from Tony Gallagher of the Vancouver Province,
Benning is apt to be judged by how well many of the young prospects the club has and continues to bring in under its umbrella do as their careers unfold. Certainly, the early reports on him as a negotiator and as a trader are not particularly good, although there’s no way any of his trades can be fully judged yet.
But the dismissal of Laurence Gilman Thursday seems to be yet a monumentally bonehead move for two reasons.
First, the contract negotiation work in which Gilman had a massive hand during the Mike Gillis years was infinitely superior to the couple of early samples of contract work we’ve seen from this regime. If ever there was a clear strength from the old crew it was in this area, both in negotiating the hard ones and getting guys to take less to stay here. Yet they kiss off the guy largely responsible. How the owner can sit there and watch this happen is anyone’s guess.
Second, Gilman had an outstanding relationship with the powers that be in the NHL’s head office. Losing that longevity of rapport for the money they paid Gilman makes no sense, even if they decided that the wizard who signed Derek Dorsett and Luca Sbisa should continue in that role and Trevor Linden will forever be listed among Gary Bettman’s favourites.
It’s not that we didn’t know it was coming, given Gilman had no hand in negotiating anything other than dinner reservations for these guys, but the stupidity of it hits home when it happens.
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