Quote:
Originally Posted by transplant99
Quite aware of that...thanks tips. You might want to follow the conversation a little closer though.
I will say this...and maybe people forget cause it was long ago...but had the stoppage never happened, this club was far from guaranteed a playoff spot. In fact they were in a fight for their playoff lives. Part of that struggle was Bennett who was contributing next to nothing (not the only guy but certainly part of it)....and is that not who this entire thread is about?
It's remarkable to me that a guy who averages 29 points a season has people doing mental gymnastics to defend him as the second coming himself because he has been tremendous in the playoffs. Its just weird.
Hopefully this time (6th times a charm right?) he figures out how to play in the regular season (cause again you need to get into the playoffs to perform well in them) and earns not just his current salary but a healthy raise. But if there are people that are hesitant that it happens, you can hardly blame them based of Sams very own history.
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Maybe it's because you don't understand what earns a salary in terms of point production? This year, in a down year, Bennett ranked ~520 out of NHL players for cost per point. That means ~280 players were paid more for each point they produced.
Last year, adjusted to his current salary, he would have ranked ~320 (he ranked much higher because his salary was lower, obviously). Which means ~480 players were paid more per point than he was if he was at his current salary.
If he was on pace for his usual ~25 points instead of 19? He'd be one of the highest value for point contracts
on the entire team. Guess who would be above him? Mangiapane, Andersson, and Dube. Two guys on their entry-level contracts and one guy on a "show me" contract. This isn't mental gymnastics. Production costs money, and Bennett a year ago was good value for the money even when adjusted to his current salary.
Does Bennett need to hit his average ~25 points to be a good value contract at 2.55M? Yup. Is there any reason to think he won't? No.
You think Josh Anderson is worth $6M on the open market. Even if he achieves his career high of 47 points every year, he will still be a worse value contract than if Bennett achieves his average 25. You want to brush off playoff performance, sure. But there's no reason Bennett can't achieve his average next year (especially with his current linemates), and if he does, that would make him one of the best value contracts on the Flames (and it would make him one of the better (top 5 or 10) value contracts on the Blues, the Bruins, the Lightning, the Golden Knights, the Avalanche, the Islanders, etc. You know, all those playoff teams?).
So if the question is, "is Bennett overpaid for his production" the answer is no, and that's assuming he "reverts" to his 25-point self. And you questioned whether it was worth even qualifying him at 2.55M if that happened? lol