After trading Hunter Shinkaruk for Markus Granlund, Jim Benning pointed to assistant GM John Weisbrod as being a big reason he made the deal. Weisbrod was assistant GM of the Flames from 2011 to 2013 and so was familiar with Granlund and his character. That was enough for Benning: “He was a big reason why we went through and made this deal.”
That led to a salient observation from Jason Brough, suggesting the Canucks are guilty of making decisions using what is known as the Familiarity Heuristic.
It’s not a complicated concept and it’s one that will ring true for a lot of people: when in doubt, people tend to go with the familiar when making decisions, rather than trying something new or unfamiliar, even when there are good reasons to do so.
That the Canucks tend towards the familiar is readily apparent when you look at the majority of their acquisitions since Benning was hired.
It starts with the Derek Dorsett deal, where Dorsett’s familiarity with new head coach Willie Desjardins from their days together with the Medicine Hat Tigers was seen as a plus.
Linden Vey was another former Medicine Hat Tiger who played under Desjardins, so Benning sent a second round pick, with all its uncertainty, for the familiar player.
The first free agent signed by Jim Benning? The goaltender he helped draft back in 1999 with the Buffalo Sabres: Ryan Miller.
The first free agent signed in 2015? Matt Bartkowski, who Benning was familiar with from his time with the Boston Bruins.
When the Canucks traded for Sven Baertschi, Weisbrod evidently played a role thanks to his familiarity with Baertschi from his time with the Flames organization.
When the Canucks traded for Emerson Etem, they were back to dipping from the Medicine Hat Tigers. Etem played under Desjardins in his final year coaching in the WHL.
This week, it’s not just the trade for Granlund that shows the Canucks’ reliance on familiarity, but also the deal for Philip Larsen from the Edmonton Oilers. Larsen first broke into the NHL with the Stars right at the time Willie Desjardins and Glen Gulutzan were coaching in Dallas.
Even Richard Bachman, the goaltender signed for AHL depth who got into one game with the Canucks this year, played for Desjardins and Gulutzan with the Stars.
That’s nine acquisitions in the last two years where the player had a previous connection to the Canucks management or coaching staff.
There was even mock surprise on social media that Shinkaruk, a former Medicine Hat Tiger himself, was traded. Here’s the difference, however: his first season with the Tigers was the year after Desjardins left the team to coach in the NHL.
Desjardins exacerbates the issue with his overreliance on familiar players. From Linden Vey on the first power play unit to Derek Dorsett getting far more minutes than a fourth liner should, Desjardins’ preference for the familiar has upset plenty of Canucks fans over the last two seasons.
To be fair, there are certainly signings that don’t fit this mold. The Ryan Kesler trade brought back Nick Bonino and Luca Sbisa, neither of whom had prior connections, as far as we know, to the Canucks management and coaching staff. The same goes for Radim Vrbata, Brandon Prust, and Brandon Sutter.
But there have been enough of these types of deals to make you wonder if the Canucks’ over-reliance on familiarity has led them to make poor decisions.
