Quote:
Originally Posted by Oling_Roachinen
Well I think he's right in that conversation as well but put him below. I could see a gambler GM taking Bennett over Monahan because of the higher offensive ceiling but I do think other GM's would prefer the safe bigger center in Monahan. I'm glad the Flames didn't have to pick.
As for the Canucks and Horvat, if Horvat is that Patrice Bergeron type player they liked to compare him to and Gillis really thought that there's no way you can not pick him with the 9th overall. Maybe 29 of the other 30 GM's would have gone with someone else, but if Gillis thought he would be passing up on Bergeron with that 9th overall picking someone else he wouldn't do it regardless of who was left. And that's maybe one of the reasons he's looking for a job now.
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It is not even close to how much higher Monahan was/is ranked than Bennett.
Picking Bennett with Monahan on the board would have been huge gamble.... Even more than Horvat with Nichkushkin and Domi still there.
redline report before each of them was drafted
Bennett's report card has the following:
Size/Strength: B-
Skating: A-
Shot/Scoring Ability: B+
Puck handling: A
Hockey sense: A
Competitiveness: A
Physical play: A-
Composure/poise: A-
Defence: B
Monahan Report Card
Size/Strength A
Skating B+
Shot/Scoring ability B+
Puckhandling A
Hockey Sense A+
Competitiveness A
Physical play B
Composure/Poise A
Defence B
so Monahan is 4 grades higher on size/strength
1 grade lower on skating
1 grade higher on Hockey sense
2 grades lower on physical play
and 1 grade higher on composure and poise.
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Then Monahan went out and worked out none stop before training camp and was in much better condition and shape than the Flames were counting on.
With Monahan and Gaudreau developing and working much harder with better results than 90% of the drafted players I think we are projecting the best case scenario onto Bennett. He is small and plays a hard game.... There is no indication at all of how his game translates to Men's hockey.
From the various starting lineup projection there has been no one at CP that projects him to be a Flame this season. There is a 100% consensus that he is too small and weak to compete at the NHL level and would be way overmatched and possibly ruined.
He needs to go back to junior and put on 10-20 lbs and not lose his speed. Possible or even probably but not at all guaranteed.... If it was Sven B. would have had 80 games last year and 20-30 goals.
It took a very talented Backlund 6 years to man up to the NHL level. Sutter had him too good to play junior as a 19 year old and he truly was outstanding with the Rockets - on a par with Benn and Myers)
Bennett will have to work extremely hard to slot in as the #2 centre on this team. I don't see him taking over the #1 C role from Monahan.
But sure don't mind him having the potential to push Monahan and take advantage of playing in the more sheltered #2 spot.