Vancouver Canucks general manager Jim Benning was heavily criticized for failing to acquire more draft selections at the trade deadline, a year after he was able to acquire picks and talented prospects in Nikolay Goldobin and Jonathan Dahlen.
Benning could only turn Thomas Vanek into Jussi Jokinen and Tyler Motte, though he deserves credit for turning Philip Holm into Brendan Leipsic. But in what’s widely regarded as one of the top draft classes in recent memory, the rebuilding Canucks cannot have six draft picks.