Quote:
Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814
Backlund's first full year (at 21) he had 25 points in 72 games. He was then awful for the next two years, posting 11 and 16 points respectively. Then he was fine.
Bennett has already played in 144 more games than Backlund at the same age. And that's with missing most of his 18 year old season with shoulder surgery.
I don't think Bennett is a true 1st line player - He seems like a fringe first liner at best, the sort who's well suited to be carried by JG/Monahan.
It's perfectly reasonable to expect him to be at least capable of Kris Versteeg's level of production in his prime. A solid middle-6 winger with a physical edge.
Is it what we wanted from #4 overall? No. Is that Bennett's fault? Also no. I understand wanting more from him. But set aside the draft position. If we have a 2nd-7th round pick putting up 0.37 PPG at age 21 with 244 NHL games, we would not be in a hurry to run him out of town.
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You conveniently ignored the fact that Backlund was often injured following his rookie season. He went from 0.34 -> 0.27 -> 0.50 -> 0.51 points per game. Bit of sophomore slump but he still progressed nicely afterwards. Bennett has gone from 0.47 -> 0.32 -> 0.30 points per game.