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Originally Posted by Jore
Those are first year players, and I wouldn't exactly point to Montreal and Buffalo as models of youth development. If Caulfield is Montreal's best player every playoffs and still gets played with Evans and Lehkonen for 3 three years and gets traded and breaks out elsewhere with real opportunity then the comparison would make more sense. I won't get into an argument about the effectiveness of Brouwer and Neal as Flames. I think most people understand what caliber of players they were.
I also didn't say the Flames are the only ones stifling prospects. But again, what exactly about the Flames track record over the last three decades makes fans want to give them the benefit of the doubt when it comes to team construction and prospect development?
Can you name some other players who went from 4th line winger to 2nd line center? Who was arguing that rookie Bennett should be on the top line? I'm saying that Bennett shouldn't be playing with AHL plugs off his natural position. That it's hard to "earn" your way up that way. Boudreau moved a floundering 4th line Backstrom to centre Ovechkin in his first game as coach. His loss for not following "standard" practice.
I don't care what half of the people here said, just because an opinion is popular or vocally expressed doesn't mean it's right. I've been talking about Monahan's deficiencies for years.
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A bunch of people are now talking about putting Bennett with Gaudreau instead of Monahan, like that was ever a discussion in the past. That’s top line insertion.
And exaggeration doesn’t help. Bennett was never on the 4th line (with Stajan) not counting this year. He was always second line with Backlund or 3rd line with Jankowski or the Lucic/Dube versions. He’s played with hardly any “AHL plugs” either. Just not the best guys on the team. Last year his most common linemates were Janko, Reider, Lucic, Ryan, Mangiapane, Dube. Not AHL plugs. The year before: Backlund, Tkachuk (24%). The year before that, you might have an argument because he played with Hathaway a lot. But only after Jagr left. Before that, Versteeg and Brouwer. Again, not top talent, but not AHL. Veterans who had scored in the past. The year before that, Backlund and Frolik.
Theo Fleury started on the 3rd/4th line. Earned his way up.