[GranteedEV]

I'm not gonna say much, but I'll say this: There are many examples around the league of players in fruitless situations who due to a trade or coaching decision blow up with the increased consistency, quantity, & variety of ice time, as well as an uptick in quality of linemate, team makeup, and special teams usage. We see it around the league. Brayden Schenn. Max Domi. William Karlsson. Elias Lindholm. Sean Couturier. Dylan Strome. Kyle Turris back in Ottawa. Blake Wheeler back in Atlanta.

Sam Bennett hasn't been tried as a top two line center on this team. Kudos to Backlund and Monahan for holding down their respective spots with their unique, if focused skillsets, but that has resulted in scraps for Bennett in many areas. A few minutes here and there in the top six playing a position, RW, that he was NEVER drafted to play, while still largely being on the second PP and at the mercy of the coach's whim depending on overall team play, does not qualify in my eyes as a legitimate opportunity.

Do I know what Bennett would do in Edmonton? No. I imagine he would instantly be one of their four best forwards though, and thus a lock for their top 6 and top PP. Is it farfetch to think his, if nothing else, minutes and secondary assists would skyrocket in that situation? And he's already one of the better primary point producers in the league, per minute.

But I also don't know how successful a Ryan Nugent-Hopkins would be in Bennett's role here. His past success would certainly give him far more rope in an elevated role - a role Bennett's never been tried in - but that doesn't mean the team would necessarily reap the rewards. Nuge has spent his whole career playing huge minutes with the likes of Hall, Eberle, Draisaitl, and now McDavid but does he crack our top PP ahead of Gaudreau, Monahan, Tkachuk, or Lindholm?

I'm always amazed at how fixated people can be on point totals. Go back to Kadri - a year ago he was a 30/30 player, but a reduced role, and, even on one of the most stacked forward groups (Kadri played a lot with Nylander last year on a third line that should be a 2nd line on most teams) and saw his production plummet pretty sharply. And again, there's a huge difference between William Nylander and Mark Jankowski as your primary linemate.

If the Flames had exhausted every opportunity to wring the most out of Bennett, and still come away with zilch, it would be one thing. But they have not, and so undervaluing him in a trade would be negligent at best. Brouwer... Chiasson... Lazar... Hathaway... Jankowski... Foo... Neal... that's what we've given him. Even McDavid couldn't magically make Lucic effective.

A very possible scenario is this: You acquire Nugent Hopkins to be your 2C, and he gives you around 45 points in that role. Backlund's production drops with worse linemates, but his cap hit stays the same. Meanwhile Bennett, by virtue of the expanded role, hits that 55-65pt range he never had a chance to here. That's not even getting into intangibles.