I don't know if anyone has already posted this so please forgive me if someone already did, but Todd Cordell posted a nice chart a few days ago comparing Bennett's 3 seasons.
G/60
15-16: 0.86
16-17: 0.48
17-18: 0.61
P/60
15-16: 1.67
16-17: 1.21
17-18: 1.41
Shot Attempts/60
15-16: 12.03
16-17: 10.84
17-18: 16.02
Chances/60
15-16: 8.14
16-17: 6.84
17-18: 10.03
Shooting %
15-16: 13.21
16-17: 10.70
17-18: 7.05
On-ice shooting %
15-16: 8.59
16-17: 6.22
17-18: 5.66
This past season, Bennett improved in terms of scoring and assisting on goals from 16-17, but still did not do as well as 15-16. Thus, people assume Bennett did not play well in 17-18.
But it seems like the truth is he may have had absurdly bad luck. His personal shooting percentage and the shooting percentage of his teammates, while he was on the ice, was the lowest of all three seasons in 17-18. Thus, even though Bennett's shot attempts increased by almost 4/60 from 15-16 and his chances increased almost 2/60 from 15-16, Bennett scored and assisted on goals at a much lower rate than 15-16.
I think these numbers suggest there is hope for Bennett. He may never be amazing, but consider the following:
If we assume he would've gotten in on the same percentage of goals he did, he would've scored 31 points in 17-18 with the mean on-ice shooting percentage from his 3 seasons.
However, if we assume he would've gotten in on the same percentage of goals he did, he would've scored 35 points in 17-18 with his teammates shooting the team's average shooting percentage with him on the ice.
Finally, if we assume he would've gotten in one the same percentage of goals he did, he would've scored 42 points in 17-18 with his teammates shooting the league's average shooting percentage with him on the ice.
I don't think we can know what Bennett's on-ice shooting percentage will be in 18-19 because Bennett may be playing with Ryan and Frolik, linemates he has never played with before. However, if Bennett plays with Ryan and Frolik, Bennett's career shooting percentage is 10.1%, Ryan's career shooting percentage is 13.1% and Frolik's career shooting percentage is 7.8%. So maybe Bennett's on-ice shooting percentage could be just below league average at around 9%? In this case, I don't think it is unreasonable Bennett could score 40 points next year.
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