Quote:
Originally Posted by Nelson
I guess I just remember the Flames finally moving Bennett to LW after he played C and finding out he was a much better winger than C.
|
Misleading... as a C he was one of our best players in the 2017 playoffs on a line with Versteeg (no longer in league) and Chiasson (who a year later was a 13th forward in Washington). That was at age 20 when he still struggled with faceoffs (he's far improved at faceoffs now for whatever that is worth).
The next year, he was expected to carry an awful Bartkowski-Stone pair at ES, Versteeg was atrocious, and his RW was a rotation of Lazar and Brouwer. There was a couple games where he centered a Versteeg - Bennett - Jagr line, and they were dominant in every way besides puck luck (Craig Andersson and Jonathan Quick stood on their heads). Even then, they were a net zero in their ridiculously limited time together.
When Bennett was moved to LW, it was a mild success because Jankowski was called up and Jankowski was instantly an upgrade on Lazar, Brouwer, and even that year's Kris Versteeg. Even more importnantly, this was the same time when Matt Bartkowski became press box filler in lieu of an actual NHL defenseman in Brett Kulak.
This shouldn't be mistaken as
1) Jankowski being better ar C than Bennett - he wasn't
2) Bennett being more effective at LW offensively - he actually continued his pointless streak for another handful of games at LW before the bounces started to go his way. Even then, he shot a worse percentage that season overall than he did in the previous 1.5 seasons that he spent at center.
3) the Kulak / Bartkowski swap not having any impact - it had a massive impact on the team that year.
The absolute best thing Calgary can do to improve is to put Andrew Mangiapane on Sam Bennett's wing. These are our #5 and #6 primary point producers last year, pairing them makes all kinds of sense.
Not having Bennett at least be tried as a 3C was Peters' biggest failure last year as it took any flexibility away from him when Jankowski proved useless.