from Pierre LeBrun of ESPN,
This is Benning's first trade deadline as an NHL GM, although he worked many alongside Peter Chiarelli in Boston and let's not forget how Benning was barely five minutes into being hired last spring when he had to deal with Ryan Kesler's trade request, making a nice deal with Anaheim at the draft last June. So he's already been under the gun.
... the key for Benning is that, while making the playoffs is important this season (the Sedins after all aren't getting any younger) there's also a paramount plan here to re-tool this team on the go. It's a real tough thing to do, to worry about the now and the future at the same time, but that's what Benning was hired to do. It's why, if he's able to get that top-six forward that helps the team not just now but past this season, it's mission accomplished.
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