Had Bennett been drafted by a different team in 2014, there’s no guarantee he would (or wouldn’t) be the player he currently is in Florida under Q. In many respects, he still had to learn and develop, ie the toe drag bull**** and skating through people in junior doesn’t work in the NHL, and you can’t take lazy penalties, especially in the O-Zone.
Part of me thinks that Calgary was almost like an extended stint in the AHL (which he never had), where he had time to figure out the pro game. The crappy part is that Florida became the beneficiaries of that work, and all we got were several frustrating seasons and what we got back in the trade.
I also think Bennett’s fate in Calgary was sealed when Mangiapane passed him on the depth chart. Interestingly, Mange had no problem working his way up from the fourth line whereas Bennett struggled with it. That, in a nutshell, was the enigma of Sam Bennett and his time in Calgary.
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