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Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan
I'm going to push back on this narrative because it isn't exactly true, at least under Gulutzan and Peters anyway.
Bennett was demoted for taking lazy stick penalties in the offensive zone. It often resulted from him being behind the player that he was forechecking. Had he taken an extra stride or two, he would be in the position that he needed to be to make an aggressive play, but he didn't, and so he would reach and take a stick infraction. That's not from playing aggressive, quite the opposite actually.
The good news for him is that he figured it out, but it was a semi-regular occurrence for 2 seasons. Those are the kinds of plays that kill momentum and are totally unnecessary. I don't blame the coach at all for demoting him for this types of plays.
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He wasn’t really demoted under Peters, Gulutzan, or Ward.
His “home” position under all of them was 3rd line winger or centre. Sometimes he got promoted for a brief moment to top-6 winger, but it was never for long and it wasn’t always because he took a bad penalty that he got demoted. Under Gully, Bennett had a few good games in a row, and then the Flames claimed Chris Stewart off waivers and instantly knocked Bennett back to his home position on the 3rd line.
Three brain dead coaches who will never hold head coaching jobs in this league again in all likelihood.
The only times Bennett got a role/ice-time worth a damn in Calgary were:
1. Rookie season (Bennett-Backlund-Frolik)
2. 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs (Lucic-Bennett-Dube)
3. Under Darryl Sutter as a 4th line LW that also got PK time.
The guy just needed some consistency in deployment and a role to play that gave him a chance to actually contribute (playing him, or anyone, with Brouwer/Neal/Jankowski is not giving a player an opportunity to contribute).
At the end of the day, Bennett’s performance in his time with Hartley, the 2020 playoffs, and under Sutter and Quennville spell it out, as does Ward/Peters/Gulutzan’s current employment status. Garbage ass coaches ruined Bennett’s time here in Calgary.
Florida will benefit, and hopefully the Flames can get a home run out of the return they got from Florida. I certainly don’t blame Bennett for requesting a trade, nor do I blame Tree for trading him. I wish we could have kept him, as I think the results he’s getting in Florida would have come under Sutter, but the relationship between player and organization was already ruined by three awful head coaches.