On the topic of development, I really disagree with a lot of common opinions here. The NHL
is a development league. You can't just assume all players have a static, unchanging development path, and if they don't make it it's their fault. Some players are worth investing in and some just aren't. There's a great example of my philosophy happening in the NBA right now with the Warriors and James Wiseman, their 19-year-old 2nd overall pick. Their starting lineup with Wiseman has some of the worst stats in the NBA. Steve Kerr (coach) was asked about it and had a great quote (emphasis mine):
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Steve Kerr
The team is learning on the fly. I'll be very honest. If I had to win a game tomorrow, I wouldn't start that group. If this was a one time thing I would start a different group and probably got to some different combinations, but this is the team that I wanna see develop a really good defensive identity, and James needs to be out there. Kelly and Andrew need to be together on the wings guarding, you know, LeBron and Kawhi and Paul George and all those guys. So it's gonna take some time and in the meantime there's gonna be some growing pains, but I'm okay with it because for us to be great down the road, whether it's by the end of this year or even next season, James has to develop and Kelly and Andrew have to get comfortable and I'm willing to sacrifice some things here early in the season to get to where we wanna be later on
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You can't have your cake and eat it too. You're always going to have a choice like this to make: do we go with the stable veteran with a low ceiling, or the mistake-prone rookie with higher potential? If your top prospect struggles, do you bench him right away, or let him ride it out even if it costs you some points along the way?
When it comes to Bennett, I always go back to the start of Gulutzan's tenure. Bennett and Tkachuk looked great together in the preseason and they started the season together, but when we struggled out of the gate Gulutzan shuffled the lines, 3M was born, and Bennett spent the next two years with a Troy Brouwer-shaped boat anchor around his neck. Who, by the way, had the exact same negative impact on Monahan and Backlund, so it's not like that was a Bennett-specific problem. And we wonder why he doesn't use his linemates effectively. Maybe it's the PTSD of watching pass after pass clank off Brouwer's stick to the other team?
At some point, you have to take a long-term view. If our rebuild needed Bennett to pan out as a top-6 C, then not investing the time needed to develop him that way is a failure on the team in my view.