Quote:
Originally Posted by Da_Chief
I wish people would stop using Backlund as some sort of success story. He's about to turn 28 in couple of months and he's having his career year, just now. Has never hit 50 points before. If all teams persisted with all players this long then most of them would eventually turn into something. He's been lucky the Flames didn't discard him with his injury issues, inconsistencies etc. He has been given a lot of time to get to where he's at today.
By all means, if folks want to wait on Bennett to have a career year when he's in his late 20s and use him as another template then all the power to them.
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Not what I'm saying at all - and in Bennett's case, Hamilton is a much better example - but the point is, 20 year old player don't magically become elite centres, unless of course you're a McDavid/Crosby level of player where you're starting at a different point to begin with.
Bennett is 20. He's 1.5 years into his NHL career, and he's only really played half a year as a centre, and people are expecting something that is entirely unrealistic.
After 2 decades of not having any high end centres at all, some people seem to want to turn on Bennett and Monahan after 40 games under a new head coach. That's lunacy.