[PlayfulGenius]

Originally Posted by robaur

There are 21 players who have currently played 50 or more games in the NHL from the 2014 NHL draft.

Out of those 21 players, Sam Bennett is ranked 14 out of 21 in points per game.

Only players worse than Bennett are:

- Brendan Perlini (#12)
- Ondrej Kase (#205)
- Kevin Fiala (#11)
- Nick Ritchie (#10)
- Jared McCann (#24)
- Jake Virtanen (#6)
- Nikita Tryamkin (#66)

All of those, except McCann and Ritchie, have played less than a full season in the NHL.

- McCann has already been traded from Vancouver to Florida.
- Ritchie has struggled with injuries but is getting developed by playing on the 1st line with Ryan Getzlaf mostly when he does play.

Of the players that have played atleast 150 games in the NHL, Sam Bennett's points/game is the worst.

This is the list of those players (ranked highest to lowest in pts/game):

- David Pastrnak
- Leon Draisaitl
- Nikolaj Ehlers
- Viktor Arvidsson
- Sam Reinhart
- Dylan Larkin
- Aaron Ekblad
- Sam Bennett

All of those players, except Bennett, are playing Top 6 roles with their team with significant PP time. Only Sam Reinhart just started playing 3C as he was moved off Eichel's line but he is still getting top PP time.

This should show that there is clearly a major issue with Bennett's development/trajectory especially after where he was ranked/drafted.

I think the organization has soundly mismanaged his development, but the blame also has to be shared by the player as well.

At this point, Bennett is headed more and more down the path of Yakupov, who was traded by the Oilers after he had played 252 games in the NHL. A player who had Hockey IQ issues and hasn't furthered his career much at all since he left the Oilers.

At the end of this season, Bennett will have played 244 games in the NHL. This has become a very serious issue, and should definitely be troubling to the fan base.

The comparisons with Backlund are way off-base as the draft selection/ranking was completely different as was the career projection.

As of right now, Sam Bennett's career projections as a 1st line center who contributes 65+ points per season are on life support. Everyone needs to realize that.

So... you're suggesting he appears to be the 8th best player from his draft. class???