Is it good in the long term when the team wins a contract negotiation by such a large margin? I can't imagine that Bennett (and/or his Agent) will be willing to give a Calgary discount when Bennett gets some leverage.
Bennett has definitely not been treated like other top-6 draft picks.
He had somewhat comparable start to Elias Lindholm.. Lindholm has gotten top-6 linemates for his whole career. His bridge deal was 2X2.7
Tkachuk is a great player. He has been treated like a future core player and given the cover of playing with Backlund and Frolik.
Monahan is a good player. The moment he put on a Flames uniform the Flames have done everything to make him into a #1C. He got to play with Hudler and Colborne as a rookie and then with Hudler and Gaudreau.
Bennett has a solid rookie year playing with Backlund and Frolik (18-18-36) and then gets moved out of the top-6 to make room for Tkachuk (13-35-48)
Bennett get Brouwer, Versteeg and Chaisson to look after. It can be argued that playing with Bennett extended Versteeg's career... He was on a PTO with Edmonton before he got to play with Bennett and now has another contract.
If the Flames were to want to ease the upcoming contract crunch with Tkachuk they could move him onto a line with Jankowski/Versteeg/Brouwer. That would basically guarantee a sophomore slump (at least point scoring wise... which drives the $$)
Will Bennett's treatment end up with him on the Canucks or some other team where they would make him a #1C or at least a #2C?
Asking him to go out and be a 40 pts #3C is not a reasonably attainable goal...
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