prime.
McKenzie asked Benning this weekend if he intends to extend the contract of either player prior to the start of the season. His answer was fascinating:
“We have (Hamhuis), we have (Vrbata), and Brandon Prust who are all going to be unrestricted free agents after this year. I’ve talked to them and I’ve talked to their agents and we’re going to be in constant communication with them throughout the course of the year. We want to see where the Canadian dollar ends up, and what the market place kind of looks like, but we’re going to have good communication.
No (there’s no chance they’re going to sign before the season). I think we’re going to go into the season and see where our teams at, but all three of them are big pieces to our team, and I’ve sat down with all three of them and they understand. We’ll see where we’re at. We have the year to try and sign them so we’ll figure it out as we go.”
By far the most interesting part of that answer is the part about the Canadian dollar. As we discussed multiple times in the fall and again in the early summer the downturn in the value of the Canadian dollar was likely to inhibit the value of Hockey Related Revenue and by extension the NHL salary cap’s upward momentum. 
It’s possible that the invocation of the Canadian dollar as a reason for caution reflects a lesson that the organization learned this summer. 
As you can you probably recall, Luca Sbisa and Derek Dorsett were extended, and extended expensively, three months prior to the opening of the unrestricted free agent market. Then when the market opened, it became apparent that player values had cratered because there was simply no money in the system. That’s why Cody Franson’s cap-hit is lower than Sbisa’s. It’s why Shawn Matthias ultimately inked a deal that’s four-times shorter and carries a cap-hit about 300k less than Derek Dorsett’s…
For a variety of reasons the Canucks are smart to be waiting on a decision on whether or not to extend Hamhuis and Vrbata. What’s most interesting from our perspective about this particular answer from Vancouver’s general manager is the soft implication that the club’s newfound conservatism on contract extensions may reflect a lesson learned for Benning and the club.
Watch the full interview at TSN.ca.

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