Quote:
Originally Posted by Kovaz
Let me ask a different question then: "Why is trading Bennett a better option than any other player on the roster?"
A lot of posts portray Bennett in such a negative light ("lacklustre start", "he's not good enough", etc) that it comes across as addition by subtraction to get rid of him. I disagree - a 3rd line with favorable possession stats and positive goal differential is all you can reasonable ask for. If it's just a matter of "you have to give to get", fair enough. But I'm not convinced Bennett's value in a trade is much higher than what he currently brings by keeping him.
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For me that's an easy answer: he's the most valuable of the expendable players on the roster.
With Lucic, it's even more pronounced.
He's a great sweetener in my opinion, that good second piece in a trade. If you compare his value to anyone else in the bottom 6 forward group I think his value is second to only Ryan and I could probably be convinced that it's higher.
For me, the urgency to move Bennett is that his value is likely to continue to depreciate. There's also a risk of him having a career year in a contract year, or even worse, in a UFA year. Obviously if Bennett is going to have a 2003-2004 Donovan year I want him doing it with the Flames, but I'd rather not have him explode in an offensive year and then have to pay him for it under the belief he's not that player long term.
We've heard teams have expressed interest in Bennett previously, maybe there's a good fit with an asset rich team looking for what he brings to a lineup. Maybe packaged with something else, there's a good young asset to add that fits immediately in the top 6.
A guy like Mangiapane is showing that his value may rise in the near future, and he looks like he could be a stop-gap fit on that 2nd line. Moving him doesn't move the needle for the cap either, so there really isn't much incentive to move him.
Janko's value has never been lower, Lucic and potentially Frolik have negative value and Czar/Quine have no value.
But if you could attach something to Bennett, you could probably get a player, or at the least, tip the scales of a deal towards consummation.
If you put together a lineup without Bennett but with a good secondary player, the lineup looks pretty good imo.
Gaudreau - Monahan - Lindholm
Tkachuk - Backlund - Rackell
Lucic - Ryan - Mangiapane
Reider - Janko - Czar