Quote:
Originally Posted by GranteedEV
The Oilers handled Draisaitl better than we handled Bennett. They gave him Taylor Hall, they put him on their top PP, amd let him grow over the years. We... turned Bennett into a 4LW with zero confidence
|
I'd argue that Draisaitl succeeded in spite of the Oilers development program. He was awful his first year, and wound up getting sent back to junior, but at a time a week too late to play in the World Junior Championships. We saw all kinds of prospects completely fail under their development (ex Yakapov) or develop into a much lesser player than projected (ex. Nugent-Hopkins). Even with Drasisaitl's successes, he still has massive holes in his game that likely wouldn't be there if he was developed better.
Bennett is a different situation. Clearly he has not developed into the player he was predicted to be. There is still some hope, however, as he has been an outstanding NHL player at times. Maybe he can bring that to the table with more consistency. Would he have turned out better if the Flames had pushed Monahon down the lineup and put Gaudreau on his wing? What would have been the cost to the Flames team for doing that? I'd argue there is no way to know if that would have made a difference in his development. I suspect the Flames would have lost many more games if they chose to do that.