Quote:
Originally Posted by GranteedEV
It's a little frustrating that when Lindholm was being floated as top line center, Treliving didn't really find a way to convert Monahan into an asset we sorely needed (a speedy rhs top sixwinger... someone like Owen Tippett...). The trickle-down of such a trade would have been an opportunity for Bennett at center along with a much better talent distribution on the wing. Visualize something like
Tkachuk-Lindholm-Mangiapane
Gaudreau-Bennett-Tippett
Dube-Backlund-(random waiver wire claim who is better than Nordstrom... like Nikita Gusev)
Lucic-Ryan-Leivo
Maybe it's just me, but I feel like that roster would be playing a much faster style.
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It’s very true, this organization definitely chose Monahan over Bennett, there’s no doubt about that. But at the time, I don’t really blame them as there was clear chemistry between the Gaudreau and Monahan. But with that said, there were also obvious signs of worry when the 2 struggled so mightily in tight checking regular season games and playoff matchups. But management didn’t really think about why that was occurring or how to fix it, it became more about how to hide them by getting them addition help. They’ve been infatuated with that duo since almost day 1 and ironically, it’s probably going to be their down fall.
Now with Monahan and Gaudreau separated, I think almost everyone can finally agree that Monahan isn’t much of a play driver himself which could explain why Bennett-Monahan-Gaudreau never worked or why Neal didn’t work on the top line either. So at the end of the day, the decision to choose Monahan over Bennett kind of has blown up in management’s face.
Now, Bennett may still have not worked out here. But based on what we’ve seen from Sam Bennett in the playoffs, coupled with his physicality and his much smaller cap hit. I think the value and extra elements he brings far exceeds just a the regular season sniping by Sean Monahan. So chalk that up aa another bungle by management. They now have to sit in their boardroom and watch Sam Bennett continually make them look bad while wondering what they heck went wrong and why Bennett didn’t work out. It’s gonna be a long month of May for those guys.