Benning, Kesler 'touched base' Thursday

Vancouver Canucks GM Jim Benning joined Brady & Walker on Sportsnet 590 Friday morning.

On where things stand with Ryan Kesler:

"We've touched base. I've touched base with the agent and I touched base with Ryan yesterday. You know, we're still going back and forth on that. We're going to listen to Ryan and, you know, we're going to have a good, honest, open communication and then from where it leads to at this point I don't know, but we've had open communication with him and his agent."

On the Canucks' decisions in the last 12 months, watching from afar:

"Well, you know, from afar - because I'm on the other coast,  wasn't following it real closely, but it was, to me, a little surprising. You know, they had I think two No. 1 goalies. Maybe Top 10 guys in the league and over the course of the year they ended up trading them both.

"I know they have a lot of confidence in Eddie Lack. For a first year goalie last year, he had a good season. We hope that he can take it to the next step this year.

On if there is a free agent fit for the Canucks in net, if something was too good to pass up. Could they look at that with their cap scenario?

"Yeah, we're going to look at every avenue that we have to make our team competitive. Vancouver is a big market city. We've got a passionate fan base. You know, our owners want to win so we're going to look at every possible scenario we can to try to make the team competitive for the playoffs and to get to where we want to be challenging for a Stanley Cup again."

On the Sedins:

"On the day of the announcement last Friday, I walked through the weight room to get to the press room and it's the end of May and those guys were in the weight room, working out, training for next year. So they're world-class athletes. You know, they've accomplished a lot in their careers, but they still want to win the Stanley Cup.

"So that was one of the things for me, with this job, is our core guys - our veteran guys - are still hungry to want to win. So I think that goes a long way to getting back on the right track."

Source: Brady & Walker, Sportsnet 590