Vancouver Canucks general manager Jim Benning inherited a mess when he took over for Mike Gillis in the 2014 offseason.
The Canucks had missed the playoffs for the first time in six years. Head coach John Tortorella was fired, the franchise’s best goalie in Roberto Luongo demanded and received a trade — as did superstar Ryan Kesler.
Benning couldn’t rebuild entirely. Instead, he went by ownership’s wishes to aim for the playoffs — so he had to “rebuild on the fly”. Spoiler alert: That went terribly and now the Canucks are actually doing a full-on rebuild.