One of the biggest gambles an ownership group can do is allow a GM to "push his chips into the middle" when your cap situation is what the Canucks cap situation is. Saying "just get in" is all you need to do and pointing to MTL, and pointing at other things is just disguising the future issues you have made for yourself and this is your "saving my job" move.
Benning is at the end of his leash, yet has made moves that have given him a bit of cache with the ownership group to gain trust in a big deal like this. However, this to me is a good move for Vancouver, but also an attempt at sacrificing the teams future for Bennings own job. If it doesn't work out, Benning is likely fired and the cap issues aren't his issues anymore. If it works out, then he keeps his job for a bit longer and he'll deal with it then.
OEL and Garland don't make this team that scary. However Demko, Miller, Pettersson, Boeser haven't been fully healthy and starting together and they've dealt with COVID last yr. Your team is flawed, but can sneak into the playoffs, but what is Benning's goal? Making the playoffs to save his job, or sustained success? To me the goal for him is just to make the playoffs. Cause OEL in 3yrs at that cap hit...I don't know.
At the same time, Benning really only gave up a pick that wouldn't be an NHLer when Benning was still the GM likely. So to him this is a win-win.