They wanted to move Bennett back to his natural Center position in his second season which is fine.
If anything the argument should have been why didn’t they give him Tkachuk as his winger and shelter the crap out of them.
From pretty much the get go of that season they went 3M line, and Bennett got to play with useless Troy Brouwer.
In the 16-17 season you had two young players that could have established another great pairing like Gaudreau and Monahan. Instead Gulutzan was probably too afraid to play the two young guys together and Tkachuk and Bennett played a grand total of 61 minutes together at 5v5 that year.
Tkachuk flourished playing 785 of his minutes with Backlund.
Bennett floundered playing majority of his time with Brouwer who was just an anchor. Bennett was 52% xGF without Brouwer that season, and 39% with Brouwer.
Those two key development seasons are why Bennett didn’t become they player we thought he could be. Tkachuk-Bennett-Versteeg or Tkachuk-Backlund-Bennett or Gaudreau-Monahan-Bennett could have all been tried but weren’t. Ferland only had 25 points that year so not like moving him or Chiasson off that line should have been unheard of.
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Originally Posted by DazzlinDino
I am also of the opinion the Flames ruined Sam Bennett. Hartley talked about the importance of playing young skilled stars as much as possible even if they make mistakes.
Sam Bennett is not the same player he was in 2015-16. We see shades but not the confident blossoming player. I've said it before but Gulutzan seemed like he was always experimenting with hockey idea's, He had no business developing Sam Bennett as a player. As a team we have wasted a lot of years with these foolish coaching hires! The players we have will most likely move on and we will have to restart this process with new players.
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This.
Gulutzan hammered Bennett on puck management and not taking too many risks with the Puck. It killed his confidence and he stopped trying to do any of the creative stuff that was part of his game. They tried to turn him into more of a North-South grinder.
And I worry the same thing is happening to Dube now. Ward benched him for taking a penalty and for his puck management. And he’s just been brutal since then looking very passive on the ice and like he’s afraid to make a mistake.
Young guys need the freedom to make a mistake and still be trusted next shift.