Quote:
Originally Posted by Joborule
Yes, Treliving hasn't made a good enough roster overall, and ultimately this falls on him. But you can't discount the fact that Bennett was the most promising prospect the Flames drafted in a very, very long time, and when he was selected, it was expected he would be a key piece in the team being competitive by now. Having two offensively skilled centremen that can drive their lines is the prototype in building a cup contending team. Monahan and Bennett were suppose to be those two. If Bennett lived up to his potential, we're likely having a lot more different discussion then we are today.
Sam not panning out as intending has left a major void that is harming the team. It's not Sam's job to build the team, but it was his job to be as great as he was anticipated to be, and he failed in doing that. Him busting out changed the rebuild. (As well missing out on millions in possible career earnings for him personally)
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I still view development very strongly as a two way road, and Treliving screwed up the Flames half just as bad as Bennett has screwed up his half.
Treliving continuously tried to build depth so that players could play up and down the lineup and generate - except he screwed it up every damn time he tried - saddling Bennett with the likes of Chiasson, Versteeg, Brouwer, Neal, Jagr...if we had good depth, Bennett would have gotten to play with better players and perhaps he could been mentored by them, which is pretty common for NHL teams to do with young players. He also absolutely blew it with Gulutzan and Peters as head coaches. I wish Bennett could have spent time in the AHL with Huska instead of being fed to the incompetency of the organization at the NHL level.
Sometimes as well you just have bad timing from a drafting perspective. For us to bottom out that year compared to other years is a significant bummer - one year later, at 4th overall we would have had Mitch Marner. The draft does have a timing/luck component to it.