prompt 1, written task

The worst trade the Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League have made in my lifetime as a fan is EASILY the Oliver Ekman-Larsson trade. Jim Benning gave up a 1st round pick, that the Arizona Coyotes would go on to use to select Dylan Guenther, a player with a very promising future, in order to acquire Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Connor Garland. Now, Garland is a decent player and has proven the only only upside from that deal. But what was worse than giving up a 1st round pick to acquire an aging, extremely overpaid defender, was ALSO giving up a 2nd and 3rd round pick to move on from Loui Erikson, Jay Beagle, and Antoine Roussel.

sidebar: OEL is still a decent NHL defender, he was just paid waaay too much for the role he was expected to fill.

The Erikson, Beagle, and Roussel contracts were all expiring deals. Had Benning simply waited them out, the Canucks would have had another poor season, acquiring another quality first-rounder, and then could have gone into the off-season with over 10 million in freed-up cap space.

It was short-sighted, desperate, and clawing at faded name value, rather than properly scouted NHL talent. Gives me a sour stomach just thinking about how badly that deal is already aging.