[Oling_Roachinen]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

Let's look at Year 2 for Sam Bennett, and who he played with (from frozenpool):

20.8 bennett,sam - brouwer,troy - versteeg,kris
13.5 bennett,sam - chiasson,alex - gaudreau,johnny
11.3 bennett,sam - chiasson,alex - versteeg,kris
6.8 bennett,sam - chiasson,alex - stajan,matthew
5.4 bennett,sam - brouwer,troy - monahan,sean
5.3 bennett,sam - ferland,micheal -versteeg,kris
4.2 bennett,sam - bouma,lance - chiasson,alex
3.8 bennett,sam - brouwer,troy - tkachuk,matthew
2.8 bennett,sam - brouwer,troy - gaudreau,johnny
2.7 backlund,mikael - bennett,sam - frolik,michael

Red = players so bad at 5v5 that they hurt almost everyone they played with, or played their way out of the league.

Purple = player was productive on the PP, not a good 5v5 player, and they were on their way out of the league

Bold = good players

Green = look he played on a full line!

Brouwer, Chiasson and Versteeg were bad enough that they couldn't be carried to success by Monahan and Gaudreau, yet it was on Bennett to produce with those three 5v5 clowns. Hell, Brouwer was so bad he couldn't even produce with Monahan and Gaudreau while playing 5v4!

There's a difference between trying to hold a player accountable, and willfully ignoring circumstances as if they don't matter when they truly actually do.

This is assuming the only means of assessing his play is point production. But it's not. Ferland didn't produce much away from the top line, but his play still got him promoted to the top line where he was able to produce. The opposite seemed to have happened with Bennett.

Even this season, started on the fourth line. Had an opportunity on the third line, had a good game despite not making the scoresheet. Gets to play again on the third line with a better player in Neal. If he has another good game, he'll stay on the third line and when he strings a couple together and an opportunity presents itself, he may even see some top six minutes. But if he sucks, he'll be pushed to the fourth line where people will argue that's why he's not producing.

Again, Flames management had every incentive to want Bennett to flourish. There's no ulterior motive at this point of trying to ruin his NHL career. He played where they thought he should have played. It was up to him to prove them wrong and he had, up until now, failed to do so.