During his time as general manager of the Vancouver Canucks, Jim Benning made several mistakes that cost his team dearly, but the mistake he almost made in the 2017 draft simply changed the face of the team.
With the fifth selection, the Canucks have their sights set on young center Elias Pettersson, who is the catalyst for Vancouver’s attack today. However, Trevor Linden, the club’s former ice hockey president, revealed that the Swede was not the GM’s choice.
• Also read: Henrik Lundqvist always wanted to be a goalkeeper
• Also read: A humiliating situation for Jonathan Huberdeau
The former Vancouver captain went out of his way to allow Judd Brackett, the team’s then-chief recruiter, to make his own choice.
“I didn’t like the way our meetings were going [en amont de l’encan amateur l’année précédente], Linden recalled in an interview with Sportsnet on Wednesday. In 2017 I really tried to win over Judd [Brackett] I was really engaged and put together a really solid meeting where we were able to really bring our thoughts and feelings to the table.”
“I pushed really hard for Judd in that leadership group [Brackett] and his boys make the choice,” he continued.
We will remember that in 2016 the Canucks selected fifth defenseman Olli Juolevi. The latter never managed to break into a National Hockey League team.
Benning denies
Several rumors also indicate that Benning wanted to choose Cody Glass instead of Pettersson. However, the main person concerned denied these rumors.
“We always wanted to choose Pettersson. “The whole group loved ‘Petey,'” he told Sportsnet reporter Raja Shergill.
This season, the 24-year-old has six goals and 15 assists for 21 points in 12 games, good for second in points on the Bettman Tour.