The conventional wisdom was that the 2019-20 season was the prove-it year.

Jim Benning has been running the Vancouver Canucks since the summer of 2014 and in that time has seen his team pick in the top 10 of the draft every time but once. One playoff appearance in 2015 — a six-game first-round loss to the Flames — has done little to paper over the lost trades, poor signings, and weird drafting record.

This is a team that finished 23rd in the league last season, then spent its loads of cap space somewhat unwisely this summer. The sacrifice of a first-round pick to acquire the admittedly good JT Miller from Tampa was, most people thought, the last act of a GM desperate to wring any regular-season success out of his roster. Miss the playoffs again (a fairly likely scenario, by the way) and Benning would be as gone as that first-round pick, with which Tampa would surely hit a home run.

Under Benning’s watch, the Canucks — who spent most of his tenure trying to be competitive before the Sedins retired — are 11 games under .500. Something, everyone figured, had to give if they didn’t make the playoffs in 2020 with the way they splashed cash and assets around.

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But we’re talking about conventional wisdom here. And the way the Canucks operate is anything but conventional.

Jim Benning got a reported three-year extension over the weekend, which will keep him in contract until the end of the 2022-23 season. It’s a tough one to figure out, but if nothing else it shows he’s good at keeping the owners happy.

One can reasonably argue that Benning has added a lot of talent to the team through the draft since 2014. Jake Virtanen was a big miss at No. 6 overall that year; they could have had William Nylander, David Pastrnak, or Nik Ehlers. Jared McCann (traded for Erik Gudbranson) and Thatcher Demko (the perpetual goalie of the future) were nice adds later in that draft.

The next year they got Brock Boeser at 23 overall. Grand slam pick there. But then in 2016, it was Olli Juolevi (instead of Matthew Tkachuk or Charlie McAvoy, for example) and a bunch of other guys who haven’t sniffed the NHL. Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes followed in successive seasons. But let’s say this: When you pick sixth, 23rd, fifth, fifth, and seventh, you should get three very good young players. Doing so isn’t necessarily an accomplishment, especially if the other 29 guys you drafted in those years have played a combined 227 games for your organization.

I guess the argument would be that he could have missed on Pettersson, Hughes, and especially Boeser. That’s certainly true, but one needs to also consider the talent with which Benning has surrounded those future superstars, and the insane prices he paid for it. This was done in large part because Benning has so heavily pursued mediocrity — to some extent, that’s to keep the Aqulinis happy — in the name of barely making the playoffs.

Nonetheless, this team has well over $29 million tied up in Loui Eriksson, Brandon Sutter, Tanner Pearson, Sven Baertschi, Antoine Roussel, Jay Beagle, and Tyler Myers for each of the next two seasons. Combined, those guys contributed more than nine goals below replacement level to their teams last season. Only Roussel and Beagle were positive contributors, both barely so.

And so you have to ask, what is the future of this team under Benning? Depending upon how much the salary cap goes up next season (presuming there’s no lockout ha ha ha) there’s no big money coming off the books next summer besides Chris Tanev, who they should have traded two years ago, and Jacob Markstrom. Boeser, by the way, remains unsigned.

Apparently Canucks ownership trusts Benning to find replacements on the cheap — which has not in any way been his M.O. — and also find ways to leave space for the massive, double-digit AAVs both Hughes and Pettersson could require after 2021. Eriksson won’t be off the books by then.

So to borrow a Mark Borowiecki question: “What’s the plan here?” The Canucks still don’t look like a playoff team, they’re still going to be capped out for at least a couple more seasons, and a good chunk of their fanbase still loathe this management group.

And all that gets you a three-year extension? Well, that’s hockey.