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While with the Oilers, Spooner couldn’t crack the lineup of a team that was actually below the Canucks in the standings. In his second start with the Canucks on Saturday night, he was stapled to the bench in the third period.

Spooner has one year left on a contract that pays him $4 million per. Gagner, of course, has two goals in his last two games with the Oil.

Elsewhere, the Canucks had three players drafted by Benning in the lineup on Saturday night: Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser and Adam Gaudette. You can also credit Benning for signing college free agent Troy Stecher, one of his best moves over those five seasons, and Thatcher Demko, another Benning draft, should be returning shortly.

But here’s the larger point. Somewhere in all those trades, free-agent signings and draft picks, the organization should have created some depth as the Canucks are still thinner than a super model. That’s also been the story, more or less, for each of the last three seasons and while Benning has added a Tyler Motte here and an Antoine Roussel there, the Canucks still don’t have enough talent to compete for a playoff spot.

That may change in the future. Benning has a core group with Pettersson, Boeser and Bo Horvat with Quinn Hughes coming. Behind them are an intriguing pool of prospects which might yield two or three impact players.

But ask yourself this. What’s Benning’s best trade as a GM. Based on the raw data, it was likely, wait for it, Markus Granlund for Hunter Shinkaruk. Granlund is now in his third season as a Canucks and has one 19-goal campaign on his resume. Shinkaruk has played 14 NHL games since the trade. The others under consideration: Leivo for Michael Carcone; Sven Baertschi for a second-rounder; Motte for Thomas Vanek; and Jonathan Dahlen for Alex Burrows.