Linden opens up on Canucks draft process and Benning is not happy about it

Trevor Linden and Jim Benning might be long gone from their days running the Vancouver Canucks, but the former coworkers seem embroiled in a war of words through the media.

Linden, who parted ways with the team from his role as president in 2018, left the organization three years before Benning was fired as general manager in December 2021.

It was clear there was a bit of a difference in management philosophy between the two during their time working together, and the latest comments from each of them don’t exactly dispel that narrative.

In an interview Wednesday on Sportsnet 960’s Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satiar Shah, the team’s former captain had plenty of comments about his time with the team’s management group, particularly related to a pair of high-profile draft picks for the team in 2016 and 2017.

The current Canucks team could look a lot different if Jim Benning had his way at the 2017 draft👀

Former Canuck Captain and President, Trevor Linden, joined #Canucks Central with @danriccio_ and @SatiarShah to talk about that and much more.

— Sportsnet 650 (@Sportsnet650) November 9, 2023

“I wasn’t happy with the way our process was in 2016 and that was the first year Judd [Brackett] had taken over the reins and I did not like how our meetings went,” Linden said. “So in 2017, I really pushed hard to have Judd really step up and really run a robust-type meeting in that we can really put our thoughts and feelings on the table.”

Brackett worked for the Canucks from 2008-2020, first as an amateur scout before being promoted to director of amateur scouting in 2015-16. He currently holds the same title in the Minnesota Wild organization.

Of course, it isn’t too hard to guess what type of message Linden was pushing here.  The Canucks took defenceman Olli Juolevi fifth overall in 2016, who ended up playing just 23 games with Vancouver, before finding himself currently playing in Sweden some seven years removed from the pick.

At sixth overall, Calgary ended up taking forward Matthew Tkachuk, who has blossomed into one of the league’s best players despite eventually being traded to the Florida Panthers.

In 2017, Vancouver took Elias Pettersson at fifth overall, who is currently the highest scoring player of anyone taken in his draft class and the best offensive talent the franchise has seen in a generation.

“I really pushed hard in that management group to have Judd and his guys make the pick. And Judd — and give [Vancouver scout] Ronnie Delorme a lot of credit as well — they loved this guy and so, Jim wasn’t sold… if Jim had his choice he probably would’ve taken a different player,” Linden continued.

“This guy,” of course, referred to Pettersson, with Linden suggesting that Benning wasn’t exactly sold on the pick.

But the former general manager caught wind of Linden’s comments and chose to refute that version of the story.

“We were always going to draft Pettersson. The whole group liked Petey,” Benning told Hockey Night Punjabi producer Raja Shergill, adding that he signed off on the draft pick the night before to owner Francesco Aquilini.

Benning also mentions how there were reports of him wanting another player over Pettersson (Cody Glass) and that was simply not true – and that he told Aquilini the night before the draft the pick was Pettersson.

— Raja Shergill (@Sher_Raja) November 9, 2023

While we may never know exactly what was said in those draft meetings, it doesn’t seem like the Linden-Benning rivalry is going away any time soon.

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