Take a quick look around, and it’s hard to find many general managers who were in a more difficult trade deadline situation than Jim Benning of the Vancouver Canucks.
Benning had three choices, and all of them carried obvious pros and cons:
- Make no moves at all
- Become a seller
- Become a buyer
The first option would have been especially risky, because the Canucks were slumping ahead of the deadline, and a boost was clearly needed. Injuries to Brock Boeser, Micheal Ferland and now Jacob Markstrom have left the team with little margin for error.