Quote:
Originally Posted by Royle9
Even Strength Line Combinations - ENTIRE SEASON -
(Not 1 of these line combo's is as bad as sames HIGHEST)
76.8% HYMAN,ZACH - MATTHEWS,AUSTON - NYLANDER,WILLIAM
10.3% KADRI,NAZEM - KOMAROV,LEO - NYLANDER,WILLIAM
4.8% HYMAN,ZACH - MARLEAU,PATRICK - NYLANDER,WILLIAM
4.7% HYMAN,ZACH - MARNER,MITCHELL - NYLANDER,WILLIAM
3.4%BOZAK,TYLER - NYLANDER,WILLIAM - VAN RIEMSDYK,JAMES
WHERE IS THE 4th LINE? The above are the pairings he played last season, all stats from every game. Sure they may have called it a "4th line" in a newspaper clipping but do any of the guys above look like 4th liners when compared to what the flames hail as 4th liners? Brouwer, Hathaway, Chiasson, Lazar, Stajan etc??
Matthew's is a generational hyped player, there is no comparable. I would bet $ on Sam putting up 50pts if he played along side Matthew's for 80% of his first 2 seasons including top line PP time on a PP with success.
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You are comparing the wrong players. In their respective draft years, Bennett was much closer to Matthews than Nylander.
Bennett was supposed to be what Matthews is on his line. A guy who makes his line mates better. Matthews is the reason why Hyman and Nylander are doing as well as they are.
Furthermore, if you go back to the Leaf's trio's rookie season 16/17, you had:
Hyman - Matthews - Nylander
Prior to that season, that line had a combined 38NHL games between them. You are using stats of what that line is now and not when they first started.
In his rookie season, Matthews was flanked by a largely unknown college FA and an #8OA from a few years prior who was questionable if he could translate over a full season.
People keep blaming the situations Bennett was put into, but I would say that the situations both him and Matthews started in weren't too dissimilar and if anything, Bennett had more proven NHL talent to play with.
As for the talent disparity, Bennett was ranked #1 at various points during his draft year by a number of pretty reputable websites. He might not have been generational, but he was projected to be pretty damn close.
The fact of the matter is that Bennett was given no worse opportunities than players on his own team (Gaudreau, Monahan, Tkachuk or even Ferland). Only difference is that those guys did something with their chances, whereas Bennett squandered his.