To those arguing that it was bad for RNH so it would be bad for Bennett, here is a list of top 5 picks from the last 10 years that went immediately to the NHL, first the guys that it didn't seem to hurt, followed by the guys that it did:
No Problem: Crosby, Staal, Kessel, P Kane, Stamkos, Doughty, Bogosian, Tavares, Hedman, Duchene, E Kane, Hall, Seguin, Landeskog, Galchenyuk, MacKinnon, Barkov, Jones, Ekblad
Problem: RNH, Yakupov, Draisaitl
Ok, so a couple things...
Oilers gonna Oil...
For Yakupov and Draisaitl (and if you wanted, you could throw Bogosian and Hedman into this group), it's not that they couldn't handle the NHL physically, it's that they weren't properly developed. The only possible guy in that group that it might have permanently damaged is Yakupov, and even then, it isn't because he couldn't handle it physically.
So out of 22 guys, RNH is the only one where it was a stupid idea. And I was 100% in the 'they should not keep him up' group at the time.
But what if RNH had had 4 to 6 months to train with pro trainers and get stronger before he started his career? Would he still not have been ready? Hard to say, but definitely more debatable.
For those that will argue that most of those guys were bigger and stronger than Bennett, yes that's true. But not all of them. Patrick Kane, Duchene, Galchenyuk and Seguin were not any bigger or stronger than Bennett. Tavares and Kessel weren't exactly Ekblad either.
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