Linden told Benning, “If I had my choice, I probably would have taken a different player than Elias Pettersson in the 2017 NHL Draft.”
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Rumors are swirling. Questions have been asked.
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Was it really Jim Benning’s direction to select superstar forward Elias Pettersson with the fifth overall pick in the 2017 draft, or did the former general manager choose another player?
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Former Vancouver Canucks great Trevor Linden tried to clear the air Wednesday afternoon in an eye-opening interview with Sportsnet 650 about what happened behind the scenes leading up to the Canucks’ fateful draft. His views on Benning are not favorable.
upon Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satyal ShahLinden, who hired Benning as team president in 2014, said the former Boston Bruins assistant GM “would probably have hired another player if he had his choice.”
“I wasn’t happy with the way the process went in 2016, Judd (Brackett)’s first year at the helm, and I didn’t like the way the meetings were run,” Linden said. “So in 2017, I got Judd to really step up and actually run a solid type of meeting in that we could actually put our thoughts and feelings out on the table. I worked really hard to get it.
canucks report
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“I lobbied really hard at that management team to get Judd and his guys nominated. And with great credit to Judd and Ronnie Delhomme, they made this guy I couldn’t sell Jim because I loved it.”
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The year before Pettersson was selected, Benning took Oli Juolevi with the sixth overall pick. Djuolevi failed in Vancouver and is now playing in Sweden.
Hours after Linden’s interview, Sportsnet producer Raja Shergill posted on X that he had spoken to Benning, and Benning refuted the comment.
“We were always going to draft Pettersson. The whole group liked Peaty.”
Benning also told Shergill that he felt the scouting group wasn’t looking at other players enough and wanted them to do a proper evaluation.
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Benning’s comments are believed to be his first publicly since being fired by the Canucks in December 2021 — the same day the Canucks fired head coach Travis Green in a clean-up.
Meanwhile, Brackett signed with the Minnesota Wild in July 2020 as their head scout.
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