Quote:
Originally Posted by AC
I get that Monahan, Lindholm, Backlund, and Ryan were all ahead of him on the centre depth charts for various reasons... but his success in the playoffs and so far in Florida as the 2C seems to suggest the team failed to find a proper fit for him at his natural position here.
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Yup, and it's not exclusive to this season, you could argue he never really got an extended run at center with skilled linemates. Any shot he got was the limited time with Monahan and Gaudreau at winger. Here are Bennett's most used line combinations season by season (>10% TOI - Top 6 opportunities in bold)
15-16
Bennett - Backlund - Frolik (26.8%): 50.8% xGF; 18 GF - GA 10
Had limited time at center with okay linemates but was rightfully eased into the league on Backlund's wing. This was the only line he spent more than 10% of his time with in his rookie season. (Could argue that was mismanagement in itself since it seems like he spent most of his time that year bouncing around linemates.)
16-17
Bennett - Brouwer - Versteeg (20.8%) : 39.1% xGF; GF 7 - GA 5
Gaudreau - Bennett - Chiasson (13.5%): 63.8% xGF; GF 4 - GA 4
Chiasson - Bennett - Versteeg (11.34%): 49.0% xGF; GF 5 - GA 7
When you have a young 4th overall center you should always play him with Troy Brouwer, Kris Versteeg, and Alex Chiasson. He looked pretty good in his 134 minutes centering Gaudreau though.
17-18
Bennett- Jankowski - Hathaway (28.7%): 56.9% xGF; GF 11 - GA 10
Bennett - Jankowski - Jagr (10.1%): 55.6% xGF; GF 5 - GA 2
This year is when Gulutzan seemed to decide that Bennett at center was done, and shifted him full time to Jankowski's wing. I think the story here was Bennett-Hathaway-Janko had some success, so GG didn't see reason to move away from it. Bennett was part of an effective 3rd line for us that season.
18-19
Bennett - Backlund - Tkachuk (24.2%): 53.6% xGF; GF 10 - GA 9
Bennett - Jankowski - Neal (19.6%): 37.5% xGF; GF 6 - GA 10
Bennett - Jankowski - Czarnik (12.2%): 63.9% xGF; GF 4 - GA 6
Had a good year outside of having to drag James Neal around, but once again majority of the time was on the wing under Peters as well.
19-20
Bennett- Jankowski - Rieder (13.0%): 50.9% xGF; GF 0 - GA 0
Bennett - Lucic - Ryan (12.1%): 61.3% xGF; GF 3 GA 2
Once again majority of his time was in the bottom 6, playing on the wing.
20-21
Gaudreau - Monahan - Bennett (17.1%): 46.3 xGF; GF 4 - GA 1
Lucic - Bennett - Dube (10.2%): 51.2%; GF 2 - GA 4
Got a shot playing top line winger after his trade demand, but really the whole team wasn't playing great at this time. So really he didn't get much of a shot at center with strong wingers at any point in his career in Calgary, outside of a small stint with Gaudreau on his wing in 16-17, where they had moderate success.
Just as another piece here is Bennett with Gaudreau by season for his time in Calgary.
2015-2016: 107 Minutes; 51.5% xGF; GF-6 GA-4 (Center)
2016-2017: 197 Minutes; 56.9% xGF; GF-5 GA-5 (Center)
2017-2018: 149 Minutes; 48.6% xGF; GF-4; GA-8 (Wing)
2018-2019: 53 Minutes; 42.4% xGF; GF-2 GA - 1 (Wing)
2019-2020: 37 Minutes; 36.4% xGF; GF-0 GA - 2 (Wing)
2020-2021: 110 Minutes; 48.9% xGF; GF-4 GA-4 (Wing)
Stronger results earlier on when Bennett was at Center, but not as much success with Bennett playing the opposite wing of Gaudreau. But still seems crazy that our 4th overall pick, who was meant to be our top line center, played 653 minutes with our best Winger over 6 seasons. And really only 300 of those minutes as a center during his first two seasons.