[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by Poison

Age is great and all but i tend to look more at experience. He has more than both Gaudreau and Janko as you gave examples for and i dont see much that leads me to believe hes going to breakout. He is what he is to me. The sooner you deal him the more of a chance the other gm sees him as a high first rounder that they can fix.
Longer time goes by the more my thought is cemented; he is what he is.

Bennett has the 318th of 333 best on-ice SH% of any player to have logged 1500+ 5v5 minutes in the last two seasons.

He had the 109th of 340 on-ice SH% of players playing 900 minutes 5v5 as a rookie. And that was a season where we felt he was pretty unlucky to have so many of his own goals called back.

Some reverse perspective? 2015-16 Nazem Kadri had the 327th best on-ice SH% and had less 5-on-5 points than Bennett has any season of his career... yet the last two seasons has the 114th best on-ice SH% and looks like a key piece in a very good team. On-ice SH% is a real thing, as frustrating as it can be to admit. There are a few players who can dictate this stat, guys like Thornton, Tanguay, Crosby, Stamkos, maybe Gaudreau, but they really are the outliers. Most players' SH% is pretty random in a given season. And this season (and last, post-Brouwer) Bennett has certainly generated chances, I don't know how you could say he hasn't.

Even if you think he struggles to generate shots or what-have you, that on-ice SH% is indicative of something that can be corrected. It's not a player you sell low on because SH% is highly luck-based and probably influenced by Gulutzan's system and player usage.

It makes plenty of sense to at least see what Bennett can do under a coach who doesn't want every regulation to end in a 1-1 tie. Otherwise you end up trading a guy like Riley Sheahan (5.39 oiSH% last year) only to see him thrive elsewhere (7.99 oiSH% since being traded to PITT). It's more prudent to actually try changes that will help that player, than to give up on that player because of a low on-ice SH% (or SV%).