[GranteedEV]

There's a full display of everything Sam Bennett is capable of in this video.



It's just a preseason game, but not one of those plays is inherently a "preseason" play. Finding Brodie cross-ice from the right half wall through layers of traffic. Instantly and deceptively finding Gaudreau to his right on the power play for a one-timer. Springing Gaudreau not once, but twice on breakaways (the second of which required a perfect bank pass). I've seen him make plays of this sort in NHL games, just not in a succint package the way he was able to in this preseason game where he not only got to center Gaudreau and Ferland, but also saw PP1 time with the same players (the only other time he centered those two this year was a game in Carolina, and it was Troy Brouwer who got placed into that role on the PP instead of him)

People always fixate on what they perceive to be junior plays (i.e. toedrags) (like, go watch good players in the conference finals - guys like Ovechkin and Stamkos just yesterday - they try and fail at "junior plays pretty often too.) and really seem oblivious to the things Bennett does at a high level. Bennett does a LOT at a high level. There are areas of his game that could improve like any 21 year old (I don't think he's great at deflecting point shots for instance) but not harnessing his potential is simply a waste.