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Originally Posted by Flames Draft Watcher
Sometimes young players improve. It's a crazy concept I know. Bennett isn't even 22 yet. To think he's peaked or declining seems silly to me. New coach may help as well though, you're right there. Most players aren't fully developed by age 21. Gaudreau at 21 was just breaking into the NHL. Jankowski broke into the NHL at age 23. Bennett only turns 22 this summer. In broad NHL terms he's still a very, very young player. Did he develop as fast as some other top 5 picks have? Nope, but lots of top 5 picks don't develop into stars right away and Bennett did miss almost his entire post draft year due to surgery.
It's like people forget how young he is cause he's been around so long already? Or perhaps people forget that young players typically improve over the first 5 years of their NHL careers?
Seems crazy to me that people want to give up on Bennett's potential at the young age he is. When did Backlund figure things out? 7 years after he was drafted. We just gave Jankowski 6 years of development before he made the NHL and we're willing to give up on our highest pick after 5 years? Crazy talk.
Everyone would have loved for Bennett to have developed into a star already. But fan impatience is not a strong reason to give up on his potential. Still plenty of time for Bennett to figure things out and become a valuable top two line player for the Flames.
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A lot of the issues with Bennett are optics around his draft pedigree and him entering the league so young. If Bennett had entered the league at 20 years old and put up 11 goals and 26 points from our 3rd line, everyone would be exciting about our solid young prospect with lots of room to grow.
Since he entered the league at 18 and already has 3 full seasons, everyone expects him to increase his numbers every year. I don't really get this line of thought. Bennett is not only very young, but he's getting anything but sheltered minutes. A lot of other teams would play Bennett on their PP unit and gift him top 6 minutes. Calgary has recognized Bennett as a better 2 way player and is forcing him to work on his two way game. Of course his offensive numbers will be decreased in that scenario.
If Bennett still hasn't put it together at 24-25, that's when it's time to say we waited too long.